The Clock Is Ticking on Preventing an Undemocratic GOP Power Grab in the House
Democrats must quickly pass their landmark voting rights legislation if they want to prevent Republicans from gerrymandering their way to a hold on power for the next decade.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during a news conference with other House Democrats to discuss H. R. 1, the For the People Act. (Caroline Brehman / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
You wouldn’t know it by watching Congress take long summer vacations and slowly mull infrastructure legislation, but Democrats are facing a fast-approaching deadline that could decide the party’s political fate for the next decade.
By August 16, the US Census Bureau is scheduled to release data gathered in the 2020 census to the states, enabling state governments to begin redrawing their legislative and congressional districts.
If Democrats want to have their best shot at preventing Republicans from redrawing red states’ congressional districts in a way that could lock in a GOP House majority for a decade, they need to tweak and pass the For the People Act, their signature voting rights and democracy reform legislation, before that date.
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