The legislation co-sponsored by Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that would provide access to files relative to unsolved criminal cases that took place during the Civil Rights era passed its second hurdle when it cleared the United States House of Representatives Friday, according to a press release.

The companion to the Senate bill was introduced in the House by Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL) and passed with overwhelming support after clearing the Senate earlier in the week.

The bill, known as the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, will now go to the president’s desk to be signed into law.

“This legislation has made a remarkable journey from its conception in a high school classroom to its passage in Congress today,” Jones said in a press release. “From the students who first brought their draft bill to my attention years ago to the journalists and researchers who study these civil rights cold cases to my colleagues Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Bobby Rush, this was truly a team effort to do the right thing by these victims and their families.”

The bill, which was modeled after the President John F. Kennedy, Jr. Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, goes hand-in-hand with Jones legacy of being a defender of civil rights – not only did Jones prosecute two of the Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham that took the lives of four young girls, he also testified before the House Judiciary Committee in support of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crimes Act, which established a special initiative in the U.S. Department of Justice to investigated Civil Rights-era cold cases.

In his testimony, Jones discussed the difficulty of prosecuting cases of this nature, which take place many years after the crimes were committed, and the important of “sharing information to find truth.”

“While we can’t change history, we can and should do whatever we can to seek truth and healing,” Jones said. “Today, we took an important step forward in the effort to ensure justice delayed is not justice denied.”

Passage of this bill might make it easier for investigators in Dallas County to resolve five such cases in the area, one involving the 1965 murder of Boston minister James Joseph Reeb and another from the same year involving Civil Rights protester Jimmie Lee Jackson.