AL Political Reporter: “The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, a newly combined bill comprised of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, passed the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday, moving now to the U.S. Senate where the looming threat of yet another Republican filibuster, which stymied previous attempts to pass the bill in Washington, hangs over the newly united bill.
The package passed the House 220 to 203 along party lines Thursday. Congresswoman Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, originally sponsored the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
“It was in my hometown in 1965 on a bridge in Selma, Alabama, where John Lewis and the Foot Soldiers shed blood for the equal right of all Americans to vote,” Sewell said during the bill’s passage in the House Thursday. “Fifty-six years later, old battles have become new again as state legislatures erect direct barriers to the ballot box. 400 bills introduced. Thirty-four passed in nineteen states. Once again, our nation is at an inflection point. Today, the House of Representatives will once again send voting rights over to the Senate and it must pass.”
Sewell further implored her colleagues in the Senate to “do what is right” and mentioned the upcoming Dr. Martin Luther King Day on Monday.”