As Congress rushes to vote on a 4,155-page spending bill that Members will never read, one piece of good news is that the omnibus contains a revision of the Electoral Count Act (ECA). But the moment shouldn’t pass without noting that the Senate is acting in a way that lets individual Members dodge accountability for their vote.

The U.S. Congress is poised to pass legislation that would tighten the way presidential elections are certified, aiming to prevent a repeat of the chaos that followed Donald Trump's 2020 presidential defeat.

Here are details on the Electoral Count Reform Act, which lawmakers included in a year-end government funding bill:

AIMS TO PREVENT ANOTHER JAN. 6

Following months of bipartisan negotiations, lawmakers agreed on an important overhaul of the Electoral Count Act that will strengthen the system against future attacks and possible mischief. The challenge was figuring out how to pass it.

This week, Congress is expected to approve a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package, and to the relief of reformers, the Electoral Count Act overhaul will be included in the legislation. It might pass the Senate as early as today.

Congressional leaders released a bipartisan government funding bill early Tuesday that includes a rewrite of federal election laws aimed at preventing another Jan. 6-style attack and choking off avenues for future candidates to steal elections.

They expect to pass the bill in the coming days to avoid a government shutdown slated to begin this weekend. It is the product of lengthy negotiations between the two parties and has President Joe Biden's support.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky) support for the Electoral Count Act is renewing the schism between him and former President Trump, setting up a vote likely to divide the GOP caucus. 

Supporters are hopeful that McConnell’s backing will lead to a majority of the Senate GOP conference backing the legislation, drafted in response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that many blame on Trump. 

In the presidential election of 2020, the United States was the target of a legal coup for the first time in its history. Legal coups don’t rely on tanks rolling through the streets, and their damage to democracy is not—for the most part—measured in a body count. Legal coups don’t even cancel elections. They manipulate them.

That President Donald Trump attempted to steal the 2020 election is scary enough; that he or another candidate could steal it next time around remains a terrifying threat. This is what makes the passage of a just-introduced bipartisan proposal to reform the Electoral Count Act so essential.

It is still unclear what exactly Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Jan. 6 committee is trying to accomplish, but a bipartisan group of 16 senators proved this week the body’s work is not necessary to reach real, productive, commonsense electoral reform.

A bipartisan group of 16 senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to reform and modernize the Electoral Count Act of 1887, including by clarifying the role of the vice president in certifying presidential elections.

Why it matters: The bill, if passed by the House and Senate, would mark the first major legislative response to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and the events that it preceded it.