May 24, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H 5563

country as opposed to listening to a

very elite special interest group that is

giving him very bad information.

Mr. RIGGS. If the gentleman will

yield, I think the gentleman makes an

excellent point, and I would simply add

that again the hard-core professional

environmental element, which again

has become, giving, I guess, the devil

its due, a well-organized and well-funded movement in this country in recent

years, having lost this debate through

a fair and open process at the full Committee on Appropriations level when

the bill was marked up, in fact, when

the gentleman’s amendment was voted

on on an up-or-down basis, having lost

the debate out here on this House floor

when we debated at some length the

merits of the gentleman’s emergency

timber salvage amendment, then employs a back-door mechanism, goes to

the White House and convinces the certain figures in the President’s administration that he really ought to veto

this bill, which, as the gentleman

pointed out, passed the House with

strong bipartisan support, and I want

to say that the President, frankly, is

not, in my just intuitive sense here, he

is not heeding his instinct. He is not

doing what I think, frankly, he knows

is the right thing.

I mean, after all, this is a President

who campaigned on a promise of putting people first. Well, I want to point

out to the President that the independent timber mills of this country have

launched a new campaign called Putting Family Businesses First, so if the

President met his campaign rhetoric, if

he really does believe in putting people

and families first, he can begin by reconsidering his threat to veto the gentleman’s outstanding emergency timber salvage amendment.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. That

falls in line with the President’s declaration that these are large companies. These are not large companies.

These are small, family-size businesses.

THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL

EXTREMISTS

fThe SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr.

NETHERCUTT). Under the Speaker’s announced policy of May 12, 1995, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. LEWIS] is

recognized for 30 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker,

I yield to the gentleman from Ohio

[Mr. BROWN], my friend and colleague.

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I

just sat here listening for the last hour

as the gentleman from Georgia [Mr.

LEWIS] did, and my friend, the gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mr. CLAYTON] talking about environmental extremists and environmental extremism.

The fact is that 70 percent of the

American public wants to see not

weaker but stronger environmental

laws, and the real extremists and the

real radicals in this environmental debate are not people that support the

clean water laws and not people that

support the clean air laws and not people that support public health laws, but

the real extremists are a good many

Republicans in this body who literally

want to privatize some of the national

parks, sell the national parks to large

corporations, want to roll back a lot of

the environmental laws, clean air laws,

safe drinking water laws, laws that affect, that we have built a consensus in

this country around that have given us

the best public health in our history,

that have given us the best, strongest

laws in the world to protect our citizens against everything from breast

cancer to tuberculosis. We have done

that well in this country in the last 3

or 4 decades, something I am proud of.

I live in Lorain, Ohio. My back door

looks out over Lake Erie. Twenty

years ago, Lake Erie was declared dead

in many parts. Part of the Cuyahoga

River in Cleveland caught on fire.

Becuase of the efforts of the U.S.

EPA, because of the commitment of a

lot of people in Lorain, Cleveland, Medina, and all of northeast Ohio and

other areas, we as a Nation were able

to clean up that lake, so my daughters,

Emily and Elizabeth, can now swim in

Lake Erie, and other people, we drink

the water, we can enjoy that lake

recreationally, and it helps create jobs.

It helps attract people to the Great

Lakes to build their businesses and

build their industries and employ people.

The extremists and the environmental issue are not those 70 or 80 percent of the American people that want

clean air, pure food, safe drinking

water for their children and their families and their grandchildren, but the

people that want to sell off the national parks and allow the chemical

companies and other polluters to write

the laws that dismantle the best environmental laws in our history and the

best environmental laws in the whole

world, and that is what concerns me

when I hear this kind of debate on the

House floor.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I say to my

friend, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr.

Brown] I must agree with you. There is

nothing radical about wanting to know

what is in the air we breathe, what is

in the water we drink or what is in the

food we eat. I thank the gentleman

very much for his comments.

I yield to the gentlewoman from

North Carolina [Mrs. CLAYTON].

