[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 175 (Tuesday, October 5, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6916-S6921]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
        Blumenthal, Mr. Warnock, Mr. Ossoff, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Bennet, 
        Mr. Booker, Mr. Brown, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Carper, 
        Mr. Casey, Mr. Coons, Ms. Cortez Masto, Ms. Duckworth, Mrs. 
        Feinstein, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Hassan, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. 
        Hickenlooper, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kaine, Mr. Kelly, Mr. King, Ms. 
        Klobuchar, Mr. Lujan, Mr. Markey, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Merkley, 
        Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Peters, Mr. Reed, Ms. 
        Rosen, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Schatz, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Sinema, Ms. 
        Smith, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Tester, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Warner, 
        Ms. Warren, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Wyden):
  S. 4. A bill to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to revise the 
criteria for determining which States and political subdivisions are 
subject to section 4 of the Act, and for other purposes; read the first 
time.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is really with hope, pride, and optimism 
that I rise today to honor the legacy of an icon of the civil rights 
movement, a hero of democracy, and a dear personal friend of mine: John 
Lewis.
  More than anything, John Lewis was a man of action. Where he saw 
suffering, he tried to end it. Where he saw injustice, he tried to 
correct it. Where ``good trouble'' was needed, he showed up for it.
  The most fitting way to honor the legacy of John Lewis is to take 
action ourselves--the action that he would have. So it is with pride 
today that I introduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 
2021. It is a vital piece of legislation to restore the landmark Voting 
Rights Act.
  Now, this legislation is the culmination of many months of tireless 
work across the Halls of Congress, back and forth between the House and 
the Senate. But that is exactly what Congressman Lewis would have 
wanted to see. That work began by building the record and telling the 
story of the current conditions for voters across the country.
  But what did that record show?
  A shocking picture.
  Empowered by the Supreme Court's damaging 2013 decision in Shelby 
County v. Holder, States across the country have been advancing and 
enacting sweeping voter suppression efforts to make it more--not less--
difficult for American citizens to participate in their own democracy.
  Can you imagine that--making it harder for Americans to participate 
in their own democracy?
  And today, tens of thousands of Americans are being disenfranchised 
under the guise of State law. And it is no coincidence that certain 
communities consistently bear the brunt of these suppression schemes 
across the country.
  Throughout our history, we have worked to make our democracy ever 
more inclusive, not exclusive. With each generation, we have sought to 
empower millions more to be equal participants in America's system of 
self-government. So make no mistake: This tidal wave of voter 
suppression effort seeks to bend the arc of equal justice and equal 
rights backward. We should not allow that to stand.
  Action in Congress is desperately needed. The House answered the call 
from Congressman Lewis and others to protect our precious, almost 
sacred right to vote, and they passed a bold version of the John Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act earlier this year.
  Today, in the Senate, we will be introducing a version of that bill 
that should get the votes needed to restore the Voting Rights Act.
  This legislation addresses the Court's 2013 and 2021 decision. This 
should be advanced here. It should be passed by the House, and it 
surely would be signed into law. And there is no reason for delay.
  This legislation addresses the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision 
by restoring the Justice Department's preclearance powers to prevent 
States from enacting discriminatory voting changes. The legislation 
limits the harms caused by the Supreme Court's Brnovich decision 
earlier this year by enshrining a private right of action and clear 
factors with which voters can bring lawsuits against attempts to 
disenfranchise them.
  Fundamentally, this legislation seeks to ensure that the Justice 
Department possesses the tools it needs to protect the right to vote 
for all Americans, regardless of party or race or creed or background.
  Now, you wouldn't know by listening to the partisan rancor of today's 
politics, but this goal--protecting our right to vote--has never been a 
partisan issue.
  John Lewis once said: ``We all know this is not a Democratic 
Republican issue. It is an American one.''
  Truer words haven't been spoken.
  We should remember that reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act on a 
bipartisan basis is the way we have always done it. The core provisions 
of the Voting Rights Act have been reauthorized five times. Remember 
that, five times. Every time, this has been done with overwhelming 
bipartisan support in Congress. It was signed by President Nixon. It 
was signed by President Reagan. It was signed by President George W. 
Bush. They all signed the Voting Rights Act reauthorizations into law. 
They knew the profound importance of the landmark law for our 
democracy. In fact, the most recent Voting Rights Act reauthorization 
was in 2006.
