Rep. Beatty Votes to Pass John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, H.R. 4, to Restore the Vote for All Americans

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Congresswoman and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty (OH-03) joined 219 of her House colleagues in voting to pass H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This critical legislation would restore key protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) which were gutted by the Supreme Court in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision and more recently in the 2021 Brnovich v. DNC decision.

Beatty presided over debate on the bill, which aims to protect voters from discrimination by restoring and strengthening the protections of the VRA. The passage of H.R. 4 comes amid the most coordinated state-level effort to restrict the right to vote in generations and follows a months-long investigation by the House Committee on Administration and House Committee on the Judiciary into the status of voting rights in America.

"Over half a century after the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, access to the ballot box is under unprecedented threat," said Rep. Beatty. "Since last November, we have seen hundreds of voter suppression laws spring up in state legislatures across America, threatening to silence the most vulnerable and underrepresented communities."

Beatty continued, "As a Black woman, it was an honor and a duty to join my colleagues in passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021. The right to vote is the very foundation of our democracy. Generations of brave, patriotic Americans have fought, marched, and shed blood to safeguard and expand that right. In introducing this legislation, House Democrats are honoring our promises ‘for the people' to safeguard the right to vote for generations to come."

Rep. Beatty speaks on the House Floor in support of H.R. 4

For decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) ensured equal access to the ballot box for Black and minority voters by requiring states and localities with a history of voter discrimination—as determined in Section 5—to obtain pre-clearance from the Department of Justice before making changes to their voting laws. However, in its infamous 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court's conservative majority struck down Section 4, arguing that voter discrimination was an issue of the past and that the formula used to determine which states and localities were subject to preclearance was outdated.

On July 1, 2021, in its decision in Brnovich v. DNC, the Supreme Court struck another devastating blow to the VRA, upholding Arizona's voting laws targeting Latino and other minority voters and making it more difficult for parties to challenge racially discriminatory voting laws under Section 2.

Beginning in April, the House Committee on Administration Subcommittee on Elections held a series of investigatory hearings and collected numerous reports and documents regarding the status of voting rights in America. The hearings culminated in a report which the Committee released on Friday, August 6, detailing modern-day efforts to restrict the right to vote. Meanwhile, the House Committee on the Judiciary also held hearings on the need to protect the right to vote.

Informed by these findings, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore protections of the VRA gutted by the Supreme Court. It would once again prohibit states and localities with a recent history of voter discrimination from restricting the right to vote by including an updated formula for determining which states and localities are subject to federal oversight. It would also amend Section 2 of the VRA to eliminate the heightened standard for challenging voter discrimination that the Supreme Court created in its decision in Brnovich v. DNC.

The passage of H.R. 4 comes amid the most coordinated state-level effort to restrict the right to vote in generations. Driven by the Big Lie, 18 states have enacted at least 30 new restrictive, anti-voter laws just this year.

A previous version of H.R. 4 passed in the House of Representatives during the 116th Congress by a vote of 228-187, but stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. Last year, the bill was renamed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to honor the legacy of civil rights icon and former Congressman John Robert Lewis who passed away on July 17, 2020.

###