CELEBRATING THE MOTOR-VOTER LAW

Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I also

want to applaud my colleague, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. LEWIS] for

organizing this special order and his

dedication and commitment to the

cause of voting and the rights of civil

rights. He has an impeccable reputation, and those people who know of his

record know that, indeed, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. LEWIS] is a

long-distance runner in the struggle for

civil rights and the opportunity for

basic rights that the Constitution affords all Americans, the right to vote

for all our citizens.

He has faced all manner of discouragement, and yet he has never been

discouraged. I just want to thank you,

I say to the gentleman from Georgia

[Mr. LEWIS], for not only this special

order but for the life that you have

lived and showing that America should

be there for everyone and living the

life that is exemplary, what you are.

And so I am delighted to participate

with you.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I thank the

gentlewoman for those comments.

Mrs. CLAYTON. The right to vote is

a precious right because all rights derive from the voting right. Freedom of

speech, which we know as the First

Amendment, has far less meaning without the right to vote and to elect those

persons who will uphold that fundamental freedom.

Freedom from illegal search and seizure, which we know as the fourth

amendment, has little meaning if those

who hold elective office do not stand up

and protect those basic freedoms.

The term due process, the fifth

amendment, providing important procedural safeguards, guaranteed by the

Constitution, become mere words if

those who we elect fail to protect

them.

And the equality of treatment under

the law, the 14th amendment, is a

platitude we talk about that becomes a

living reality only when, now only

when, those we vote into office become

champions of those rights.

The Constitution is a living and

breathing document that gets its life

from people we elect.

It is, therefore, clearly the best way

to safeguard all of our rights is to exercise our most fundamental right, and

that is the right to vote. And the first

step in exercising that right obviously

is to register. We in Congress have

made registering to vote easy. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993,

the so-called motor voter bill, was

passed by Congress and signed into law

by President Clinton May 20, 1993.

The motor voter act took effect January 1 of this year. It requires basically that we get our drivers license,

we can register by mail, any time we

get public services, those three areas

allow us to register very easily. With

this simplified registration, we expect

citizens will register to vote.

Indeed, in North Carolina, since implementation of the motor voter law,

some 88,000 new voters have registered,

88,000. The reason for the simplified

registration procedure is actually to

encourage more people to participate,

and we know there has been a declining

participation of citizens in elections,

so we need to do that.

One author has said the deadliest

enemy is not really those who live in

foreign lands but really it is within

ourselves. I want to say to you, JOHN,

that the same thing could be applied to

us in our own community or in our own

private life: The deadliest enemy is not
H 5564 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 24, 1995

without, it is within, and that deadly

enemy that is within is those who

would discourage the participation,

and this would be apathy, idleness, inattention and indifference. And because of these enemies, only about onefourth of those voting last November

actually voted, and so, therefore, we

had, what, the Contract With America

as a result of that, apathy and indifference, although we have the right to

register.

The majority of Americans did not

vote for those who pressed for the Contract With America. The proponents offered it, nevertheless, but one-half of

them accepted that, only one-half of

that 25 percent who voted, but nevertheless if people had voted, it would

have been a different study.

Compare the record with those who

voted in Africa. When people voted in

Africa, they stood in long lines to vote;

they stood, and the weather was inclement. Some of the people were disabled themselves, but they wanted to

vote so well that they would suffer personal indignities just to have the opportunity to vote, the threat of violence, even death, for those who were

in South Africa. They wanted the opportunity to participate.

And I think, I would say to the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. LEWIS] that

we, too, need to have that same sort of

spirit that the right to vote guarantees

all other rights, and unless we understand that very fundamentally, that

the Constitution is indeed a living and

breathing instrument and each of those

elements are important, but unless we

exercise our right to vote, we will not

have people who will implement properly the Constitution.

