A ‘deeply divided’ Congress took no major action on civil rights in 2023, report finds

Last year, neither chamber in Congress passed any meaningful civil rights legislation, according to an analysis of legislative and voting records of the first session of the 118th Congress by a coalition of civil rights groups.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ Voting Record report found the lack of congressional action on civil rights legislation “is, in large part, due to a deeply divided Congress lacking in bipartisan support for civil rights legislation.”

“This is one of the few first sessions of a Congress in recent history in which neither chamber passed meaningful civil rights legislation as scored by our Voting Record,” according to the report, which has tracked civil rights legislation since 1969. The votes of every member of the House and Senate on bills deemed important by the conference are scored in the report.

In the current Congress, the House is controlled by Republicans, 219-213, and Democrats voting with independents have a slim majority in the Senate. Vice President Kamala Harris often has to travel to the U.S. Capitol to cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

Those narrow majorities make it tough to pass legislation, the report notes.

“It comes as our democracy faces a consequential year and amidst ongoing attacks on the hard-won rights and protections — and the diversity and inclusion policies and programs — that make us a more cohesive, effective, and fair society for everyone,” according to the report.

The Voting Record looked at nine House and 34 Senate votes from January to December 2023.

“Our Voting Record found very clearly that with democracy under attack, Congress has been more divided than the country,”  Maya Wiley, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement Tuesday. “Congress is gridlocked because too many lawmakers are failing to protect our fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Maryland’s 10-member congressional delegation largely fared very well on the report card. Both Democratic U.S. senators — Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen — rang up perfect scores, as did six of the seven Democrats in the House delegation. U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-2nd) got an 89% score.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st), the lone Republican in the Maryland delegation, scored zero on the report card.

The last time Congress passed civil rights legislation that was signed into law was in 2022 — for example, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022 that makes lynching a federal crime.  The bill was named after 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was kidnapped and murdered in Mississippi by two white men in 1955.

A major piece of civil rights legislation that Congress has tried and failed to pass is restoration of a section of the Voting Rights Act, named after the late Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon and champion of voting rights. A hurdle is the Senate, which requires a 60-vote threshold to advance a bill.

The report noted that while Congress has made little progress in passing civil rights legislation this session, the Senate has confirmed a significant number of diverse judges, particularly women and people of color, to the bench.

“In the Senate, faced with a filibuster and limited time on the legislative calendar, Senate leadership prioritized the president’s nominees — leading to confirmation of highly qualified and diverse federal judges, but limiting the public’s exposure to debates on important civil and human rights issues on the national stage,” according to the report.

As for the new judges, “the beneficial impact on our legal system, including when it comes to the interpretation of civil and human rights laws and principles, will be felt for decades to come,” the conference report continued.

More than two-thirds of the Biden administration’s picks for federal judges have been women and people of color, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of statistics from the Federal Judicial Center in November.

The report also raised concerns about legislation passed in the House that would roll back rights, although the bills have not been taken up in the Senate and their future there is unclear.

Some of those bills include H.R.5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act of 2023, that codifies federal education law to give parents and legal guardians access to school curriculum and access to school library books; H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, that bans transgender students from girls’ sports; and H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, to reinstate Trump-era immigration policies.

“With the second session of the 118th Congress under way, we do not anticipate drastic changes in the legislative landscape,” according to the report. “We certainly expect that the Senate will continue to prioritize the confirmation of federal judges.”

Josh Kurtz contributed to this report.

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