  And do you know what the vote was in the U.S. Senate?
  Ninety-eight to zero. And many Senators still serving today, both 
Republican and Democrat, voted to support that legislation.
  The toxic partisanship of American politics today has obscured what 
has, for decades, united us across party lines. This is the belief that 
protecting our right to vote--the very right that gives democracy its 
name--is bigger than party or politics. It is the belief that a system 
of self-government--a government of, by, and for the people--is one 
that is worth preserving for generations to come. It is the belief that 
government exists to serve the will of the people, not the other way 
around.
  And that, Mr. President, is what I believe.
  And so, today, I hold the memory of John Lewis--of his advocacy, of 
his passion, of his zealous belief to our better angels--to urge all 
Senators, regardless of party, to join me in restoring and 
reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. The John Lewis Voting Rights 
Advancement Act gives us that opportunity. Congressman Lewis, I know, 
would have wanted us to come together and find a path forward to 
addressing the many threats facing Americans' foundational right to 
vote.
  I will tell you what he would not have accepted. He would not have 
accepted inaction. So let's try to live up to the memory and the 
example of John Lewis--a heroic man of action, one of my dearest 
friends in my years in the Congress. And I know he is watching over us. 
Let's make him proud.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, let me thank my friend, our 
chairman of the Judiciary, Senator Leahy, not only for introducing this 
legislation but for his dedication to voting rights over the many 
decades that he has served in this body. Few have done more to push 
voting rights to make sure people have the right to vote without some 
of the barriers that have always been placed in the way by people who 
want to discriminate against people--particularly people of color--when 
it comes to voting. So I thank him.
  Mr. President, the story of American democracy is a messy tale of 
starts and stops. For over 240 years, our march to establish the United 
States as a full democracy has always seemed to involve two steps 
forward, one step back.
  Today, I am proud to join my colleagues, Senators Leahy and Durbin, 
as they lead this Chamber in another bold step forward by introducing 
the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a long-overdue update to 
the Voting Rights Act of 1965. No piece of legislation has done more to 
protect the franchise than the Voting Rights

[[Page S6917]]

Act of the sixties. Its critical preclearance provision compelled 
jurisdictions with recent histories of discrimination to secure Federal 
approval before amending their election laws.

  For decades, the Senate reauthorized the VRA's preclearance 
provisions with bipartisan votes because both parties understood that 
this powerful Federal tool made our democracy stronger. Sadly, in 2013, 
a conservative majority on the Supreme Court gutted the VRA's 
preclearance and cleared the way for some of the most repressive voter 
suppression laws we have seen in generations.
  For those Supreme Court Justices who said this is not necessary, I 
think they should look at what as happened since preclearance was 
eliminated. It is just awful, and it was one of the lowest moments of 
the Supreme Court in recent memory: the Shelby decision.
  Now, because of that Shelby decision, in 2021, 19 States, just in 
this year, 2021, have enacted 33 laws that will limit Americans' access 
to the ballot, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York 
University. What we are seeing across the States today is nothing short 
of Jim Crow in the 21st century, aided and abetted and allowed by the 
Shelby decision, which so tied the hands of the Justice Department when 
discriminatory legislation was being enacted at the State level.
  The Senate must fight back. We must restore the preclearance 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act and retailor it to meet the 
challenges of the 21st century. That is what the John Lewis Voting 
Rights Advancement Act will do. As an important complement to the 
Freedom to Vote Act, it will reestablish the VRA's preclearance 
coverage formula--based on an updated, robust catalog of modern-day 
voter suppression laws--while adopting new provisions to address the 
next generation of suppressive voting. This new bill also responds to 
the Court's troubling ruling in Brnovich earlier this year, which even 
further weakened the VRA's protections against State practices that 
hinder minorities seeking to vote.
  We have to be brutally honest. This country has to look at itself in 
the mirror. Racial barriers to the ballot are, regrettably, part of our 
past, our present, and now, with some of these decisions, part of our 
future. When the Nation was founded, you had to be a White male 
Protestant property owner in many of the States to vote. Today, we have 
come a long way in our struggle to live up to our country's founding 
promise, and this bill takes the next step by restoring the proper role 
of the Federal Government to protect Americans' constitutional right to 
participate in our democracy.
