House Democrats renew push for voting rights bill

WASHINGTON — The House Administration Committee on Friday kick-started theprocess for creating a new Voting Rights Act bill, releasing a report alleging that recent voting restrictions have discriminated against minority voters.

Democrats on the Subcommittee on Elections drafted the report following months of hearings about the impact of voting restrictions that states have implemented since a 2013 Supreme Court decision invalidating part of the Voting Rights Act. Their report argues states have used voter identification laws, voter roll purges and redistricting to minimize the impact of minorityvoters.

Those efforts have only intensified since President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump, Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., told reporters during a news conference Friday. Mr. Trump’s repeated false claims about election fraud have been taken up and amplified by many of his supporters, he said.

“Republicans across the country are using these bills to further legitimize the former president’s big lie. This is an assault on our democracy, and we need to call it what it is to stop this anti-democratic wave,”Mr. Aguilar said.

The committee sent the report to the House Judiciary Committee to draft a new version of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, DN.C., said he hopes the Judiciary Committee will draft the bill in time for a House vote in September.

That would leave little roomfor Senate consideration if Democrats hope to pass the law before states finish drawingup their new maps.