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Joe Biden's Democrats hold a slim majority in the US Senate
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ALMOND NGAN / AFP
As expected, Republicans in the US Senate blocked an electoral law reform pushed by US President Joe Biden.
Biden's Democrats failed on Wednesday evening in the Senate over a more than 100-year-old regulation - the so-called filibuster.
The rule states that for many bills, 60 of the 100 senators must agree to an end to the debate before there can be a vote at all.
The Democrats only have 51 seats in the Senate.
With the filibuster, the Republicans can therefore block practically all important projects of the Biden government.
Despite the defeat, Biden does not want to give up the electoral reform
One of the aims of the electoral law reform was to make it easier to vote in elections. It is one of Biden's most important projects, who has been in power in the White House this Thursday for a year. The Democrats accuse the Republicans of former US President Donald Trump of wanting to make voting more difficult, to the detriment of minorities in particular. Before the vote, Biden made it clear that he would not give up on reform plans. He said, "We haven't run out of options yet."
After the Republican blockade, the Democrats wanted to try to get an exception to the filibuster rule for this reform.
Because of dissenters in their own ranks, it was expected that this project would also fail.
Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate.
They control 55 seats, which is exactly half.
In the event of a stalemate, Biden's Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also ex officio President of the Senate, will decide.
With their blocking minority in the Senate, the Republicans have already blocked several key Biden projects.
The tough stance of Republicans has fueled the debate about the usefulness of the filibuster rule - it is supposed to lead to compromises, but instead is increasingly paralyzing the Senate.
Two of Biden's Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, are also opposed to changing or abolishing this Senate rule.
Without it, Democrats don't have the simple majority needed to change or abolish it.
muk/dpa