Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is in full campaign mode leading up to the November elections. He has scheduled a series of ‘show votes’ this spring and summer turning the Senate into a campaign arm of the DNC rather than the people’s house.
The Democrats have a tenuous hold on the Senate majority and fear losing it in November. Leading up to the summer recess in August, Schumer has so far held a series of show votes on Immigration, Contraception, and IVF in hopes he can use them to bolster his majority.
It is an open acknowledgement that nothing substantive will happen between now and election day even if both sides agree. Neither side wants to give the other a win, and if one side can stick it to the other, they will.
Schumer controls what comes up for a vote and he is at liberty to schedule votes on issues that will play well to likely Democrat voters to drive turnout. Democrats are aiming to fool the low-information voter with meaningless votes.
The goal of these show votes is to create a false circumstance to attack Republicans, not to have a meaningful debate over legislation. The votes don’t address anything that needs addressing. The votes use the Senate as a political battering ram.
Schumer and his team at the DNC hope that these show votes help vulnerable Democratic incumbents such as Sens. Jon Tester (MT.) and Sherrod Brown (OH) and keep the majority no matter how slim.
The first Schumer Show Vote was the Border Bill that claims it would have clamped down on the number of illegal immigrants allowed to claim asylum at the southern border. Since January 2021, every action of the Biden administration has been to make it easier for illegal immigrants to cross the border and be released into the United States.
“Today is not a bill, today is a prop,” Sen. Lankford (R-OK) said on the floor. Everyone sees it for what it is.” The procedural vote to send the bill to the floor failed 43-50.
The Right to Contraception Act received a show vote despite no one trying to ban contraception. Access to contraception is widely supported by men and women of all parties with support in the 90% range. The measure failed 51-39.
“This is, right now, purely and simply a political stunt, and I think most people are going to view it that way,” Senate Republican Whip John Thune (SD) said.
“If the Democrat leader (Schumer) had any real interest in legislating on these issues, he would be working with Republicans to bring up legislation that has a chance of receiving support from both Democrats and Republicans,” Thune added.
The show vote on IVF was meant to establish a statutory right to IVF. The vote, 48-47, fell short of the 60 votes required to move forward.
The IVF vote is considered a ‘show vote’ because as Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said, “No states are currently banning IVF. This is not serious legislation. It is a political process.”
Additionally, Schumer did not go through the committee process or have the bill scored by the Congressional Budget Office as required.
This week Schumer announced another vote attempting to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law before the election.
"A few moments ago, I took the first procedural step to place on the legislative calendar the Reproductive Freedom for Women Act, sponsored by Sen. Murray (D-WA) and myself," Schumer said in recent floor remarks. The bill could be scheduled for a formal test vote as soon as early July.
Additional show votes are likely to be scheduled between now and the summer recess.