For the first time this Congress, the Senate is expected to debate voting rights legislation on Tuesday, a day after Democrats failed to meet their hopeful, symbolic, deadline to pass an election reform bill by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The Senate is expected to take up the House-passed voting rights bill on Tuesday -- a combination bill wrapping in both the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
But Democrats need 60 votes, or the support of 10 Republican senators -- which they don't have -- plus all 50 of their own, to overcome a GOP filibuster on the legislation and end debate, making way for the bill's final passage. All 50 Senate Republicans are opposed to the bill.
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The legislation at hand would make Election Day a federal holiday, expand early voting and mail-in-voting, and give the federal government greater oversight over state elections. And would come at a time when nearly 20 states have restricted access to voting fueled by false claims in the wake of the 2020 election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
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Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., his wife Arndrea Waters King and daughter Yolanda Renee King take part in a Peace Walk on the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., Jan. 17, 2022.
To go it alone, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he will move to challenge the chamber's filibuster rule with a simple majority vote, and aides say that rules-change proposal will come as early as Wednesday.
It's unclear how Democrats intend to change the filibuster rule.
MORE: Sinema, Manchin reject Biden push to change filibuster for voting rights
Sen Tim Kaine, D-Va., a key negotiator in voting rights talks., told ABC News last week that it will likely amount to a one-time change in the rule, or carveout, by lowering the threshold to end debate on the legislation from 60 votes to 51 votes. In theory, Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, could serve as Democrats' tie-breaking vote -- both to quash the filibuster and, eventually, pass the voting rights bill.
Another option Democrats have looked into is reverting back to a talking filibuster, which would require 41 opponents of the bill to keep talking on the floor -- called "holding the floor" -- to test the opposition's stamina. If they run out of steam, there would be a 51-vote requirement for passage of the once-filibustered bill.
ABC News
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2022.
But Democrats need the support of their entire party to change the rule in the chamber where the hold the slimmest of majorities. And conservative Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kysrten Sinema have made clear their opposition to changing the filibuster, even though both support the underlying legislation, so the effort is expected to fail -- a massive blow to Democrats as President Joe Biden approaches one year in office on Thursday.
MORE: Clyburn asks senators 'which side are you on?' for voting rights
Martin Luther King Jr.'s 13-year-old granddaughter, Yolanda Renee King, called out Manchin and Sinema by name in demonstrations near Capitol Hill on Monday as activists took the street to demand action in the name of the late civil rights leader being honored across the nation.
"Sen. Sinema, Sen. Manchin, our future hinges on your decision and history will remember what choice you make," she called out. "So join me in demanding action for today, tomorrow and generations to come."
After Biden took the national spotlight last Tuesday in Georgia to demand the Senate change its rules "whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking actions on voting rights," he met with Sinema and Manchin privately at the White House. As he headed to the Hill last Thursday to meet with lawmakers, Sinema stunningly took to the Senate floor and reiterated her opposition to what the president had just publicly called for.
Republicans, meanwhile, have argued Biden went too far in his attacks on the GOP, tying their obstruction on the bill to Jim Crow-era racism, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slamming Biden's speech from the Senate chamber as "profoundly, profoundly un-presidential" and as a "rant" that was "incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office."
MORE: What is the Senate filibuster? And why the calls to change it?
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President Joe Biden delivers remarks on voting rights legislation at the Atlanta University Center Consortium, part of both Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Jan. 11, 2022, in Atlanta. Georgia has been a focus point for voting legislation after the state voted Democratic for the first time in almost 30 years in the 2020 election. As a result, the Georgia House passed House Bill 531 to limit voting hours, drop boxes, and require a government ID when voting by mail.
As activists continue to push for federal action, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said over the weekend he was never contacted by the White House to try and gain support for passing voting rights legislation.
"Sadly, this election reform bill that the president has been pushing, I never got a call on that from the White House. There was no negotiation, bringing the Republicans and Democrats together to try to come up with something that would meet bipartisan interest," he told NBC's "Meet The Press" Sunday.
MORE: Democrats back where they started on voting rights: The Note
With the Senate finally taking up voting rights Tuesday, the president is scheduled to remain out of sight, according to his schedule, but at the White House for briefings.
Biden is scheduled to hold a news conference on Wednesday, one day before marking his first year in office, where he'll likely face questions on the issue of voting rights -- among other unfinished agenda items.