Voting Rights Act

VOTING RIGHTS ACT

Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for granting me this time.

As chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Mr. Speaker, I would like to offer my congratulations to Chairman Sensenbrenner, Ranking Member Conyers, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Mr. Watt, and the chair of the Hispanic Caucus Mrs. Napolitano, for the great work and the significant sacrifices they gave in helping us to fashion a Voting Rights Act renewal that we thought was acceptable for the vast majority of the Members of this body.

We are extremely disappointed, however, that the leadership of the House has decided to pull the Voting Rights Act which we had hoped to be considering this afternoon.

It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that the Judiciary Committee had 12 or 13 hearings, and everybody in this body had an opportunity to come before that committee to let their views be known. Everybody in the voting public had ample opportunity to present their views and their emotions to the committee.

After all of this, we thought we had an agreement that this legislation would come before this body on suspension. We can understand why it was necessary for the Rules Committee to allow two amendments to be offered. We understand politics, and we do not have a problem with that. We do, however, have a problem with raising expectations among the people of this great State and having those expectations dashed as they were today.

We are hopeful that the leadership will bring this legislation before this body before we go out for the July 4 break. I do not believe there is any better way to celebrate this Nation's birthday, which we do on July 4, than by saying to the American people that the Voting Rights Act, which was created to get rid of creative devices that work to nullify and dilute the impact of minority voting in our great State.

I am proud to represent the State of South Carolina in this body. I used to teach history to students in that State. I used to tell my students all the time that one of the reasons that we study history is so that we can understand the past so that we will know pretty much how to prepare for the future. And one of the things I used to tell them, Mr. Speaker, is that if a thing has happened before, it can happen again. And I am afraid that the creative devices that were developed in the 1890s and early 1900s in this country under what we call the Black Codes, things like numbered posts, things like at-large voting, things like what we call full-slate voting, would be allowed back into our electoral process if we politicize section 5 that grants review. And if we were to turn that section over to a political appointee to make determinations as to whether or not they allow to be required other forms of exceptions, that is exactly what we will do with that law.

So, Mr. Speaker, I come today to thank the bipartisan group of legislators on the Judiciary Committee for fashioning an acceptable compromise to bring to this body. And I also ask the leadership of the Republican Party to please bring this legislation to this body next week and give us an opportunity to say to the American people that we will celebrate our birthday on July 4 with an understanding that everybody, irrespective of status, will have their votes counted and counted effectively.

http://thomas.loc.gov