Today, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) issued the following statement in response to Senator McConnell’s introduction of a bill that combines an increase in stimulus payments to $2,000 with the creation of a commission to study election fraud.
“For months, Senator McConnell and his allies in the Senate abandoned the American people, forcing them to fend for themselves in the midst of a once-in-a-generation crisis – an ongoing pandemic that has killed nearly 350,000 people and caused massive job losses that have led to record unemployment, waves of evictions, and unprecedented displacement,” said LDF President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill. “Senate Republicans refused to bring the $3 billion HEROES Act relief bill to a vote in the Senate after it passed the House in May and only recently negotiated a $900 billion package that offers short-term and insufficient aid to Americans in desperate need of substantial, long-term assistance.
“As the American people prepare to enter a new year in financial desperation and uncertainty, Senate Republicans, led by Senator McConnell, are risking more American lives. By combining $2,000 stimulus payments with the creation of a commission to study election fraud, Senator McConnell is holding hostage the direct support Americans so desperately need. His elevation of political gamesmanship over his responsibility to the millions of Americans whose lives and livelihoods hang in the balance is a cynical and unconscionable betrayal of the American people. This is not the time for political games or advancing false narratives of voter fraud. Let’s be clear once again, widespread election fraud is a myth used to continue the endless and failed effort to disenfranchise voters as a means of reversing the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“The Senate should put the safety and welfare of the American people first and immediately vote to pass the House bill to increase stimulus benefits without conditioning this critical relief on meritless and partisan aims.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF.
