#House Democrats to rename voting rights bill after Rep. John Lewis

House Democrats will rename a controversial voting rights bill in honor of Rep. John Lewis on Monday, as his coffin is exhibited in the Capitol Rotunda.

Lewis, a civil rights icon who died this month at age 80, supported the bill, and Democrats already renamed the Senate version of the bill after him.

Third-ranking House Democrat Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said Sunday he would submit a request to rename the bill on Monday.

“Congressman Clyburn is offering legislation to rename H.R. 4 The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act tomorrow. The name change is expected to pass by unanimous consent,” Clyburn spokeswoman Hope Derrick told CNN.

Lewis, who represented Atlanta in Congress, is famous for a 1965 march for voting rights over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The march was violently dispersed by police.

There’s also a campaign to rename the bridge, which is dedicated to a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader. On Sunday, Lewis’ body was driven over the bridge.

The bill that will bear Lewis’ name passed the Democratic-held House 228-187 in December. It would increase federal supervision of state voting policies by creating a new formula for jurisdictions that require pre-clearance of election policy changes, such as requiring photo IDs.

The US Supreme Court in 2003 struck down a prior formula for states needing pre-clearance, finding that it was unconstitutional because it used decades-old data.

The bill hasn’t received a vote in the Republican-held Senate, and the White House issued a veto threat, arguing the bill may be unconstitutional and gives too much power to the federal government.

Attaching Lewis’ name to the bill will increase pressure on Republicans.

In a press release last year, Lewis said the 2016 election, won by President Trump, showed why the bill was needed.

“The election of 2016 was a wakeup call. Voters were threatened and given false information. Hundreds of thousands of voters were purged from the rolls all over the country. People who had voted for decades were turned away from the polls. What happened? It was the first election in over 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act,” Lewis said.