House passes historic voting rights protection bill

The House passed historic voting rights protection legislation on Thursday, but the bill faces a grim future in the Senate due to Republican opposition.<br><br>House Resolution 4, also known as the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, was named after the late civil rights leader John Lewis. The bill seeks to strengthen the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a historic civil rights law that prohibited racial discrimination in voting but was significantly weakened by two landmark Supreme Court decisions in 2013 and 2021.<br><br>House Resolution 4 passed by a vote of 219 to 212 along partisan lines. Only one Republican, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voted for the bill.<br><br>House Democrats previously passed a more expansive voting rights bill in March called House Resolution 1, which Senate Republicans filibustered in June. House Resolution 4 focuses more narrowly on eliminating barriers to voting that disenfranchise racial and ethnic communities. Senate Democrats are expected to bring up the bill this fall but are unlikely to overcome opposition from Senate Republicans without abolishing or weakening the filibuster.<br><br>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that Republicans have no interest in protecting voting rights.<br><br>“House Democrats are fighting to safeguard our democracy by expanding access to the ballot, not restricting it. Despite their best efforts, House Republicans cannot hide from their record, which is repressing the vote and suppressing the will of the American people,” she said.<br><br>Republicans in state legislatures across the United States have introduced and passed various voting restrictions in 2021, which Democrats and civil rights advocates argue could disenfranchise voters of color. The wave of new voting restrictions was fueled by conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 presidential election, which former President Donald Trump “The Big Lie” that the election was stolen.<br><br>Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, who sponsored the bill, blamed Republican state legislators for pushing voting restrictions. “This is a threat to our democracy,” she said.<br><br>U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts clashed on the House floor when Jordan said Democrats were “trying to use the federal government to take over how elections are run.”<br><br>Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida falsely claimed that voting restrictions were necessary because the 2020 election was “stolen.”<br><br>---omitted---<br><br><br>This sub does not allow any beckykissinger variant posts.