The United States Senate is currently debating voting rights legislation. Passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act would strengthen voting rights, but both currently face an unclear future in the U.S. Senate. U.S. Congressman David Price spoke with 97.9 The Hill about this legislation and what else is to come in 2022.

The United States Senate is debating two pieces of voter legislation which Democrats argue would make voting easier for everyone.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act seeks to reverse a 2013 Supreme Court decision. If passed, it would require states with history of voting rights discrimination to get approval from the Department of Justice for changes in voting laws.

The Freedom to Vote Act aims to make voting more accessible. Some goals of the act include making election day a national holiday, allowing voting by mail with no excuses needed and broadening types of identification for states with voter id laws.

U.S. Congressman David Price, who represents Orange County, said these bills are a moving target.

“The immediate problem is to get the Senate to pass these things,” Price said. “That is going to require a carve out apparently from the filibuster because no Republicans support voting reform at all that I know of in the Senate. It’s a matter of getting this by the majority of the very slim majority of Democrats.”

The congressman said other aspects of the congressional agenda are still a work in progress.

“We need to celebrate what we’ve done and what it’s going to make possible,” Price said. “The American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Plan and of course the big item right now is the human infrastructure investment, Build Back Better, which would invest in housing.”

In addition to the Build Back Better Plan’s focus on increasing the supply and affordability of housing, Price said the child tax credit has an “amazing” impact on poverty. The child tax credit aims to support universal preschool and childcare support.

Price also said this year’s congress has already passed legislation that previous congresses would have considered to be a year’s worth of work. He said the need is still great for taking care of long deferred priorities in the country.

“I’m very hopeful that we can press forward,” the congressman said. “We have very narrow margins. We do have an election looming ahead which makes everything of course more complicated. We’ve got to get this done and I hope early in the new year.”

The fate of the two voter rights acts and President Biden’s infrastructure plans remains unclear. While Democrats have the simple majority, sixty senators are needed to end debate and vote on the bills. This is unlikely especially as two Democratic senators do not support eliminating the filibuster which would allow for these bills to have action taken on them.

 

Featured image by Julia Wall/The News & Observer via AP

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