Former congressman and presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke called on President Biden to push for filibuster reform in order to protect voting rights in the country.
O’Rourke’s tweet came shortly after the U.S. House passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, a federal bill that would reinstate sections of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that were written to protect people of color across the nation. All Democratic Texans in the U.S. House voted in favor of the bill, and unsurprisingly the Republicans voted against it.
But the bill still needs to pass through the U.S. Senate, hence O’Rourke’s insistence on pushing for filibuster reform in order to ensure the bill becomes a law.
Should the bill become go through, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would require states to once again obtain federal approval of its political maps and elections changes, including controversial bills, such as Texas’ voting restrictions bill that is currently under consideration in the state Legislature. The bill would work towards ensuring that any new election laws or rounds of redistricting do not harm people of color.
