When asked why he wasn’t bringing the House measure to the Senate floor, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responded, with a grin: "Because I get to decide what we vote on.” | Win McNamee/Getty Images Congress McConnell won't allow vote on election reform bill

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell hasn’t shied away from publicly criticizing House Democrats’ electoral reform bill and "Green New Deal." But he’ll allow only the Green New Deal to get a Senate vote on the floor.

Republicans ripped into the House Democrats’ electoral reform bill at a news conference Wednesday, arguing that the legislation is merely a tactic to tilt elections in favor of Democrats. McConnell, who has dubbed the bill the “Democrat Politician Protection Act,” said that the bill is “offensive to average voters” and will not get any floor time in the Senate.


When asked at a news conference why he wasn’t bringing the House electoral reform bill to the Senate floor, McConnell said, with a grin, "Because I get to decide what we vote on.”

“What is the problem we’re trying to solve here?” McConnell asked. “People are flooding to the polls.”

McConnell in February, however, said he’ll bring a vote on the Green New Deal, the resolution led by freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), to challenge Democrats on the measure that Republicans say is far to the left of most Americans.

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The bill is slated to pass the Democratically controlled House this week, fulfilling campaign promises many members made in the most recent election cycle to overhaul elections.

The legislation contains a series of voting reforms Democrats have long pushed for, including automatic voter registration, expansion of early voting, endorsement of D.C. statehood and a requirement that independent commissions oversee House redistricting. In addition, the bill requires “dark money” groups to disclose donors.

Democrats argue that the bill would make it easier to vote and crack down on money in politics.

But Republicans said the bill would amount to federal overreach when it comes to elections.

“If the federal government begins to give lots of direction, is the federal government going to give lots of money?” Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri said. “If the federal government give lots of money, the federal government always gives lots of control.”

House Republicans also blasted their Democratic colleagues for rushing the bill through. Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican of the House Administration Committee, said the bill falls under the purview of several committees and that it did not undergo enough review before heading to the floor.

“This bill is being pushed on us,” he said. “What this bill is, is a Democrat push to elect more Democrats.”

Five House committees held hearings on the bill — Judiciary, Homeland Security, Ways and Means, Oversight and Reform, and House Administration — prior to the bill moving to the floor through regular order.