Again, I want to thank the gentleman for the efforts you had in making the motor voter a reality and

thank you for allowing us to participate with you on this anniversary.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me just

thank the gentlewoman from North

Carolina for those comments, those

words, and for participating really in

this special order tonight.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman

from Ohio [Mr BROWN]

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. It is my pleasure to join with the gentlewoman from

North Carolina [Mrs. CLAYTON] and the

gentleman from Georgia [Ms. MCKINNEY], and also the gentleman from

Georgia, [Mr. LEWIS], celebrating the

second-year anniversary of one of the

things that I think was very positive,

one of those most positive accomplishments of this dead in Congress, and

that is the National Voter Registrations Act, which is the final jewel in

opening up our political system to everyone in this country.

Unfortunately, there are some people

that in this body want to repeal the

National Voter Registration Act, and

some Republican Governors around the

country that do not want to implement

it even though it is the most efficient,

most cost-effective way to achieve universal voter registration in this society.

I was Ohio secretary of state for 8

years. One of my jobs was to encourage

people and do all I could to get them to

register to vote. We registered literally

1 million people over those 8 years. We

were able to do it by using a lot of the

motor voter registration at unemployment offices, registration at restaurants, reaching out all over to people in all walks of life, and it works.

Nationally, that is what is happening

right now. we are reaching into all segments of the community, rich and

poor, black and white, men and women,

all across the board. We are seeing hundreds of thousands of people in State

after State after State register to vote.

b 2000

If we are going to be the kind of democracy that we need in this country

that we have all striven for, it means

we need to expand the number of people voting so everyone has a choice in

selecting the next Congress, selecting

the next President.

I say to the gentleman, ‘‘I am proud

to join with you, Mr. LEWIS, in your efforts to get more people registered to

vote, whether it is—regardless of where

those people are registered, whether it

is a government office, whether it is a

license bureau, whatever kind of place

it might be, so that people more efficiently can find opportunities to register to vote all over our land. It has

made a difference in registering millions of voters and expanding the electorate so we do, in fact, like most

countries in the world, have universal

suffrage so more and more people vote

and choose our leaders.’’

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman

again for his efforts in bringing us the

National Voter Registration Act.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. I want to

thank my friend, the gentleman from

Ohio [Mr. BROWN], for participating in

this special order, for all of his good

work to increase voter participation,

long before I came to this body, as the

Secretary of State of the great State of

Ohio. I say to the gentleman, ‘‘Thank

you very much.’’ On January 1 of this

year, the National Voter Registration

Act, known as motor-voter, went into

effect. This month marks the two year

anniversary of Motor Voter becoming

law. Tonight I want to recognize the

important role Motor Voter has played

in registering voters and promoting democracy.

The motor-voter law allows citizens

to register at motor vehicle bureaus,

welfare offices and other agencies. The

goal of the law is to simplify voter registration and encourage people to participate in the political process. After

only 3 months, the results are in.

Motor Voter is working.

In only 3 months, over 2 million citizens have registered or updated their

registration. Motor Voter will add an

estimated 20 million voters to the rolls

by the 1996 election. Motor Voter would

be an even greater success if all states

complied with the law.

Unfortunately, some States have not

complied with the Motor Voter law.

They refuse to follow the law of the

land. Even some Members of Congress

oppose Motor Voter. They want to repeal this successful law.

Mr. Speaker, during an earlier period

of my life, I put my body, my heart and

my soul on the line to increase participation of all people in the political

process. From the sit-ins to the Freedom Rides to the March on Washington, to the March from Selma to Montgomery, I and thousands of others

worked for the civil rights of all Americans. We wanted to make one man,

one vote—one woman, one vote—a reality. This was our cause.

In the history of our nation, we were

not alone. Time and again, ordinary

American citizens have risen in defense

of one person, one vote. From the Minutemen at Lexington and Concord to

Abraham Lincoln—from Susan B. Anthony to Viola Liuzzo—from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to James Chaney,

Andy Goodman and Mickey Schwerner

. . . people have given their heart,

their soul—and often their lives—so

that all Americans could vote.

