Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to join Senator Leahy and a number of our colleagues to remember our friend, John Lewis, and reflect on his legacy.

It was a little over a year ago when John shared his final message to the American people. He 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.''

John devoted his entire life to building that ``Beloved Community.'' And in his final moments, he called on all of us to carry that mission forward. He told us it is now ``your turn to let freedom ring.''

We have an obligation to live up to John Lewis's legacy--and his call to action to protect our most fundamental freedom of all: the right to vote. And we can do that by restoring and revitalizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, it marked the beginning of a new era of American democracy. It ensured that our constitutional rights were not merely sketched onto a piece of paper, but enforced as well. It ensured that poll taxes, literacy tests, and other Jim Crow laws could no longer be used to deny Black, Brown, and indigenous voters access to the ballot box. In the words of John Lewis, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ``helped liberate not just a people but a nation.'' It brought America closer to our foundational ideals.

But today, this monument to American freedom is under attack. At this very moment, Republican State officials are working to pass laws that make it harder for people, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, to vote.

Nearly 400 of these bills have been introduced in 48 States. Some of these laws set new limits on voting by mail, others cut hours for polling locations, but the hundreds of restrictive voting provisions we have seen in recent years have achieved the same outcome: erecting new barriers to the ballot box.

The proponents of these laws claim they are designed to help prevent so-called voter fraud. But the truth is, ``voter fraud'' is nothing more than a fabricated phenomenon. Nearly every investigation into the 2020 election, for instance, has found no meaningful evidence of voter fraud. The Department of Homeland Security called last year's election ``the most secure in American history.'' And more than 80 judges, including many conservative judges appointed by President Trump himself, have thrown out baseless challenges brought by the former President's lawyers.

But even though the ``Big Lie'' of widespread voter fraud has been debunked, many Republican lawmakers are still standing by it. In fact, they are using the Big Lie to wage an assault on voting rights in America. You see, the laws I mentioned really aren't about securing our elections; they are about preventing eligible Americans from voting.

Under section 5 of the original Voting Rights Act, many of these efforts to suppress voters would have been prohibited by the Department of Justice or Federal courts. But that authority has been greatly diminished. In 2013, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court essentially nullified section 5 of the Voting Rights Act with its decision in Shelby County v. Holder. And just this month, the Supreme Court weakened a remaining key section of the Voting Rights Act-- section 2--with its decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee.

This is the trend that has emerged over the past decade: State officials make it harder for Black, Brown, and indigenous Americans to vote, and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court upholds those laws by whittling away at the protections guaranteed under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In her dissent to the Court's ruling in Brnovich, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan wrote ``in the last decade, this court has treated no statute worse'' than the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those are unequivocal words. The Supreme Court has severely hobbled the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And only Congress has the power--and the constitutional obligation--to restore it to its full potential.

You know, it really wasn't that long ago that reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act was a unifying cause. Just a few years before the Supreme Court's Shelby decision, the minority leader, Senator McConnell, joined his Republican colleagues in supporting its reauthorization. In expressing his support he said, ``This is a piece of legislation which has worked.''

To him, and to all of my Republican colleagues, I say: Let's make sure it can keep working. Let's honor John Lewis's legacy by joining together, on a bipartisan basis, to support a piece of legislation that will revitalize and strengthen the original Voting Rights Act: the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

I am proud to be working with Senator Leahy and our counterparts on the House Judiciary Committee to update and reintroduce this bill soon. Last Congress, it received bipartisan support, and we hope that we will be able to expand that support this year. What remains to be seen is whether the bill will receive the votes necessary to overcome a potential filibuster.

For those of my Republican colleagues who have yet to decide where they stand on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, let's show the American people that we can stand together. This Senate has the power--and the responsibility--to protect our most fundamental right as Americans.

Let's heed John Lewis's call and defend it together.

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