Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., while admitting that passing H.R. 1 in the Senate faces steep challenges, said Thursday he has spoken with some Republican senators who don't accept the sweeping voting reform bill as a whole, but who are willing to discuss some parts of it.
"We're talking about the sections relating to voting rights," Durbin said on CNN's "New Day." "The belief is by many of them there are existing federal laws that would toss out or challenge a lot of these state efforts. I'm not sure I agree with that premise."
There still is time to discuss the "For the People Act" on a bipartisan basis, he said, but the bill will be difficult to pass with the filibuster rule in place.
"If it's going anywhere in the Senate with a filibuster, it needs more than the 50 Democrats' votes plus the vice president's," Durbin said.
He added Democrats are wondering if there will be bipartisan support that will "give Americans the opportunity to vote" through the provisions in H.R. 1, which has come under fire from Republicans over its calls on eliminating the need for voter ID, redistricting, a government-funded match for campaign dollars, and other matters.
"Listen, four months ago, we tested the theory that the Republicans had that there was going to be massive voter fraud," Durbin said. "The president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, hired dozens of lawyers and spent millions of dollars and challenged the results in state after state after state. Every one of his challenges was thrown out by the courts. There was no evidence of massive voter fraud or any significant fraud."
As a result, Republican legislators "decided to limit the opportunities to vote for Americans," Durbin said. "This is exactly the opposite of what we ought to do. We ought to encourage full participation. That's what this bill is all about."
When it comes to trying to get the bill through without a filibuster, that's an "active conversation" in the Democrat caucus, Durbin said.
"Listen, when I came to the Senate years ago, a 60-vote margin on a bill was rare," he said. "A filibuster was rare. Now it is accepted as routine. Everything that is to pass must have 60 votes unless it happens to be reconciliation, which is the way that President [Joe] Biden's rescue plan went through."
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has been resolute on not eliminating the filibuster, and Durbin said he understands his view and that others share it
"We're still talking to Joe," Durbin said. "What's at stake [with H.R. 1] is the integrity of our voting process in every election, federal, state, and local. We have a sad history in this country after the Civil War of restricting the right to vote, particularly for African-Americans and poor people. We don't want to return to those days. We want to move forward into fuller participation by everyone in this democracy."
Meanwhile, Durbin held a bipartisan meeting Wednesday on immigration and said Thursday it was a "good meeting," even with the differences of opinion on the topic.
"We talked about putting together the different points of view and see if we can find some middle ground," he said. "I want to prove there's a possibility of 10 Republicans joining the Democrats for meaningful immigration reform, including the Dream Act, farm labor, and expanding the opportunity for legal status for more people in this country. That's the only way we can do it in the Senate, and yesterday's meeting was the first step."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.