With the end of President Donald Trump s partial government shutdown, Democrats were finally able to get started on their legislative agenda on Tuesday. That meant Democrats and Republicans could get back to disagreeing about basically everything beginning with the litany of voting rights, campaign finance and ethics reforms in the Democrats first major bill of 2019.

The House Judiciary Committee held an initial hearing on H.R. 1, the For The People Act . Tuesdays hearing focused largely on the bills voting rights provisions, which fall under the committees jurisdiction. These measures aim to expand automatic voter registration, early voting and felon re-enfranchisement. The bill also endorses a restoration of the Voting Rights Act pre-clearance provisions that were gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013.

The hearing essentially encapsulated the modern fight to vote in America. Democratic lawmakers, pointing to numerous recent examples of long lines at the polls, voter purging and excessive gerrymandering, described a system that is shutting out too many Americans and needs reform. Republican lawmakers, aided by their witnesses, suggested claims of suppression were exaggerated and accused Democrats of wanting to change voting laws for their own political benefit.