We have all come a long way. The

Declaration of Independence and the

United States Constitution first stated

that all people are created equal, and

that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to

our Constitution, the Voting Rights

Act and the Civil Rights Act have ensured that all Americans can exercise

their right to vote. Motor Voter guarantees that they will.

Too many people, especially the

young and the poor, are sitting on the

sidelines. They have not registered to

vote. They are not going to the ballot

box. We must encourage all Americans

to vote. We all must be involved. For

people not to register—for people to

refuse to participate in the political

process—is dangerous to the health of

our country.

Despite our proud democratic history—despite the obvious success of

Motor Voter, certain Members of this

body want to repeal Motor Voter. They

want us to take a step back in history—a step away from having a truly

democratic society. We must not let

this happen.

Why do so many of my colleagues

want to repeal Motor Voter? Why do

they want to make it harder for people

to vote? What do they fear? That people will vote? That people will get involved? That we will expand democracy?

This is what Motor Voter does. It

makes it easier for all Americans to

participate in our democratic process.

Motor Voter opens up the process—it

makes it easier for people to come in,

to participate. Registering to vote is as

simple as renewing your driver’s license.

The more people vote—the more people become involved—the more government becomes responsive to the people.

Each and every citizen has the power

to hold their elected officials accountable.
May 24, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H 5565

When people do not vote, they forfeit

their power—they silence their own

voices. They say ‘‘I do not care.’’

How can so many Members of Congress continue to oppose Motor Voter?

They say it is an unfunded mandate—

an unfunded mandate. My Colleagues,

if telling states to register voters is an

unfunded mandate, it’s a mandate as

old as the Constitution.

Read article I, section 4 of the Constitution. ‘‘The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators

and Representatives shall be prescribed

in each state by the legislature thereof;

but Congress may at any time by law

make or alter such regulations.’’

My Colleagues, our Constitution is

not just another unfunded mandate. We

cannot put a price tag on political participation. We cannot put a price on democracy.

Despite the opposition, despite the

attempts to make it harder for Americans to vote, I am heartened by all

that Motor Voter has accomplished in

three short months. We must encourage people to become involved—to

stand up and speak out—to vote. We

must continue to support Motor Voter.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to

yield to the gentlewoman from the

State of Georgia, the gentlewoman

from the great State of Georgia [Ms.

MCKINNEY].

Ms. MCKINNEY. Congressman LEWIS,

I just want to commend you for remembering the importance of motor

voter to our democracy, and I cannot

help but think about I have a 9-yearold son, and I buy books. The most recent book that I purchased for him was

a pictorial of the civil rights movement. It has got all of these wonderful,

glorious, and infamous pictures about

the dogs, and the water hoses, and Bull

Connor, and this is a legacy of this

country.

This is also a legacy of our quest for

real and true democracy. You were

there. You saw it. I can only rewalk

your footsteps. I can only go back and

see where you were 30 years ago at Edmund Pettis Bridge and recall in my

own new way the contributions of

Goodwin, Chaney and Schwerner, and

Viola Liuzzo, and, when I go to Montgomery, I never go there without passing by the civil rights memorial at

Morris Deze’s Southern Poverty Law

Center.

We have some of our colleagues here

who participated in that struggle for

American democracy. BOB FILNER is

one who serves in Congress with us now

who was there with the Freedom Riders fighting for a more perfect democracy.

I have a question for you. You have a

story that you tell about the man with

a cattle prod in his hand, and for our

viewers tonight I just would like for

you to retell that story because this is

a part of our history, and this is a history that we cannot forget; lest we forget, we will surely allow those enemies

of democracy who want to restrict the

American people’s right to vote to

wane. So please tell the story.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Well, let me

just say to my friend and colleague

from Georgia, I will never forget some

30 years ago in the little town of

Selma, AL, in the heart of the black

belt in Dallas County in 1965. Only 2.1

percent of blacks of voting age were

registered to vote. They had to take a

so-called literacy test. People were

afraid. There were black men and

women teaching in the local college,

black doctors and lawyers, but they

flunked the so-called literacy test.

