FLASHBACK: President Obama at Rep. Lewis’ funeral last year: “If all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do”
Majority Leader Schumer: “we’re going to come together as a caucus and figure out a way to get the bold action that the American people demand...we’re not going to be the legislative graveyard”
Sen. Merkley: “we must not let America’s constitutional promises be held hostage in the Senate”
Sen. Klobuchar: “I’m not going to let an antiquated Senate rule undermine the foundation of our democracy”
Washington, DC — Today, Fix Our Senate released the following statement on the Senate introduction of S.1, the For the People Act. Introduced by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), the For the People Act would protect and expand voting rights, end partisan congressional gerrymandering, help get big money out of politics, bolster safeguards against foreign interference, strengthen government ethics rules, and more. Earlier this month the House of Representatives passed their For the People legislation without a single Republican voting for it, despite its widespread and popular support.
"The For the People Act would protect voting rights and strengthen our democracy in the face of widespread voter suppression across the country, which is exactly why Sen. McConnell plans to use his ‘Jim Crow’ filibuster to prevent this popular legislation from even getting an up-or-down vote,” said Eli Zupnick, spokesman for Fix Our Senate. “We commend Senators Merkley and Klobuchar as well as Majority Leader Schumer for their commitment to passing the For the People Act through the Senate and taking these critical steps to protect and defend our democracy. The filibuster has been used too many times to deny civil and voting rights, and no senator should even consider allowing that to happen again.”