The League of Conservation Voters will not endorse any lawmaker who opposes two voting rights bills currently being debated in the Senate or votes against eliminating the filibuster, the group announced Thursday. Every Republican, as well as Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), oppose eliminating the filibuster which, because of broad Republican opposition, is needed to pass the the Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Voting rights are crucial to ensuring the racial equity the Biden administration has vowed to put at the heart of its environmental agenda.

“We see it as tied together, you know, civil rights and environmental justice,” Texas Southern Univ. professor Robert Bullard told E&E News. “Our environmental justice movement grew out of civil rights, and the fight for equal protection, the fight and the right to vote and not be intimidated, and not to be treated differently in that way.”

“Climate change, family rights, gay rights, union rights — all of these things — are directly related to the right to vote,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters last month. “You change the right to vote, you jaundice the right to vote, you affect all of these.” (Endorsements: E&E $; Voting Rights-EJ intersection: E&E News)