They could only go down to attempt to

register on the first and third Mondays

of each month.

On the third Monday in January 1965,

it was my day to lead a group of people

down to the Dallas County Courthouse.

To be exact, it was January 18, and we

walked up to the steps of the courthouse, and there was a sheriff named

Jim Clark. He wore a gun on one side,

a night stick on the other, and he carried an electric cattle prod in his hand,

and he did not use it on cows, he used

it on people, and he said to me, ‘‘John

Lewis, you’re not some agitator.

You’re the lowest form of humanity.’’

At that time I was almost 25, and I

had all of my hair. I was a few pounds

lighter, but I looked him straight in

the eye, and I said, ‘‘Sheriff, I may be

an agitator, but I’m not an outsider. I

grew up 90 miles from here, and we’re

going to stay here until these people

are allowed to register and vote.’’

And he said, ‘‘John, you’re under arrest,’’ and he arrested me along with

many other people.

A few days later in a little town near

Selma a young black man by the name

of Jimmy Lee Jackson was leading the

march for the right to vote. He was

shot in the stomach by a state trooper,

and a few days later he died. In the

course of what happened to him we said

that we were marching from Selma to

Montgomery to dramatize to the Nation and to the world that people wanted the right to participate in the democratic process. And on March 7 we decided to march in twos, leaving downtown Selma, walking through the

streets of Selma, about 525 of us, elderly men and women and a few young

children.

We came to the apex of the bridge.

We saw a sea of blue. It was the Alabama State troopers. We continued to

walk until we came within hearing distance of the State troopers, and a man

identified himself and said, ‘‘I’m Major

John Cloud of the Alabama State

troopers. I give you 3 minutes to disperse and go back to your church.’’

In less than 11⁄2 minutes he said,

‘‘Troopers, advance,’’ and they came

toward us, beating us with night sticks

and bull whips, trampling us with

horses and using tear gas.

This became known as bloody Sunday, and because of what happened in

Selma, President Johnson came to this

hall, and spoke to a joint session of

Congress, and introduced the Voting

Rights Act, and it was passed, and

since then I must say, my colleague,

we have seen hundreds and thousands

and millions of new registered voters

because this Congress had the courage

to pass the Voting Rights Act in 1965,

and Motor Voter is another step down

that long road toward opening up the

political process and letting all of the

people come in.

Ms. MCKINNEY. You know you said

something about accountability, and

the fact that we enlarge the voting

pool also indicates that we would enlarge the attentive public; that is, the

public that is paying attention to what

we do with the laws that we pass and

the impact that what we do here has on

those peoples’ lives. I cannot help but

believe that there is a group of people,

and I am sure they are a small group of

people, who want to escape accountability for the things that they do, and

therefore they introduced legislation

to repeal Motor Voter, or they try to

call it an unfunded mandate in an effort to escape the accountability that

the American people would bring on

them for the kinds of policies that we

are seeing put into play now.

b 2015

Also, I have to say that it has never

been so easy, particularly in the South,

in Georgia, to register people, as it is

today, and that is because of motor

voter. We have a simple little form.

I remember in 1992, we had Jesse

Jackson come down to the 11th district

to do some voter registration for us because we knew we needed that. We

found all kinds of voting registration

barriers. And in one little small town,

Milledgeville, I know you know

Milledgeville, GA, we had to stage a

protest march, because for some reason

it was inconvenient for the folks down

at the courthouse to register a lot of

people in the town, who happened to be

African-American and who happened to

be students in the town.

So we have got these impediments

that have been removed. And now it is

so easy, all people have to do is want to

be registered and they can register.

And it sure makes it a whole lot easier

for those of us who want them to be

registered.

I think this new move on the part of

this small group of people is perhaps,

well, we know it is wrong-headed and

ill-founded, but it takes us in the

wrong direction. It takes us backwards,

and we do not need to be going back.

