WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will begin an effort to weaken rules that allow a minority group of senators to kill proposed laws, arguing democracy is in peril unless new voting-rights legislation passes, the White House said. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday will speak in Atlanta, a city with a majority Black population and capital of the battleground state of Georgia, where Democrats won two crucial U.S. Senate seats in January 2021.
Since then, Republican state lawmakers have passed dozens of state voting laws around the country in response to former President Donald Trump’s false allegations he lost the 2020 election because of voting fraud. Democrats say the state laws will make it harder for minorities to participate in elections.
“Tomorrow is an opportunity to speak about what the path forward looks like,” said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki, before confirming that Biden is expected to address changing Senate rules.
Atlanta was the home of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader slain in 1968, who is remembered in a national U.S. holiday on Jan. 17.
