The narrower version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Restoration Act that the Senate is now positioning to advance under unconventional procedure is, by any reasonable accounting, a meaningful achievement that the supporters of voting rights should accept and the opponents should permit.

What the narrower bill does

The narrower bill restores the federal preclearance regime for jurisdictions that meet defined criteria, with judicial-review backstops that have been calibrated to address the constitutional questions that the original bill's broader provisions raised. It does not include the broader provisions on voter-registration modernisation that the comprehensive bill carried.

Why the comprehensive bill is not on the table

The comprehensive bill is not on the table because the votes for it do not exist. The arithmetic has not changed in three years; the procedural innovations being explored cannot stretch the votes to cover the comprehensive bill's full scope.

What gets lost

What gets lost in the narrower version is the registration-modernisation framework that voting-rights advocates have correctly identified as one of the more substantive ways to expand the electorate. The loss is real and should be acknowledged. The acknowledgment does not change the practical question.

The practical question

The practical question is whether the narrower bill, on its own, justifies the procedural moves required to pass it. The answer is yes. Federal preclearance has been the most directly consequential mechanism in the historical voting-rights infrastructure; restoring it, even in narrower form than the original framework, would produce concrete consequences for the conduct of state-level redistricting and election administration.

The longer arc

The comprehensive framework will, eventually, return to the legislative agenda. The narrower bill is not its substitute; it is the work of the current Congress within the constraints of the current Congress. Doing the work of the current Congress is the responsibility of the current Congress.

The recommendation

This board recommends that the Senate pass the narrower bill under whatever procedure produces the votes for its passage, that the House act promptly to send it to the President's desk, and that the President sign it. The work of the more comprehensive framework continues; the work of this Congress should not wait for it.