[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 175 (Tuesday, October 5, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Voting Rights

  Mr. President, now on voting rights, despite all we must do in the 
coming weeks, Senate Democrats remain strongly committed to advancing 
legislation in this Chamber to protect the most precious right in our 
democracy: the right to vote.
  Later today, my friend the Senator from Vermont, Senator Leahy, will 
introduce the new John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I am a 
cosponsor, and it is my intention in the coming weeks for the Senate to 
hold a vote on this bill.
  As a complement of the Freedom to Vote Act, Senator Leahy's bill 
restores some of the most critical safeguards of the original Voting 
Rights Act gutted by the Supreme Court's conservative majority in 2013.
  Perhaps, most importantly, this proposal would reinstate the so-
called ``crown jewel'' of the civil rights movement: the VRA's 
preclearance coverage formula, retailored for the 21st century. It 
would also adopt new provisions to address the next generation of 
suppressive voting already sprouting in States, unfortunately, across 
the country.
  Critically, this new bill also responds to the Court's troubling 
ruling in the Brnovich case of earlier this year, a decision which 
further weakened the VRA's protections against State practices that 
hinder minorities seeking to vote.
  I will have more to say on this later, but, for now, I want to thank 
my colleague from Vermont for his diligence and leadership in our fight 
to protect our democracy.
  The Senate must act soon if we are to successfully defeat the anti-
democracy forces of the far right. And we will; we will do just that.
  I yield the floor.