Press release

ICYMI: As Congress Returns to Washington, Nearly 150 Progressive Groups Urge Leader Schumer To Abolish the Filibuster to Protect Voting Rights

Fix Our Senate
4.12.2021

AP: Groups pressure Senate to end filibuster as Jim Crow relic

NY Daily News: End the filibuster and pass election law reforms, say progressives to Sen. Schumer


Washington, DC — As Congress returns to Washington, advocates on a wide range of issues are urging Senate Majority Leader Schumer to abolish the filibuster to pass the For the People Act that would bolster and expand voting rights, end partisan gerrymandering, and get corporate money out of politics. Last week, nearly 150 groups sent a letter to Leader Schumer calling on him to get rid of the filibuster — “Jim Crow relic” — to pass the popular voting rights legislation. 

As Lisa Mascaro wrote for the AP:

  • "In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer obtained by The Associated Press, the organizations indicated the matter takes on fresh urgency after passage of Georgia’s more restrictive new elections law."
  • "Senate Democrats will soon face a choice: Protect our democracy and pass the For the People Act, or protect the filibuster – an outdated and abused ‘Jim Crow relic’ that deserves to be tossed into the dustbin of history.”
  • "The election legislation coming before the Senate offers a vivid test case. Already approved by the House as H.R. 1, the sweeping federal package would expand voting access by allowing universal registration, early voting by mail and other options, undoing some of Georgia’s new law."

Michael McAullif of Leader Schumer’s hometown NY Daily News said:

  • "The reforms, contained in the For the People Act, would overhaul everything from election financing and gerrymandering rules to laws governing how states must conduct their balloting. The last part is crucial, says the letter, which the Daily News obtained before its public release."
  • "The filibuster has a long history of being used to block voting rights, civil rights, and democracy-protecting bills like the For the People Act. In fact, for most of Senate history, this was the filibuster’s primary purpose,” said the letter, organized by the group Fix Our Senate. “The filibuster prevented the passage of over 200 anti-lynching bills over the years.”
  • "They understand and experience in their own lives whether or not government is adequately taking on the problems that they face,” said Stand Up America’s Christina Harvey, who was raised in Manchin’s state. “The Senate simply cannot do that with the filibuster intact.”