Speaker of the House and fiscally conservative fraudster Paul Ryan (R-WI) reportedly told the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that he supports a restoration of the Voting Rights Act, but the matter is out of his hands.
"He said it right in front of everybody — he said he supports the [Jim] Sensenbrenner bill," Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), said after Ryan met with the group on Capitol Hill. [...]
"So somebody was saying, 'Well, why don't you go tell your committee chair to do it?' " Cleaver added. "And he said, … 'Look, I can't do that.'"
As Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan could bring a bill to the floor of the House for a vote at any moment of his choosing, but Ryan reportedly told the Congressional Black Caucus that he would rather see a return to "regular order."
In case you're not familiar, passing bills through the appropriate committees before a final vote in front of the full House would be considered "regular order." We haven't seen regular order for a number of years because the Republican-controlled Congress is not capable of, or interested in, regular order. Former Speaker of the House John Boehner sought a return to regular order last year with a full slate of appropriation bills but, as you know, that process was abandoned because the Flying Monkey Caucus can't agree on anything even among themselves.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has made it clear that his committee will not restore the Voting Rights Act. The only way the landmark civil rights law will see new life is if Speaker Paul Ryan brings a bill up for a vote.
Hiding behind "regular order" would be slightly less transparent if there was actually a chance a bill could pass through regular order but, as things stand, there is no chance.
This Congress will not restore the Voting Rights Act. It will not pass meaningful criminal justice reform.