House Speaker Paul Ryan supports an update to the Voting Rights Act—no, really, he totally does—just not enough to get the bill a vote over the opposition of Judiciary Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte.
"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.' "
He can, he just won’t. Because Goodlatte thinks that when the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, it left some protections in there somewhere and that’s good enough, that’s it for a House vote on this crucial legislation. Speaker Ryan will not be stepping in on the site of voting rights; the cause of keeping his committee chairs and vandal caucus happy is more important.