WASHINGTON, January 17 (Sputnik) — US Republican lawmakers have failed to act on the legislation aimed at eliminating racial discrimination in voting, Senator Patrick Leahy has announced in a statement.
"Despite repeated efforts, not a single Senate Republican would join me in this effort to protect Americans from racial discrimination in voting," Leahy, a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement released Friday.
"House Republicans refused to act, failing to even allow a hearing on this fundamental issue to our democracy," the senator stressed.
Leahy introduced the legislation in January last year in an effort to restore the key protections of the Voting Rights Act.
"While mounting evidence continues to demonstrate that racial discrimination at the polls exists, Republicans have retreated from their historic commitment to protect every Americans" right to vote," the senator said in the Friday statement.
The new bill offers criteria under which US states are required to get permission from the Justice Department before making changes to voting laws, called preclearance. It also allows US federal courts to bail-in the worst actors for preclearance.