We need to be going forward. Our democracy is stronger when the American people feel that they have an investment in their Government. Right

now the American people do not feel

that they have an investment, and a

lot of people sit on the sidelines at

election time because it is so darn hard

to go out there and register to vote.

We, of course, as you know, have the

purges that go on.

Motor voter cures all of that. You

can register to vote at midnight in

your home if you want to, and that is

the beautiful thing about motor voter.

So I just think this move that is

afoot is wrong-headed and ill-founded,
H 5566 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE May 24, 1995

but there are 170 cosponsors on the repeal bill, so it is a threat that is imminent. And that is why I am so happy

that the gentleman is alerting the rest

of us here to the importance of motor

voter, and at the same time the American viewing public that is interested

and is looking at C–SPAN right now, to

let them know that motor voter is

good and motor voter is not safe.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me agree

with you that motor voter is good, and

it is necessary to open up the political

process. As you well know, in our own

State hundreds and thousands of people

have been registered during the past 3

months. I think in Georgia more than

3,000 people every single day are being

registered because of motor voter.

Ms. MCKINNEY. And we do not even

have all of the counties on line yet.

Just imagine what it would be like if

we had all of the counties, 159 counties

in Georgia, on line for motor voter.

When that happens, Georgia will not be

last anymore. I am so sick and tired of

Georgia being last in most things.

Georgia can become first, and it will

also be first in democracy.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Let me just

thank my colleague, the gentlewoman

from the State of Georgia, CYNTHIA

MCKINNEY, for participating in this

special order tonight. I appreciate your

help and all of your support. I think we

have a moral obligation, a mandate,

and a mission as Members of this body

to do what we can to increase the political participation of all of our citizens.

Open the process up, let everybody

come in.

Ms. MCKINNEY. The gentleman knows

that I have long admired his work and

his advocacy on behalf of the American

people and the American democracy.

Just a word about the nature of this

discourse tonight: This is not about

Democrat or Republican. This is about

the American people and enhancing

and fine-tuning our democracy. We do

have, we are blessed in this country to

have the most perfect democracy on

the face of the Earth. Yet it can still be

a whole lot better. Motor voter is but

one tool to get us there, and I appreciate the gentleman and his strong

leadership and advocacy. You know

you have my support every step of the

way.

Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Thank you

very much for those kind words and for

participating in this special order tonight.

Miss COLLINS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker,

the absolute need for the motor-voter law is

clear. Without it, millions of American voters

will continue to be denied equal access to the

franchise by a bureaucratic opposition that

simply does not make sense. Without it, millions of Americans will remain voteless, and

voteless people are powerless people.

Like the Voting Rights Act, a thirty-year old

success story itself, this new law has clearly

begun to eclipse the barriers and the lingering

legacy of voting booth exclusion that have had

a ‘‘chilling’’ effect on the political participation

of African-Americans and other ethnic minorities in this country.

The motor-voter law is already a striking

success in some states where discriminatory

and unfair registration laws and procedures

once prevailed. In states like Texas, Florida,

and Georgia—where the history of voting discrimination has been most egregious—more

than 200,000 previously unregistered voters

have gained new opportunities to register to

vote, at motor vehicle departments, public assistance offices, mental health and disability

agencies, and by mail.

Instead of mouthing platitudes about democracy, we in this body ought to feel more compelled to make democracy a reality. But the

truth is, until every American citizen has onehundred percent, undeniable access to the

ballot box, Democracy will be little more than

an illusion. Democracy, it is said, is a ‘‘collectivity’’ of individuals. But there can be no

democracy when millions of Americans remain

shut out of the Democratic process.

Mr. Speaker, making voting more accessible

to the public is not a partisan issue. In fact,

Mr. GINGRICH himself has said that ‘‘it is simply good public policy.’’