  As Senator Warnock has so eloquently stated, we must put out the fire 
that is presently engulfing our democracy, and that is what the Freedom 
to Vote Act will do. We must build a state-of-the-art fire department 
to prevent future fires. That is what the reforms of the John Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act will do.
  This is a good bill. This is an urgent bill. As majority leader, it 
is my intention to hold a vote on this legislation in the near future. 
I am proud to designate this ``S. 4'' to mark its critical restoration 
of the section 4 preclearance formula.
  We hope that all of our colleagues will join us in good faith in 
advancing solutions to ensure all Americans have their voices heard in 
their democracy. If some of our colleagues on the other side have 
different ideas of how to protect free and fair elections, we urge them 
to put them forward. But we will not be deterred just because some of 
our colleagues choose to stand silent with their arms crossed, content 
to play politics with the health of our Republic. On this issue, the 
Senate must act, and we will act.
  I want to thank again my colleagues Senators Leahy and Durbin for 
their diligence and leadership on this important piece of legislation 
and for all they do to make sure this Chamber always works to 
strengthen our precious democracy.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I want to thank the majority leader for 
his encouraging and kind words and especially thank my friend and 
former chair of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont, 
for inviting other colleagues to come to the floor to speak in support 
of the right to vote.
  Time and again in history, we have asked men and women to stand and 
risk their lives and, in fact, give their lives for the most 
fundamental premise of our democracy: the right to vote. They have 
fought. They have bled. They have died for that right.
  Now it is under attack again--not from any foreign source. Over the 
past few years, our Nation has witnessed the most heavily coordinated 
assault on the right to vote in modern memory. Since the start of 2021, 
Republican legislators throughout the country have introduced over 425 
pieces of legislation with provisions to make it more difficult for 
Americans to vote. Thirty-three of these laws were actually enacted in 
19 States. Some of these laws have set new limits on voting by mail; 
others cut hours for polling locations. Each of these proposals is 
designed to achieve the same outcome: create barriers for Americans 
when it comes to the ballot box.
  One of the strongest champions of democracy in American history was 
my old friend and colleague John Lewis of Georgia. Days before his 
passing, John wrote: ``Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each 
generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved 
Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.''
  It is now this generation's turn to act, John, because nothing less 
than the survival of America's democracy is at stake.
  At a moment when lawmakers across the country are railing around the 
Big Lie to strip away our constitutional rights, we in this Senate must 
have the courage to step up and protect those rights. If the supporters 
of the former President of the United States are going to defame our 
democracy, we have to fight to defend it. We can begin by 
reinvigorating one of the most important pieces of legislation in 
modern American history: the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  I am sure there are folks who are watching this at home, saying: Wait 
a minute. How can a piece of legislation signed into law more than 50 
years ago be the solution to today's challenge to democracy?
  That is because over the past several years, there has been a 
sustained effort to chip away at the protections guaranteed to every 
American under that Voting Rights Act.
  For instance, in 2013, the Supreme Court issued the decision in 
Shelby County v. Holder, essentially nullifying a key provision in the 
Voting Rights Act, section 5. Prior to the Court's ruling in Shelby, 
section 5 required that localities with a track record of 
disenfranchising voters of color through tactics as brutal as poll 
taxes and literacy tests would have to seek Federal approval for 
changes they make in their voting rules. This requirement is known as 
preclearance, and it could have prevented many of the restrictive 
voting provisions being enacted in States like Georgia and Texas today.
  Just this past summer, the Supreme Court weakened another section of 
the Voting Rights Act with its decision in Brnovich v. Democratic 
National Committee.
  With these wrongful rulings, the Supreme Court has fueled State-led 
efforts to suppress voters, particularly voters of color. In fact, 
Justice Elena Kagan wrote in her dissent to Brnovich that ``in the last 
decade, this Court has treated no statute worse'' than the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965.
  It is time for Congress to uphold our constitutional obligation and 
restore the Voting Rights Act to its full potential. That is why we 
join together today to introduce a bill that would not only restore the 
protections of the Voting Rights Act but strengthen them.
