Former counsel to Senate Majority Chief Robert Byrd says filibuster can advance civil rights and voting rights | WDVM25 & DCW50

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WVA (WDVM) – The nation’s eyes are on Washington as Congress debates the suffrage law. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin is the focus of attention for opposing the Democratic Party using the filibuster, the parliamentary tactic to cut off the debate.

George Carenbauer was an adviser to the late West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd when Byrd was majority leader. Carenbauer was on the Shepherd University campus – where the Robert Byrd Center is located – Tuesday and says Manchin is deviating from Byrd’s intention that the filibuster was a force in promoting important law.

“The filibuster as it is now designed. so that nobody has to discuss. is exactly the opposite of what Senator Byrd wanted, ”said Carenbauer. “He said the purpose of the filibuster is to have a full debate. As much as the minority wanted. We don’t have that right now. “

Carenbauer says the late Senator Byrd was a suffrage advocate praised by the late Congressman John Lewis.