In response to Trump, senators agree to clarify vice president’s role in electoral certification

The agreement will be part of a larger deal to overhaul the Electoral Count Act, which a bipartisan group of senators plans to unveil as soon as next week. The effort was spawned by Trump’s effort to get Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence to disregard now-President Joe Biden’s electoral win and install him into a second term, with senators looking to make it harder to do that future.

The pressure campaign against the vice president has been a key part of the House select committee’s investigation into the Capitol Hill insurrection.

“We’re hopeful,” said Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, on Wednesday about the timetable for announcing a deal.

“We are very close. We have a few technical issues to iron out. And I’m very hopeful we’ll have a bill early next week,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, on Wednesday who added that because of jurisdictional issues, the group may propose a series of bills to address the needed reforms, but they have not made a decision on that yet.

“The Rules Committee clearly has jurisdiction over the Electoral Count Act, Homeland Security clearly has jurisdiction over the Postal Service and over presidential transitions, which we are also trying to smooth out when there’s a case when it isn’t clear who’s won,” she said, explaining why the bill might need to be split up.

The senators said they expected their proposal to be referred to committees of jurisdiction where they would be assessed further before votes on the floor.

“The group has done good work,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said.