Welcome to People For’s Action of the Week, where we give you one thing you can do to protect our democracy each week. This week, we’re asking you to add your name to urge President Biden to lead on passing federal voting rights protections by urging the Senate to end the filibuster as a roadblock to voting rights bills! Keep reading to learn more about how the filibuster is a threat to our voting rights.
The Issue: The Senate refuses to eliminate the racist filibuster; the buck stops with President Biden
Few things in Congress pose a greater threat to fulfilling the agenda the American people voted for than the filibuster: an outdated procedural rule to prevent voting on a bill. Used prominently to block civil rights legislation, this arcane rule is now being used by the Far Right as a weapon against progressive legislation in Congress.
It is quickly becoming the biggest hurdle to passing desperately needed and popular bills that would strengthen our democracy and protect Americans’ fundamental rights. So far this year, Senate Republicans have used it to block debate on a number of critical bills, including the For the People Act (H.R. 1/S. 1), and they have indicated that they will use the filibuster to block the equally critical John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (H.R. 4).
The Senate filibuster now stands in the way of these historic bills that would expand and protect access to the ballot and our freedom to vote, create transparency and accountability to reduce the influence of corporations and the ultrawealthy in our government, strengthen government ethics requirements, and more. President Biden needs to use his bully pulpit to lead the Senate Democrats to unify around reforming or ending the filibuster and they need to do it quickly, so that the Senate has time to pass the progressive bills we so desperately need.
The Action: Add Your Name to Urge President Biden to Act Now!
President Biden must let nothing stand in the way of protecting our freedom to vote and ensuring fair elections. We need the Senate to end the filibuster as an obstacle to voting rights so that robust voting legislation can succeed in Congress, and we need it to happen with enough time to be enacted before the 2022 midterms.