WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Senate Republicans deployed the Senate filibuster to stop the creation of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 white supremacist insurrection on the Capitol. The bill to create this commission, which passed the House with support from 35 Republican members and garnered bipartisan majority support in the Senate, could move forward for further consideration if Senate Democrats eliminate the filibuster. Republicans’ filibuster of the Jan. 6 commission is likely to be the first of several filibusters against crucial legislation aimed at repairing our deeply broken democracy, including the For The People Act.

“Senate Republicans proved today that the filibuster’s purpose remains the same it has always been since its inception: protecting white supremacy at the expense of Black and Brown people and our democracy. Senate Majority Leader Schumer made every accommodation and concession to this legislation demanded by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. And still, Republicans bucked the arrangement in the end to kill the investigation of a white supremacist insurrection on Capitol Hill—one that threatened the safety of local D.C. residents who still have no representation in the Senate, and killed five Americans.

 

The Senators who brought this commission to a screeching halt ought to be ashamed. But more importantly, the Senators who have the power to abolish the racist filibuster must wield it—keeping the filibuster in place is inexcusable. Black and Brown people cannot afford another act of white supremacist violence gone unchecked—the Senate must be courageous in the face of a Jim Crow-era procedure and strike it down.

 

Today, Senate Republicans used the filibuster to block an investigation into an insurrection. Tomorrow, they will use it to erode voting rights, gun violence prevention efforts, and other cornerstones of our democracy.”

 

About Just Democracy

Just Democracy is an intersectional coalition with racial justice at its core — uplifting voices from all walks of American life that are too often left out of the conversation. The coalition is made up of over 40 Black and Brown-led organizations working across issue areas. It mobilizes thousands who know that advancing social and racial justice issues first requires bold structural democracy reform.

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