Below is RepresentUs CEO Josh Silver’s response to the House passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
“Following a series of Supreme Court decisions, including Shelby v. Holder and most recently Brnovich v. DNC, we’ve long needed Congressional action to restore and improve the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Among other important provisions, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) will make it harder for states to pass anti-voter laws in the future.
“But while we applaud the VRAA’s passage, it doesn’t undo the anti-voter laws that have passed since the 2020 election or limit states’ ability to gerrymander this cycle. To that end, the Senate must also pass the emerging compromise For the People Act bill, which will ban partisan gerrymandering, set baseline voting standards in all 50 states, and limit the influence of money in politics.
“As soon as they return from recess, senators must pass these bills by any means necessary. The filibuster in its current form is poisoning our political system, and there are ways to fix it so that widely popular and historically bipartisan bills can’t be blocked by just a single senator. Congress has an opportunity to end the gridlock and get back to work for the American people, and they have to take it.”