•HRES 1114 IH 
many who were formerly subjected to slavery, were de-
nied full citizenship and prevented from voting by 
English literacy tests; 
Whereas since the 1870s, minority groups such as African 
Americans in the South suffered from the oppressive ef-
fects of Jim Crow laws designed to prevent political, eco-
nomic, and social mobility; 
Whereas African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Na-
tive Americans, and other underrepresented groups were 
subject to violence, poll taxes, literacy tests, all-White pri-
maries, property ownership tests, and grandfather clauses 
that sought to suppress their right to vote; 
Whereas members of the aforementioned groups and others 
are currently, in some cases, subject to intimidation, 
voter roll purges, bans on former prisoners from voting, 
and financial barriers that act effectively as modern day 
poll taxes; 
Whereas in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 
1965 to protect the rights of African Americans and 
other traditionally disenfranchised groups to vote, among 
other reasons; 
Whereas in 2013, in the landmark Shelby County v. Holder 
case, the Supreme Court invalidated section 4 of the Vot-
ing Rights Act of 1965, dismantling the preclearance pro-
vision in the law that protected voters in States and units 
of local governments that historically have suppressed the 
rights of minorities to vote; 
Whereas since the preclearance provisions of the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965 have been vacated, among other ef-
fects, many States’ gerrymandered districts have gone 
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•HRES 1114 IH 
unchallenged or have become less likely to be invalidated 
by the courts; 
Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to 
have a discriminatory impact on traditionally disenfran-
chised minorities through tactics that include ‘‘cracking’’, 
diluting their voting power across many districts, and 
‘‘packing’’, concentrating minority voters’ power in one 
district to reduce their voting power in other districts; 
Whereas the courts have found the congressional and, in 
some cases, State legislative district maps in Texas, 
North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, 
Wisconsin, and other States to be gerrymandered dis-
tricts that were created to favor some groups over others; 
Whereas the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court deci-
sion calls on Congress to update the formula in the Vot-
ing Rights Act of 1965 to better match current data; 
Whereas in at least 23 States, some form of restrictive voting 
law has been instituted since 2013; 
Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in 
early voting, voter roll purges, placement of faulty equip-
ment in minority communities, requirement of photo 
identification, and elimination of same-day registration; 
Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make 
voting much more difficult for more than 80 million mi-
nority, elderly, poor, and disabled voters, among other 
groups; 
Whereas in 2016 alone, discriminatory laws in North Caro-
lina, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Texas were ruled to 
violate voters’ rights and were overturned by the courts; 
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•HRES 1114 IH 
Whereas the COVID–19 public health emergency has only ex-
acerbated the state of elections and voters’ access to the 
ballot; 
Whereas the lack of fair and safe election policies threaten 
minority communities, which have been disproportionately 
impacted and disenfranchised due to the COVID–19 pan-
demic, and their access to the ballot; 
Whereas tackling the challenges of administrating upcoming 
elections requires increasing the accessibility of vote-by- 
mail and other limited contact options to ensure the pro-
tection of voters’ health and safety amid a global pan-
demic; 
Whereas as voting by mail becomes a safer and a more acces-
sible option for voters to exercise their Constitutional 
right to vote during these unprecedented times, a fully 
functional and reliable United States Postal Service is of 
paramount importance in successfully conducting elec-
tions; 
Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dis-
mantle or underfund the United States Postal Service 
and thereby obstruct the passage of the mail as blatant 
tactics of voter suppression and election interference; 
Whereas there is much more work to be done to ensure all 
Americans have the right to vote through free, fair, and 
accessible elections; 
Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 22; 
and 
Whereas the month of September would be an appropriate 
month to designate as ‘‘National Voting Rights Month’’ 
and ensure our democracy includes all of us through the 
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•HRES 1114 IH 
registration of voters and awareness of elections: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) supports the designation of ‘‘National Vot-
ing Rights Month’’; 
(2) encourages all people in the United States 
to uphold the right of every American to exercise his 
or her sacred and fundamental right to vote; 
(3) commemorates the 100th anniversary of the 
House passage of the 19th Amendment, which guar-
anteed women the right to vote, and the legacy of 
generations of suffragists that fought to protect 
women’s rights at the ballot; 
(4) encourages Congress to pass— 
(A) H.R. 1 (S. 949), the For the People 
Act of 2019, to increase voters’ access to the 
ballot, end gerrymandering, create automatic 
voter registration, limit the power of restrictive 
voter ID laws, make critical investments in elec-
tion infrastructure and technology, and address 
corruption in campaign finance and ethics; 
(B) H.R. 4 (S. 4263), the John R. Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2020, to re-
store the protections of the Voting Rights Act 
of 1965 that prohibit discriminatory voting 
practices, remove barriers to voting, and pro-
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•HRES 1114 IH 
vide protections for minority voters in States 
with a history of voting discrimination; 
(C) H.R. 7427, the ACCESS Act, to en-
sure every eligible American voter is able to ex-
ercise their right to vote safely and securely 
during a declared state of emergency by guar-
anteeing no-excuse absentee voting, expanding 
early voting, requiring state emergency plan-
ning for voting during a state of emergency, 
mandating emergency vote-by-mail and same- 
day voter registration, and accommodations for 
voters on Indian lands; 
(D) H.R. 8015 (S. 4527), the Delivering 
for America Act, to prohibit the United States 
Postal Services from making changes to oper-
ations or levels of service from those that were 
in effect on January 1, 2020, establish require-
ments for the processing of election mail, and 
provide additional funding for the Postal Serv-
ice Fund; 
(E) H.R. 2722, the Securing America’s 
Federal Elections (SAFE) Act, to provide fund-
ing for States to improve the administration of 
elections, including enhancement of technology, 
election security, replacing antiquated voting 
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