![Biden says he's "not sure" about voting bills' future after Sinema reiterates opposition to rule change](https://cbsnews3.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2022/01/13/52697220-7ea6-4e7c-b912-519c39e9f7ab/thumbnail/1200x630/d06593a5eff9bf4574b9d9c0ee3a960c/gettyimages-1237704832.jpg)
Biden says he's "not sure" about voting bills' future after Sinema reiterates opposition to rule change
CBSN
President Biden met Thursday afternoon with Senate Democrats, saying "as long as I'm in the White House ... I'm going to be fighting for these bills," hours after Senator Kyrsten Sinema, one of two Senate Democrats known to oppose changes to Senate rules, said Thursday on the Senate floor that she will not change her position.
Her remarks come moments ahead of Mr. Biden's lunchtime meeting with Senate Democrats in which he encouraged lawmakers to overhaul Senate rules to allow the voting bills to pass with a simple majority, rather than 60 votes. Following that meeting, the president told reporters he hopes they can pass the legislation but he's "not certain" they can.
"Like every other major civil rights bill that came along, if we missed the first time, we could come back and try it a second time. We missed this time. We missed this time," he said. "... I don't know that we can get it done, but I know one thing: As long as I have a breath in me, as long as I am in the White House, as long as I'm engaged at all, I'm gonna' be fighting to change the way these legislatures have moved."
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206040405.jpg)
More employees of the Environmental Protection Agency were informed Wednesday that their jobs appear in doubt. Senior leadership at the EPA held an all-staff meeting to tell individuals that President Trump's executive order, "Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing," which was responsible for the closure of the agency's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, will likely lead to the shuttering of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights as well.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250206003957.jpg)
In her first hours as attorney general, Pam Bondi issued a broad slate of directives that included a Justice Department review of the prosecutions of President Trump, a reorientation of department work to focus on harsher punishments, actions punishing so-called "sanctuary" cities and an end to diversity initiatives at the department.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250205185317.jpg)
The quick-fire volley of tariffs between the U.S. and China in recent days has heightened global fears of a new trade war between the world's two largest economies. Yet while experts think the battle is likely to escalate, they also say the early skirmishes offer hope for an agreement on trade and other key issues that could head off a larger conflict.