The number of sponsors indicated that voting rights legislation was likely to pass on the floor, if an acceptable bill could be reported from the committee. Minutes after the bill was introduced, Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT), and Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL), made a motion that the bill be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary with instructions to report back no later than April 9. The Senate agreed to the motion by a lopsided vote of 67 to 13. Instructions to the committee were necessary because the chair, Senator James O. Eastland (D-MS), had never willingly reported a civil rights bill and in 1964 the Senate voted to bypass the committee altogether when it considered the Civil Rights Bill.

United States. Congress. Senate. Office of the Secretary. "Roll Call Vote." Roll Call Vote, March 18, 1965; “Roll Calls, 1st Session” folder, Box 1; Secretary of the Senate; 89th Congress; Records of the U.S. Senate, RG 46; National Archives.. Accessed 19 April 2024. https://acsc.lib.udel.edu/items/show/199.