John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, the Republicans say we don't need this voting rights bill, that we should leave the power with the States. My subcommittee had 13 hearings over 2 years, and the professors and the attorneys told us that every time Black and Brown people gain in population and start to take power, there start to be changes in the laws to stop them from having power.

Just this year, 18 States have enacted 30 laws restricting the ability to vote. There were at least 495 voter suppression bills pending in the States as of yesterday.

For them to say we don't need a bill in the year that this Capitol faced an insurrection, when they tried to overturn the electoral college and overturn a free and fair election, and after that happened, two-thirds of the Republicans voted to overturn the election by throwing out the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. And then we wanted to study that insurrection, and a very thin number of Republicans even voted to study it.

Democracy is on the line. The right to vote is on the line. What we learned from our hearings is that we need to pass the Voting Rights Act and protect people's rights to vote because that is what America is about. I support this John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source