Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, which restores key parts of the Voting Rights Act that were weakened by the Supreme Court and protects the right to vote from the onslaught of discriminatory voting laws that have emerged across the country, by a vote of 219-212. 
 
Following the vote, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) issued the following statement: 
 
“I am grateful that H.R. 4, named in honor of our beloved colleague John Lewis, passed the House today. At this moment, our democracy itself is under greater threat than it has been in decades because of a sustained assault on the right to vote in states and localities across the country. This assault was accelerated by the Supreme Court’s disastrous rulings in Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. DNC, both of which dealt serious blows to the Voting Rights Act. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act not only restores critically important parts of the VRA, but modernizes it to further protect access to the ballot box for every American. I thank Representative Terri Sewell for introducing this bill, Subcommittee Chair Steve Cohen for holding 13 hearings on voting rights, as well as our colleagues on the Subcommittee on Elections of the Committee on House Administration for documenting in exhaustive detail the myriad ways that that right to vote remains under threat for far too many Americans. I urge our counterparts in the Senate to secure the scared right to vote and take up this legislation without delay.”