At yesterday’s ceremony to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre, President Biden announced that Vice President Harris will oversee the administration’s efforts on voting rights. The announcement comes just days after Senate Majority Leader Schumer stated that the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S.1) will receive a floor vote in the last week of June.
“President Biden’s announcement that Vice President Harris will oversee the voting rights fight is tremendous news that comes at a critical time when we are seeing a dark money-fueled assault on Americans’ freedom and right to vote,” said End Citizens United // Let America Vote President Tiffany Muller. “Vice President Harris brings a diverse set of experiences and the weight of the White House to this important and defining moment in defending our democracy. We look forward to working with the administration in the critical days ahead.”
The news from the White House comes as more than 100 scholars of democracy signed a public statement warning about the future of American democracy and urged members of Congress to pass the reforms in the For the People Act to counteract the anti-democratic laws at the state level. The letter states: “We urge members of Congress to do whatever is necessary—including suspending the filibuster—in order to pass national voting and election administration standards that both guarantee the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want. Our democracy is fundamentally at stake. History will judge what we do at this moment.”
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