Today, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07) spoke on Houston Matters about the efforts in Congress to advance federal legislation to protect the right to vote.  This comes after members of the Texas House flew to Washington, D.C., breaking quorum to block two bills that would add new voting restrictions across Texas. 

You can listen to the interview with Houston Matters here.  An abbreviated transcript of Congresswoman Fletcher’s remarks is below: 

Q: I have to ask you about these dramatic developments in and now out of the Texas Legislature. What is your take on this move by most of the Democrats in the Texas House?

They’ve gone to Washington to talk to Congress about what we can do.  And Congress has been working to protect voting rights for Texans and for people across the country.

We have passed out of the House of Representatives H.R. 1, a really important voting rights bill that protects voting rights, that makes it easier, rather than harder to vote, which is what our Texas Democrats are saying.  And we also, as we passed in the last Congress, and are again intending to pass H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the parts of the Voting Rights Act that have been struck down by the Supreme Court. 

What we’ve seen over the last six months – and over the last few years – is that there are people who are working hard to make it harder, rather than easier, for people to vote.  Texas is already the hardest state in the Union to register to vote.  We don’t need to make it harder. 

And what we’ve seen here in Harris County is that when we make it easier for people to vote, people show up, they vote, they participate in our democracy, they feel an ownership.  And we saw record voter turnout in 2020, for Republicans and Democrats.  There were new voters on both sides of the aisle.  And what we want to see in Congress is that everyone’s able to exercise their right to vote. 

And we have two huge pieces of legislation, one of which has already passed the House, the other of which we are working on right now.  And we need to see them pass the Senate and get signed into law.

Q: What can you do in the House to convince senators that this is worth passing?

I think it’s important for everyone to talk to their senators, I think it’s important for them to talk to their House members.  We have a sense of urgency here in Texas that we’re seeing reflected in the actions of our state legislators.  And it's important for everyone in Washington to understand the urgency and the real threats to voting rights. 

That’s really the challenge before us.  It’s not as much about the tactics – it should be a conversation about the substance, about making it harder for people to vote, about criminalizing the work that election workers need to do, about making it impossible for neutral elections administrators to inform voters about their ability to vote by mail. 

There are a lot of things in this bill that are real problems.  These bills are a solution in search of a problem.  There’s no evidence that these things are going to respond to an existing problem, but there's a lot of evidence that they're going to disenfranchise voters.  And I think what, what our Texas legislators can do, what I can do and have been doing, is really convey the urgency, the importance, and, frankly, the extent of what is going on – what’s in these bills.  I do think it matters.  I do think it’s important, and I’ve been in a lot of conversations. 

That's why H.R. 4 is named after our hero and former colleague John Lewis, who died about a year ago, who was the conscience of the Congress, whose fight for civil rights, animated his entire life, and as an example to all of us.  And his fight for voting rights continues, and we see it right now in the halls of Congress, as well as all the people who are testifying in Austin.  We saw people testifying.  I know there were buses going from Houston this morning for people to talk about why it's important that we allow everyone who's eligible to vote in our society, to cast a vote, to be able to make their voice heard at the ballot box and to be engaged in our government.  

That’s what it is.  It’s a government of, by, and for the people.  And we need to make sure that that remains the case.