Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Voting Rights Legislation

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding making important progress on voting rights legislation to protect the right to vote and safeguard our elections. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

As we continue working to bring the Senate to a position to where we can move forward on Build Back Better, Senate Democrats have spent the past few weeks engaged in a separate discussion on addressing another critical and urgent priority—protecting the right to vote and safeguarding our elections.

Yesterday, I joined with a number of my colleagues in detailed conversations about how the Senate will get voting rights done in time for the 2022 elections—including advancing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

In state after state, Republican-led legislatures are approving the most draconian voter restriction laws that we’ve seen since segregation, and they’re doing it on an entirely partisan basis.

Let me repeat that: Republicans at the state level are passing the most egregious restrictions on voting rights that we have seen since segregation, and they are doing it on an entirely partisan basis.

Senate Democrats are working to find a path forward to respond to these attacks by passing legislation like the Freedom to Vote Act and the Voting Rights Advancement Act.

Part of that conversation involves finding ways to restore the Senate so it can once again work as it’s supposed to, as it has worked for generations before the gridlock of the past decade or so.

These conversations are ongoing.

The fight to protect voting rights is far from over in the Senate. Just because Republicans will not join us to defend democracy does not mean that Democrats will stop fighting. This matter is too important not to act, even if it means we must act alone to get the Senate working.

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