Senate Republicans Block Consideration Of John Lewis Voting Rights Measure – Marking Fourth Time This Year They’ve Prevented Senate Consideration Of Vital Voting Rights Legislation
Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer
For the fourth time this year, Senate Republicans have blocked essential voting rights legislation.
Today, their obstructionism blocked consideration of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. They previously blocked consideration of the For the People Act in June and again in August, and then, in October, they blocked consideration of the Freedom to Vote Act, compromise voting rights legislation crafted by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV).
Led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the self-described “Grim Reaper,” Senate Republicans have made crystal clear that they will use the filibuster rules to block Senate consideration of any voting rights legislation.
Senate Republicans are committed to protecting the wave of voter suppression and discrimination laws being enacted this year by Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country.
The civil rights champion, the late Representative John Lewis (D-GA), whose name graces this vital legislation, fought for – and nearly lost his life in pursuit of – voting rights nearly 60 years ago. Today, we are in the process of returning to the ugly days of Jim Crow and its blatant discrimination.
Key provisions of the historic Voting Rights Act were gutted by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013. The John Lewis bill is aimed at restoring this Act.
Since the Shelby County decision, Senate Republicans have had eight years to support repairing the Act. They managed to produce just one Republican Senator today who was willing to allow the Senate to consider the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
This is in stark contrast to the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 2006, which passed the Senate by a vote of 98-to-0, with 53 Republican Senators voting to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act.
The ability of millions of eligible Americans to exercise their fundamental right to vote is at stake here. The voter suppression efforts underway in our nation today threaten the very foundation of our democracy. Time is short to implement new voting rules for the 2022 congressional elections.
Senate Democrats must treat the pending voting rights bills – the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – as their highest priority and they must find a way to bypass the filibuster rules to allow the bills to be passed by a majority vote.
Our democracy is at stake and these voting rights bills are, quite simply, more important than filibuster rules that have been routinely bypassed over the years by the Senate.
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