Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the Biden administration’s efforts to expand voting rights, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday.
The Biden administration announced Harris’ appointment Tuesday while the president was in Oklahoma commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Harris now leads both the administration’s voting rights efforts and its response to the ongoing crisis at the southern border.
NEW: Pres. Biden calls for June to be “a month of action on Capitol Hill” on voting rights bills, and says he will task Vice President Harris with helping to push them through Congress. https://t.co/aplTTgfnGg pic.twitter.com/G183opXJQG
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) June 1, 2021
“I’m asking Vice President Harris to help these efforts and lead them, among her many other responsibilities,” Biden said. “With her leadership, and your support, we’re going to overcome again, I promise you.”
Another assignment for VP Kamala Harris: voting rights
“I’m asking Vice President Harris to help these efforts and lead them, among her many other responsibilities,” says Biden. “With her leadership, and your support, we’re going to overcome again, I promise you.”
— Francesca Chambers (@fran_chambers) June 1, 2021
Harris’ office was ready with a statement detailing how she plans to advance voting rights, both through Congress and elsewhere. (RELATED: House Passes Legislation That Enables The DOJ To Demand The Removal Of Social Media Posts Deemed Disinformation)
“President Joe Biden asked me to help lead our Administration’s effort to protect the fundamental right to vote for all Americans,” Harris said in a statement to CNN. “In the days and weeks ahead, I will engage the American people, and I will work with voting rights organizations, community organizations, and the private sector to help strengthen and uplift efforts on voting rights nationwide.”
“And we will also work with members of Congress to help advance these bills.The work ahead of us is to make voting accessible to all American voters, and to make sure every vote is counted through a free, fair, and transparent process. This is the work of democracy” @VP stmt
— Jasmine Wright (@JasJWright) June 1, 2021
The Democratic Party’s agenda on voting rights centers around the S. 1 For The People Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that would mandate nationwide same-day registration, no-excuse absentee voting and anti-gerrymandering measures. It would also legalize ballot harvesting, among other things.
While the legislation has passed through the House in a party-line vote, it is unlikely to pass the Senate, where Republican senators universally oppose it and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona stand in the way of abolishing the filibuster.