Voting Rights
In the 117th Congress, Democrats passed H.R. 1, the For The People Act, which would promote government transparency, strengthen access to the ballot box, secure election infrastructure, and curb the influence of dark money in politics. The House also passed H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, which would reauthorize key portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that were struck down in the Supreme Court’s flawed Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. DNC decisions. In addition, the House passed H.R. 5746, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, which would set basic nationwide standards for how elections are conducted and take action to end partisan gerrymandering. Senate Republicans shamefully continue to obstruct these vital pieces of civil rights legislation and attack our democracy.
Democrats will continue to protect our democracy, advance the cause of voting rights, and expand access to the ballot box. We will fight to ensure that misleading information does not deter Americans from participating in our democracy and having confidence in the results of our free and fair elections.
Mr. Speaker, I was proud to join many Members of this House in Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, Alabama, from March 6th to 8th to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ which led inexorably to the signing of the Voting Rights Act in August of that same year in 1965.
Thank you Saint John. What a wonderful experience this is for all of us. We owe [Representative] John [Lewis] and Doug [Tanner, Founder of the Faith & Politics Institute] for what they achieved in the past and for all that they continue to do today through the Faith & Politics Institute.
This weekend we mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Bloody Sunday,’ when on March 7, 1965, a determined group of Civil Rights activists set out from Selma on a march to the State Capitol in Montgomery to demand the right to register and to vote.
Today the Congress came together in a spirit of bipartisanship to honor those who marched for voting rights in Selma fifty years ago.
I am deeply concerned and disappointed by comments from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte that Congress does not need to take corrective action to address the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Shelby v Holder, which guts one of the most important and effective provisions ever enacted to combat voter discrimination.
I am pleased that the Senate has finally confirmed three of the four commissioners to lead the Election Assistance Commission after a disturbingly long vacancy period.
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on the anniversary of the enactment of the Help America Vote Act, which was signed into law on October 29, 2002:
I am very disappointed that the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that early voting in Ohio can be rolled back by that state’s Republican-led legislature, which has joined other Republican-led states in curtailing access to the ballot.
Let me tell you, Wade Henderson, Steny Hoyer used to be the Majority Leader. Steny Hoyer had the power as the Majority Leader to put a bill on the Floor or keep it off the Floor. If Steny Hoyer were the Majority Leader of the House, and Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House, this bill would be on the Floor.
Forty-nine years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, a landmark piece of legislation that banned racial discrimination in voting. On June 25, 2013, in the Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision that protected voters in states and jurisdictions with a history of discrimination and voter suppression.