Congressional Democrats on Wednesday struck out on their own to introduce legislation addressing the 2013 Supreme Court decision that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Last Congress, a bipartisan group led by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote compromise legislation rewriting the section that effectively serves as the law’s enforcement mechanism, which the high court struck down in a 5-4 decision. But the bill never cleared the House and died when the 113th Congress adjourned.
This time around, however, a bicameral group of Democrats, including Leahy, opted to introduce a different bill rather than sign on with Sensenbrenner and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., when they reintroduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act in March.
Leahy said the new legislation is necessary to counter the enforcement vacuum left by the Supreme Court ruling.
“Within weeks of the Supreme Court’s devastating ruling, Republican governors and state legislatures exploited the … decision,” he stated. “Several states with a documented history of racial discrimination in voting implemented sweeping laws that disproportionately suppressed the voting rights of minorities, the elderly, and young people.”
The White House, which last Congress urged lawmakers to pass the Sensenbrenner-Leahy bill, lauded the Democrats’ new Voting Rights Advancement Act on Wednesday.
Congress should “restore the promise of the Voting Rights Act to repair the damage done to this centerpiece of our democracy and honor the sacrifices made by so many who were willing to die to protect the rights it guarantees,” spokesman Josh Earnest stated. “Congress should give this bill the consideration it deserves and work together to protect that most essential right upon which our country was founded: the right to vote.”
The Supreme Court said the decades-old criteria for determining whether a state or a county is showing a pattern of racial bias in its voting laws don’t reflect the changes that have taken place in these states over the last 50 years.
Under Leahy’s bill, states would be subject to federal oversight of their laws only when they have established a “recent record of racial discrimination.” Among other things, it would also require states to provide more transparency to voters about last-minute changes to voting laws.
The bipartisan bill said states would be covered by federal oversight if they have committed five voting violations over the last 15 years.
In a statement given to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, Sensenbrenner said that he stuck to his original legislation because it’s the only one that could pass the House.
“Restoring the VRA is critically important,” Sensenbrenner stated. “Every American needs to know that we understand their right to vote is sacred. However, I stand by the legislation I introduced last Congress. Passing any bill on voting rights will be a Herculean task and there is no chance of succeeding if we abandon our bipartisan approach.”
Sensenbrenner has good reason to be skeptical. Even though he’s a senior member of the House GOP and a former Judiciary Committee chairman, current Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., refused to even mark up the bill, and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, declined to circumvent Goodlatte and bring it straight to the floor. In the Senate, Leahy couldn’t find a Republican co-sponsor, which is one of the reasons he cited for introducing this new version.
Speaking on MSNBC Wednesday evening, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., said it’s time for Congress to take meaningful action, especially in light of recent controversies over symbols, such as South Carolina’s decision to remove the Confederate flag from its state capitol building.
“It’s about action,” she said on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s show. “It’s about substance over a symbol.”