  Tomorrow, we will hold a hearing on this critical legislation in the 
Senate Judiciary Committee. It is called the John R. Lewis Voting 
Rights Advancement Act. By all means, passing this law should be a 
bipartisan endeavor. Historically, it always was. It wasn't until very 
recently that the Republicans--the party of Abraham Lincoln--decided 
that they would no longer join in our effort to reauthorize the Voting 
Rights Act. It wasn't that long ago that it was bipartisan and passed 
easily. The last time Congress voted to do so, in fact, the Republican 
minority leader, Senator McConnell, came to the floor and said: ``This 
is a piece of legislation which has worked.''

[[Page S6918]]

  Well, let's make sure we keep it working for America. In our Nation, 
there is no freedom more fundamental than the right to vote, and the 
John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will help ensure that every 
American can exercise that right that he famously called the 
``precious, almost sacred'' right.
  I want to thank Senator Leahy, Senator Blumenthal, and my colleague 
Senator Warnock for joining us on the floor and a number of our 
colleagues for the collaboration and hard work on preparing this 
legislation for introduction and our House colleagues who passed their 
version of the bill earlier this summer.
  I particularly want to thank the man for whom this bill is named. I 
was honored to count him as a friend--even more when he came in on more 
than one occasion at my invitation to campaign in the State of 
Illinois. I was honored to join him on a Sunday morning walk, which I 
will never forget, over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, John and I talking 
about that moment in history. It is something I will treasure for a 
lifetime.
  We, in his name, need to honor him and to honor the principles that 
he gave his life for, making certain that everyone has an opportunity 
to help us build a beloved community.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I am so proud and honored to be with 
my colleagues Senator Leahy, Senator Durbin, and Senator Warnock--all 
of us who are championing the Senate version of the John R. Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act. I think any of us would be honored to be 
spearheading a bill named for one of our heroes.
  This bill has particular significance to all of us because we lived 
through the time--the summer of 1965--when States mercilessly attacked 
John Lewis and 600 others as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 
Selma, AL, in peaceful protest to protect their right to vote.
  In the wake of that attack, as the Nation came together to grieve, 
President Johnson joined with Congress to pursue, as he put it, ``an 
end to voting discrimination in America.''
  Roughly a week after the attack, President Johnson called for 
comprehensive voting rights legislation. Two days later, Congress 
announced that it would take up that legislation. So by early August, 
just 5 months after ``Bloody Sunday'' in Selma, the Voting Rights Act 
was passed by Congress with broad bipartisan support and became, again 
in the words of President Johnson, ``one of the most monumental laws in 
the entire history of American freedom.''
  Today, with the introduction of this legislation, we honor the legacy 
of John Lewis. We honor everyone involved in that great movement at the 
time that advanced civil rights and liberty, the most fundamental being 
the right to vote, and we honor the fight itself to protect the 
franchise.
  A century after the Civil War ended, our Nation had failed to 
eradicate the blight of racial discrimination in voting. The promise of 
equality--political equality as well as economic equality--remained 
unfulfilled for Black citizens.
  The Voting Rights Act did what even the 14th and 15th Amendments 
failed to do, proving to be a uniquely powerful tool with the capacity 
to meet ever-new forms of discrimination through its preclearance 
regime.
  Then, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Shelby County--well known 
to all of us--gutted, absolutely eviscerated the highly effective 
preclearance regime, jeopardizing the progress the Voting Rights Act 
made over the course of half a century.
  As Justice Ginsburg said in her moving and powerful dissent in 
Shelby, until Congress enacted the Voting Rights Act's preclearance 
requirement, early attempts to cope with the vile infection of racial 
discrimination in voting ``resembled battling the Hydra. Whenever one 
form of voting discrimination was identified and prohibited, others 
sprang up in their place.''
  Today's reinvigorated efforts to deprive members of minority groups 
from equal access to the ballot box through more subtle, second-
generation barriers prove that a new preclearance regime is needed now 
more than ever.
  This year alone, we have experienced the most destructive legislative 
session for voting rights in generations, with States and localities 
enacting a torrent of new voting restrictions, all of it designed to 
suppress the vote, to curtail the franchise, to move back the clock on 
voting rights.
  Between January 1 and July 14 of this year, more than 400 voting 
restriction bills have been introduced in 49 States--49 States--and 18 
States successfully enacted 30 laws that make it harder for people to 
vote.
  These laws make mail voting and early voting more difficult. They 
manipulate the boundaries of districts to reduce minority 
representation, and they have led to the purge of up to 3.1 million 
voters from the rolls in areas that were once covered by the Voting 
Rights Act preclearance requirement.
