PennFuture responds to President Biden's speech in Philadelphia

“There is no doubt that some elected officials, not only in Washington, D.C., but also here at home in Pennsylvania, are actively erecting roadblocks and barriers to make it harder to vote,” said Emily Gale, the director of civic engagement for PennFuture. “That’s why we stand in solidarity with President Joe Biden, who came to Philadelphia today—the birthplace of our democracy—to advocate for the passage of both the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. 

The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated: we are facing the most significant test to our democracy since the Civil War. That’s why these two bills are absolutely crucial: they will help end voter suppression at the state level, get dark money out of politics, give voice to the voiceless, and end partisan political gerrymandering, among other efforts to end the assault on democracy brewing in Harrisburg and elsewhere in the United States.

The President called it a ‘national imperative’ to pass these bills, and he’s right. A clean environment requires a free and accessible democracy. Without it, important environmental issues like climate change, water pollution, and air pollution won’t get a fair hearing in the halls of power. Communities regularly impacted by environmental crimes and injustices will remain imperiled. 

It’s unconscionable that, in this day and age, a contingent of state and federal lawmakers are threatening the mores of our constitution in plain daylight by advancing voter suppression tactics while trying to undermine the legitimacy of free and fair elections. 

PennFuture stands with President Biden denouncing the 21st century Jim Crow assault on voting access and will engage in our communities to educate and empower our citizens, so that every eligible voter in Pennsylvania who wants to cast a vote has the ability to do so, now and in the future.”  

PennFuture’s Democracy For All program executes non-partisan voter education, registration, and get-out-the-vote projects to engage with the rising American electorate — people of color, young people and unmarried women—who are disproportionately underrepresented in the democratic process and disproportionately impacted by pollution.