House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn will introduce legislation on Monday to push to rename H.R.4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019, which passed in the House, after Rep. John Lewis, who passed away last weekend.
“Congressman Clyburn is offering legislation to rename H.R. 4 The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act tomorrow. The name change is expected to pass by unanimous consent,” Clyburn’s spokeswoman, Hope Derrick, confirmed in a statement on Sunday, according to CNN.
H.R. 4, which was originally introduced by Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) last February, was crafted to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court gutted in 2013. The bill easily passed the House, due to the Democratic majority last December; however, it has been stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Clyburn is now challenging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the President to show how much they truly honor the deceased civil rights hero and to work to get the bill passed into law.
“I think that Trump and the Senate leadership, Mitch McConnell, by their deeds if they so celebrate the heroism of this man, then let’s go to work and pass that bill because it’s laid out the way the Supreme Court asked us to lay it out,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union.
He added: “And if the President were to sign that, then I think that’s what we would do to honor John. It should be the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020. That’s the way to do it. Words may be powerful, but deeds are lasting.”