  In short, this threat is more than just speculative, far from 
imaginative or suggestive. The threat is real and urgent. In fact, it 
is more than a threat. It is action now moving forward in States.
  Today's legislation would confront this resurgence of voting 
restrictions very directly. The new John Lewis Voting Rights 
Advancement Act includes new formulas to revive preclearance.
  By focusing specifically on jurisdictions with a proven history of 
discrimination and on preventing specific known discriminatory 
practices from taking effect in areas of increasing diversity before 
they can do damage, this new preclearance coverage formula responds to 
the Supreme Court's concerns and will allow the Voting Rights Act to 
keep pace with present conditions and America's rapidly changing 
demographics.
  The bill also reinvigorates the Department of Justice's ability to 
challenge discriminatory laws already in effect, reversing the Supreme 
Court's latest attack on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in Brnovich 
v. Democratic National Committee. That 6-3 partisan decision was a 
stunning display of judicial overreach--a highly political, highly 
partisan decision that gives new meaning to the phrase ``judicial 
activism,'' a case of judicial overreach.
  Protecting the right to vote, very simply, should not be a partisan 
issue. In fact, voting rights are widely supported throughout American 
society--on the left, right, center, private, and in public sectors.
  Since the original inception of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 
overwhelming bipartisan majorities of both Houses of Congress 
reauthorized the Voting Rights Act five times.
  Let me repeat: Both Houses of Congress, bipartisan majority, 
overwhelming vote, five times since the original passage of the Voting 
Rights Act in 1965.
  And for nearly a century after the Civil War and before the Voting 
Rights Act, the scourge of racial discrimination in voting challenged 
our Nation's core commitment to these ideals of democracy. From that 
century of sacrifice and suffering came the Voting Rights Act and its 
extraordinary commitment to realizing our Nation's highest ideals; and 
for decades, it worked with bipartisan support overwhelmingly.
  The Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Senator Durbin and 
Senator Leahy, has documented powerfully the need for this Act.
  And my Subcommittee on the Constitution has held one hearing already. 
We will have another shortly that will set the record--in fact, provide 
the evidentiary support--that the Supreme Court erroneously found 
lacking in its Shelby decision.
  As a tsunami of voter suppression bills crashes against the shores of 
our democracy, my hope is that today we can renew a bipartisan 
commitment to protecting voting rights in this country.
  I am proud to help lead this effort in the Senate, and I want to 
thank my colleagues again for being on the floor today.
  Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, as a proud son of the great State of 
Georgia and a voice for our State here in this Chamber, I am deeply 
honored to join my colleagues here today to introduce this important 
legislation in honor of one of Georgia's and America's most influential 
public servants.
  I am grateful for the comments of Senator Blumenthal, and I want to 
thank Senator Leahy and all of my colleagues for their leadership in 
introducing this bill that carries on the legacy of Congressman Lewis's 
pivotal

[[Page S6919]]

work to protect the sacred right to vote.
  John Lewis was my parishioner, and as I stand in support of this 
legislation named in his honor, I think of the many conversations I had 
with him over the years. I think of the Sunday mornings we boarded a 
bus, taking souls to the polls because I believe that voting, as he 
did, is a sacred undertaking. At root, it is about people's voice. And 
in that sense, it is about one's humanity.
  I learned so much from Congressman Lewis and the lessons from his 
lived experiences working deep in the trenches to defend and advance 
voting rights. He laid it all on the line. When President Johnson took 
his pen and signed this legislation, making it law in a real sense, 
what he etched had already been affirmed in blood--the risk that John 
Lewis took, the ultimate sacrifice that others made as they lost their 
lives fighting for the vote, the voice, the humanity of every child of 
God.
  And one of the most important tools that came out of that activism, 
that came out of that human sacrifice--one of the most important tools 
in this legislation is the process of preclearance. This process 
required that jurisdictions with a proven history of voting rights 
violations get approval from the Department of Justice or our Federal 
courts before making changes to local voting administration.
  And, for decades, this was the tool that helped enfranchise countless 
voters, ensuring that they would have access to the ballot to exercise 
their constitutional right, and it kept some of the worst voter 
suppression efforts at bay.
  And then, in 2013, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, asked the 
Congress to update the coverage formula that determines which States 
are subject to preclearance. The Supreme Court said that this 
preclearance formula had somehow been outdated and Congress ought to 
bring it up to date. That is what they asked us to do in 2013.
