SCROTUS^* are embarrassed after being caught defending sale of confederate flags in US national parks. So the Democrats offered a deal: they will agree to stop trying to ban those flag sales, if the Republicans agree to fix the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act, which was designed to stop racists from blocking blacks from voting, is substantive, whereas the flags are a symbolic issue. The Voting Rights Act effectively blocked some kind of voter suppression until the Supreme Court reinterpreted it. Changing the text of the law would restore that lost effectiveness.

^* SCROTUS: Sleazy Congressional Republicans Of The United States