Voting is the linchpin of American Democracy. Registering to vote should be as convenient as applying for a library card, or filling out

a tax return. The costs of the motor-voter law

are minimal, especially when considering the

payoff in increased citizen participation.

Even my own home state of Michigan is

now resisting this great effort to eliminate the

final barriers to full enfranchisement, and of

this I am ashamed. Mr. Speaker, it is a national disgrace if America is permitted to return

to its darkest period, when millions of citizens

were systematically denied equal access to

the franchise, and ultimately their power to

govern. It is a disgrace that this country simply

cannot afford.

Mr. STOKES. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank

my distinguished colleague, the gentleman

from Georgia [Mr. LEWIS], for reserving this

Special Order. I am pleased to join him for a

discussion of the motor-voter law. The National Voter Registration Act was signed into

law by President Clinton on May 20, 1993.

The law requires motor vehicle bureaus, welfare offices and other public agencies to offer

voter registration services. Today, we gather

to mark the two year anniversary of this successful legislative initiative.

The motor-voter law took effect on January

1, 1995. It is noted that during the months of

January and February alone, more than

630,000 citizens across the country registered

to vote. Analysts predict that next year, as

many as 20 million Americans will be added to

the ranks of the voting population. Not since

the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which removed

obstacles that had kept many African-Americans from the voting booth, have so many

new voters registered to vote.

Mr. Speaker, the road to passage of national voter registration laws has not been an

easy one. Many in this Chamber will recall

that efforts to establish a national voter registration system followed closely on the heels

of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of

1965. During the 1970’s, a substantial effort

was made to implement a national voter ‘‘postcard’’ or mail registration system. Efforts also

focused on the passage of a national voter

registration standard that would have allowed

citizens to register to vote on election day.

Both measures failed to be enacted by both

the House and Senate.

During the 1980’s, we celebrated the enactment of several voter registration measures. In

1984, Congress passed the Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act. The

Act established national requirements for making polling places more accessible to the elderly and the handicapped, and provided

greater access to absentee ballots for these

individuals. The Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act required States to

permit absentee uniformed service personnel

and overseas voters to use absentee registration procedures, and to vote by absentee ballot in federal elections.

Mr. Speaker, the goal of the National Voter

Registration Act is to simplify voter registration, thereby encouraging citizens to participate in the election process. In addition to

making it easier for individuals to register to

vote, the Act also provides more than adequate measures to prevent voter fraud by

making violations of the Act a federal offense.

Further, the cost that states bear to implement

the motor-voter law has proven to be minimal.

As we celebrate the success of the motorvoter law, we must ensure that this important

Act is not repealed. We must also ensure that

all states are in compliance with the motorvoter law. In the United States, 80 percent of

our nation’s youth, those 18 or 19 years of

age, apply for driver’s licenses. Yet, fewer

than 40 percent of this age population is registered to vote. We have a responsibility to

make certain that all Americans are participants in the electoral process. The motor-voter

law represents an important step in achieving

this objective.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join Congressman LEWIS for this special order. He has

played a major role in securing and protecting

the voting rights of minority citizens and others. I applaud his leadership, and I offer my

full support of his efforts.

IN REMEMBRANCE OF APHIS

EMPLOYEES

fThe SPEAKER pro tempore. Under

the Speaker’s announced policy of May

12, 1995, the gentleman from Texas [Mr.

DE LA GARZA] is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority

leader.

Mr. DE LA GARZA. Mr. Speaker, we

stand here today in memory of the

seven employees of the Animal and

Plant Health Inspection Service of the

U.S. Department of Agriculture, those

that were tragically murdered in the

bomb blast at the A.P. Murrah Federal

Building in Oklahoma City on April 19,

1995. The explosion murdered scores of

innocent children and adults, injured

hundreds, shattered innumerable lives,

and shook the soul of the Nation. We

remember them all.

But today we mention the 15 employees stationed in the building at the

time of the explosion. By stroke of

providence, five of the employees were

not in the building at the time. Three

of the employees left the building