t legislation making voting easier, safeguarding the vote counting, and preventing gerrymandering before mid-August, when the census results are released, millions of eligible voters will be disenfranchised. Congress cannot go on recess until the Senate modifies the filibuster and such legislation passes both chambers. Only then will democracy stand a chance of surviving.

Soon, perhaps in the next few days, millions of people, predominantly Black and Latino families, will begin to lose their homes.

The bipartisan, let me repeat that, the bipartisan infrastructure bill has advanced in the Senate. The $1 trillion measure will be injected into the economy to improve roads and bridges, replace lead water pipes which injure children, extend broadband, upgrade transit systems, and much more.

Biden says voter suppression is “the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” That’s because denying the right to vote and election rigging are aimed at people of color, but the real target is to destroy democracy.

Unless the Senate passes the For the People Act (S.1) soon, millions of eligible voters--BIPOC, disabled veterans, young people and the elderly--will be disenfranchised. We must seek our representatives’ help in convincing Biden to fight for filibuster reform, and must continue daily to push them to explicitly commit to filibuster reform, so that they can pass S.1 before mid-August when the census results are released.

Passing pro-democracy legislation is necessary, but not sufficient, to protect the freedom to vote which underpins our democracy. We also need speedy Senate confirmation of Biden’s judicial nominees and federal court expansion at all levels to neutralize Jim Crow jurists imposed by Trump and McConnell. The Senate must remain in session until all judges are confirmed and S.1 is passed.

Congress must not waste time. There can be no more congressional holidays or recesses until the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are passed.