President Biden Must Back Up the Powerful Words of His Speech with Real Action to Pass Voting Rights Legislation

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President Biden Must Back Up the Powerful Words of His Speech with Real Action to Pass Voting Rights Legislation

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

President Biden made a powerful and impassioned speech today for protecting the sacred right to vote.

But now President Biden must show that his words are backed up by action.

The President and his Administration must move beyond speeches and begin actively lobbying Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

These bills are the only solution that will override the new state voter suppression and discrimination laws being enacted around the country which are aimed at denying millions of Black, brown, poor, disabled, and other voters their ability to vote.

The Texas Democratic state legislators in Washington D.C. today fully understand this. That’s why they are urging Members of Congress to pass these voting rights bills to protect Texas voters from the Republican-controlled Texas state legislature enacting some of the most abhorrent voter restriction laws in the country.

These problems cannot be solved in the courts because the Supreme Court has decimated the Voting Rights Act. And it belies reality to believe, as some White House officials have suggested, that they can “out-organize” the impact of the state voter suppression and discrimination laws.

The time has come for President Biden to emulate President Lyndon Johnson, who recognized the fundamental moral wrong of denying millions of citizens the right to vote when he went all-in to successfully lobby Congress to enact the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965.

President Biden must move promptly to actively and seriously lobby Congress to create another exception to the filibuster rules to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

The passage of this legislation will be the test of whether President Biden’s efforts to protect voting rights are successful.

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