  Since then, Congress has been unwilling to act. Preclearance has been 
allowed to atrophy. And we have seen the results not only in Georgia, 
but in Texas, in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, all across our country. 
Earlier this year in Georgia, State leaders enacted a voter suppression 
law that will undoubtedly make it harder for some people to vote. If 
the tool of preclearance were in place right now, SB202 in Georgia 
likely would not even be on the books.
  I think of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion. 
When that decision came down, she said:

       Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is 
     continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like 
     throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are 
     not getting wet.

  We threw away our umbrella, and we have found ourselves in the midst 
of a torrential rainstorm. Voter suppression laws are mushrooming all 
over the country. We are witnessing right now what happens to our 
democracy without the protections of preclearance and the other vital 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
  The lack of robust voting rights protections has ramifications for 
every American, as we have seen efforts ramp up this year at passing 
sweeping, State-level voter suppression laws--not laws that only impact 
Black people and people of color, to be sure, but also students, 
seniors, whomever certain politicians are afraid of will somehow get in 
the way of their craven march to power.
  And so this bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is 
about Congress finally doing its job--finally doing what the Supreme 
Court asked us to do in 2013. It should have been done a long time ago.
  The updated Voting Rights Advancement Act we are introducing today 
restores the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It strengthens our democracy by 
reestablishing preclearance, and it makes it better by updating it to 
also protect against specific practices we know suppress the vote, like 
polling place closures and new types of voter roll purges happening not 
only in the South, but all over the country.
  Our bill also restores Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect 
minority communities from discriminatory voting practices after the 
Supreme Court diminished Section 2 earlier this year.
  Mr. President, just like the Freedom to Vote Act me and many of my 
colleagues introduced just a few weeks ago to set national standards 
for voting so every eligible voice is heard, the John Lewis Voting 
Rights Advancement Act we introduce today is designed to meet future 
challenges and address additional antidemocratic efforts aimed at 
suppressing the vote all over our country.
  Since I was elected on January 5, since that terrible day on January 
6, when this very Capitol was assaulted, we have seen more than 400 
proposals in 49 States. So the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act 
builds for us a fire station to protect against future fires, but the 
house of democracy is already on fire. And so we need the John Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act, but we also need the Freedom to Vote 
Act. We have got to put out the fire. We have got to build a fire 
station for future fires.
  Mr. President, I know there is a lot on our plate, but we can't waste 
any time getting these bills passed. We can walk and chew gum at the 
same time.
  John Lewis walked across a bridge in order to build a bridge to a new 
American future. We already had infrastructure. He understood that the 
infrastructure of our democracy was in trouble, and so he walked across 
a bridge in order to build a bridge.
  So the House has already passed a version of this act. And I know my 
friend, Senator Joe Manchin, has been having conversations about the 
Freedom to Vote Act with our friends across the aisle. We are happy to 
talk to anybody on both sides of the aisle. A similar version of this 
legislation has been voted up by this Chamber repeatedly in the past 
with strong bipartisan support. Some 16 Republican Senators who were 
either here or in the House when it passed in 2006 98-0 are here today, 
and I ask them: What is the difference?
  Voting rights are not just another issue. Voting rights are a 
preservative of all other rights. Voting rights are about the 
foundation of our democracy. And I believe that if the world's greatest 
deliberative body can't find a way forward to get this done, history 
will judge us harshly, and rightly so.
  Reinhold Niebuhr said that humankind's capacity for justice makes 
democracy possible, but our inclination to injustice makes democracy 
necessary. This work, this assignment, which we have right now, is both 
possible and necessary. We can do it, and we must do it. It is the most 
important thing we can do this Congress, and I hope we will do it now.
  Mr. LUJAN. Mr. President, it is an honor to speak in support of the 
John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect the voting rights 
of all Americans.
  Our democracy is at its strongest when every American can participate 
and make their voice heard--something that our friend, our colleague, a 
mentor to many of us, the late John Lewis--it is what he fought for his 
entire life. But in too many communities across America, voter 
suppression efforts are making it harder for Americans to vote, 
especially Native Americans, who continue to experience geographic, 
linguistic, and legal barriers.
