Senator Murray: “This is not the end of the road. I will continue to do everything I can to protect the right to vote for every American. As more and more voter suppression laws are being propped up across the country, it simply means we must use every tool to fight back and assure our democracy remains strong and intact for future generations.”
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), issued the following statement after Republicans blocked debate on voting rights legislation, as well as the Redistricting Reform Act and the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act.
The Redistricting Reform Act would help end partisan gerrymandering and reform the nation’s patchwork redistricting process by requiring states to establish independent, bipartisan redistricting commissions to draw fair statewide district maps after each decennial census. The DISCLOSE Act would primarily close loopholes allowing spending by foreign nationals in American elections.
“Today, my Democratic colleagues and I wanted to move forward with a debate on voting rights—after Republicans chose to shut down any opportunity for debate tonight on a larger voting rights package, we presented two noncontroversial and common-sense pieces of legislation to protect our democracy. We want to make sure foreign nationals can’t spend money in our elections, and we want to end gerrymandering so that voters can choose their elected officials—not the other way around. These are nonpartisan proposals that the overwhelming majority of Americans support, yet my Republican colleagues chose to block these bills to ensure that the Republican Party can win elections by making it harder for certain Americans to vote—mainly Black Americans and other communities of color.
“This is not the end of the road. I will continue to do everything I can to protect the right to vote for every American. As more and more voter suppression laws are being propped up across the country, it simply means we must use every tool to fight back and assure our democracy remains strong and intact for future generations.”
Senator Murray is determined to make sure the Senate can act on voting rights, and has consistently stated that the For the People Act is a top priority for her, telling KUOW earlier this summer that the For the People Act was, “the most important” bill the Senate would vote on this Congress. In March, Murray also announced her support for an exemption to the filibuster on voting rights protections, telling the Spokesman-Review, “the For the People Act is essential to making sure our democracy stays a democracy and I will consider every legislative option, including an exemption to the filibuster, to ensure it can be signed into law.”
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