On Capitol Hill, House Republican leaders have put off a measure to reauthorize the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The decision was made following complaints from southern Republican lawmakers that the reauthorization unfairly targeted their states. The law was originally passed to reverse years of disenfranchisement of African Americans. On Wednesday, NAACP President Bruce Gordon criticized the Republicans’ delay, saying: “Their actions would return us to a time when the rights of racial and ethnic minority Americans–specifically the right to vote — were not protected or enforced.”