  That is why I am proud that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement 
Act includes the Native American Voting Rights Act, which I was proud 
to introduce in August in the Senate and spent years fighting for in 
the House, developing this legislation with voting rights advocates 
across America. This much needed legislation would protect the sacred 
right to vote and reduce barriers to the ballot box for voters living 
on Tribal lands--vital progress to protect the sacred right to vote for 
all Americans.
  This past year, America has seen unprecedented efforts to restrict 
access to the ballot box, to make it harder to vote, and silence our 
voices, especially Native voices. It is unacceptable, and it is all the 
more reason why the Senate must pass robust voting rights legislation 
that empowers Tribes and Native American voters, because our democracy 
is strongest when everyone participates.
  It is our moral imperative to protect the right to vote, to combat 
the discrimination that has long kept Americans from exercising this 
right. With millions of Americans calling on this body to deliver on 
voting rights legislation, I strongly support the John Lewis Voting 
Rights Advancement Act. It is

[[Page S6920]]

the right thing to do. It is the time to get this done.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. CARDIN (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. 
        Kaine, Mr. Merkley, Mr. Markey, Ms. Rosen, Mrs. Murray, Mr. 
        Peters, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Lujan, and 
        Mr. Sanders):
  S. 2937. A bill to authorize humanitarian assistance and civil 
society support, promote democracy and human rights, and impose 
targeted sanctions with respect to human rights abuses in Burma, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
  Mr. CARDIN, Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Burma 
Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021, BURMA, 
which is cosponsored by Senators Durbin, Markey, Merkley, Feinstein, 
Kaine, Rosen, Murray, Peters, Klobuchar, Padilla, Wyden, and Lujan,
  We are doing so in tandem with simultaneous introduction of a 
companion bill today in the House of Representatives by House Foreign 
Affairs Committee Chairman Meeks, along with Representatives Chabot and 
McCaul and others. The purpose in short is to provide a legislative 
foundation to certain steps the Biden administration has undertaken by 
Executive order and to push the executive branch to be even more 
forward-leaning in addressing the February 1 coup d'etat and the 
ongoing human rights being committed by the Burmese military, the 
Tatmadaw. The legislation includes authorization to impose sanctions on 
individuals and entities who helped stage the February 1 coup d'etat 
and are responsible for the subsequent repression of fundamental 
freedoms, human rights abuses, use of indiscriminate violence towards 
civilians, and other gross atrocities; authorization to prohibit the 
import of precious and semi-precious gemstones from Burma into the 
United States; authorization for a new position at the State 
Department, a Special Coordinator for Burmese Democracy, to promote an 
international effort to impose and enforce multilateral sanctions on 
Burma and coordinate U.S. Government interagency efforts on Burma; 
authorization for support to civil society and for humanitarian 
assistance in Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, and the surrounding region; 
requires the Secretary of State to make a determination whether the 
persecution of the Rohingya in Burma constitutes genocide; and a call 
for the United States to take more decisive action with regard to Burma 
at the United Nations.
  Throughout its independence, Burma's history has suffered decades of 
repressive military rule and civil war with ethnic minority groups, and 
what we are seeing today in Burma is no different.
  In 1988, thousands of people took the streets to protest the 
government. Under the leadership of then-General Ne Win, who ruled for 
26 years following a coup, security forces cracked down on protestors, 
killing thousands of citizens. During these uprisings, Aung San Suu Kyi 
emerged as a charismatic national icon, preaching democracy and 
nonviolence as she highlighted the political situation in Burma.
  In 1990, the military junta agreed to hold the first multiparty 
elections in 30 years in which Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National 
League for Democracy, won 81 percent of the seats in the government 
with over 70 percent voter turnout. However, the ray of hope in Burma 
was quickly diminished when the military refused to recognize the 
results and hand over power. Aung San Suu Kyi was detained and remained 
under house arrest for nearly 15 years--until her release in 2010 as 
the country continued to be ruled by the military.
  In 2011, President Thein Sein agreed to a series of reforms, 
including granting amnesty to political prisoners, relaxing media 
censorship, and implementing economic policies to encourage foreign 
investment. Aung San Suu Kyi became a member of Parliament when her 
party won 43 of the 45 vacant seats in the 2012 by-elections, as 
ongoing negotiations between civilians and military officials 
continued.
