OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Condemning Restrictive Voting Laws

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 21, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

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Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, Congress is about to go home for the most important event in any democracy: the November 8 elections. We will leave a cloud over our democracy in failing to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act, recommended by the Supreme Court, when it struck down section 4 requiring Federal preclearance of State laws with a history of discrimination.

My resolution, H. Res. 846, condemning restrictive voting laws, documents that no sooner was preclearance overturned than States galloped to pass new onerous voting restrictions. So unconstitutional were these laws that not only in southern States but also, even without the preclearance process, they have been struck down in four States: Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Ohio.

Seldom has Congress had so much real-time evidence of the need to renew legislation. The evidence is a virtual mandate for Congress to make history again and update our democracy by updating the Voting Rights Act.

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