Contact: Johanna Kichton, [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee vote today in which 12 Republicans voted to move forward the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and 10 Democrats boycotted the vote, People’s Action Campaigns Director Sondra Youdelman released the following statement:

“While the United States is facing its third wave of coronavirus infections and a mounting death toll, Senate Republicans continue to focus on the wrong things. The Senate should be working to pass urgently needed COVID-19 relief, not rushing through the process for an extreme Supreme Court nominee.

“The Senate Democrats did the right thing by boycotting the Judiciary Committee vote today. With 46 million people already having voted on our next President, this nomination process should wait until the election is done and the people have decided the direction of the country.

“For such an important post, we need a robust confirmation process; not a sham hearing. Our democracy and our health depend on a trustworthy Supreme Court reflective of the people’s choice.

“We call on all Senators to vote NO on this nomination when they come together next week, and to get back to work on urgently needed COVID-19 relief.” 

People’s Action member organizations in Illinois, including The People’s Lobby, Jane Addams Seniors in Action and One People’s Campaign, called on Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., to walk out of today’s hearing (ppls.ac/DurbinWalkOut), and he did so. In response, Will Tanzman of the coalition Fair Economy Illinois, said: 

“Thank you, Senator Durbin, for walking out of the Judiciary Committee vote on Judge Amy Coney Barrett alongside other Democrats. We need every Senator to vote against her when the nomination reaches the Senate floor, and we need Senator Durbin to immediately shift his focus to COVID relief that expands healthcare for everyone, cancels rents and mortgages for the duration of the pandemic and invests heavily in green energy to put people back to work.”

About People’s Action

People’s Action is a national network of 37 state and local grassroots, power-building organizations united in fighting for justice. We operate the largest progressive rural organizing project in the country. Our new podcast, To See Each Other, complicates the narrative about rural Americans in our most misunderstood, and often abandoned, communities. The Nation called our Iowa presidential forum the “most in-depth, people-powered forum” of the 2020 cycle.

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