  In 2015, Myanmar held its first nationwide, multiparty elections--
considered to be the freest and fairest elections in decades--since the 
country's transition away from military rule. Her party boycotted the 
2010 elections, resulting in a decisive victory for the military-backed 
Union Solidarity and Development Party. In the 2015 elections, Aung San 
Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory, taking 86 percent of the seats 
in the Assembly of the Union. Although she was prohibited from becoming 
the President due to a clause the military demanded be inserted in the 
constitution specifically to keep her from office, she assumed the role 
of State Counsellor of Myanmar. Yet, despite the facade of civilian 
governance that had been established in Burma, the real political power 
continued to rest in the hands of the military.
  Three years on, following decades of ongoing persecution, including 
confinement to ghettos, stripping away of citizenship rights, 
restrictions on healthcare and fertility, military unleashed a 
horrifying display of state-sanctioned violence in Rakhine state in 
August 2017, which resulted in wide-scale human rights violation, 
including tens of thousands of deaths, sexual violence, torture, 
unlawful arrest and detention, and widespread destruction of the 
Rohingya people's homes and communities. Over 736,000 survivors fled to 
refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they remain to this day, in urgent 
need of humanitarian aid, increased support--and justice.
  Since 2019, I joined my colleagues in the Senate in calling on 
directing the State Department to determine whether attacks by the 
Burmese military and security forces against the Rohingya constitutes 
genocide. The United States has still not issued a determination on 
whether the atrocities committed against the Rohingya constitute 
genocide, even though human rights investigators funded by the State 
Department concluded in 2018 that ``there are reasonable grounds to 
believe that genocide was committed.'' U.N. investigators have also 
found evidence that infers genocidal intent. This is something my 
colleagues and I address in our BURMA bill. The United States should 
lead in calling what happened what it is: a genocide.
  On February 1, 2021, the Burmese military led a coup against the 
democratically elected legislature, just hours before the Parliament 
was scheduled to be seated terrifying setback for the emerging 
potential for democracy and rule-of-law in Burma.
  Since seizing control, the military forces have killed over a 
thousand people across the country as they crack down on civilian 
protestors who have mobilized to oppose the ongoing assault on the 
country's nascent political institutions and traditions. Rather than 
follow the outcome of the parliamentary elections held last November, 
the Burmese military has detained Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win 
Myint, and other civilians, including other government officials. The 
military has also cut internet and telephone communication, and it has 
stopped flights in the country.
  For years, the Burmese military has been responsible for much of the 
violence against minority groups in Burma, including the Rohingya. More 
than 1 million Rohingya have fled the country and become refugees as a 
result of the military's atrocities against them. This coup d'etat 
further damages democratic institutions in Burma and makes the entire 
region less stable.
  As the death toll in Myanmar continues to rise, the United States 
must not be indifferent to Burma's fate. The Burmese military has also 
been responsible for horrible atrocities committed against minority 
groups in Burma, including the Rohingya, which has led more than 1 
million to flee the country and become refugees. In recent months, the 
Tatmadaw, the country's military, escalated its brutal campaign, using 
COVID-19 like a biological weapon to terrorize and control the people 
of Burma. The military has arrested government officials, doctors, 
nurses, and journalist, including U.S. citizen Danny Fester.
  The bill aims to authorize sanctions on individuals and entities who 
helped stage the February 1 coup d'etat and are responsible for the 
subsequent repression of fundamental freedoms, human rights abuses, use 
of indiscriminate violence towards civilians, and other gross 
atrocities; authorizes increased humanitarian assistance for Rohingya 
refugees and provides support for civil society and independent media; 
prohibits the import of

[[Page S6921]]

gemstones from Burma into the United States; calls for the United 
States to pressure the United Nations to take more decisive action with 
regards to Burma; and requests a genocide determination regarding the 
persecution of the Rohingya.
  It is important for the international community to continue to 
pressure the military junta to restore democracy for the people of 
Burma. The behavior of the Tatmadaw has not and will not change--thus 
the need for additional & forceful actions by the United States and 
international community to bring justice, accountability, and restore 
democracy.
  I remain committed to continuing to work with the Biden 
administration and my colleagues in Congress to ensure that the United 
States and international response to the military coup is coordinated 
and targeted to have a strong impact on those responsible, while also 
encouraging a peaceful transition of power back to the civilian 
government. I continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Burma 
and condemn the ongoing violence against them.

                          ____________________