Date: 2016-02-11
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

I am delighted to follow the gentlewoman from New Jersey. focusing on the Congressional Progressive Caucus commitment to ensuring every American can vote. Might I add that we have worked together with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. we have worked together with the Congressional Black Caucus. and we have worked together with the Democratic Caucus. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to encourage the entire House to be committed to the very values of this Nation. This should not be a Republican or Democratic issue. of which it has become. We stand here as Democrats arguing for the empowerment of voters all over the Nation. yet legislative initiatives have been introduced by members of the Judiciary Committee and others. I have joined a number of those legislative initiatives. and these initiatives cannot be heard and cannot be voted on. The American people need to know that. There is no other reason than the Republican majority does not want to have empowered voters. This is unlike what we did in years past. I have had the privilege of being on the House Judiciary Committee for a number of years. and the most powerful and moving experience wasand there have been many experiences on the House Judiciary Committeewhen all of us came together to help write the restoration or reauthorization of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. [ 1815 It was a very emotional and tearful moment. It was a moment of great extensiveness15.000 pages of testimony. many. many. many witnesses. individuals explaining how precious it is to vote. but. more importantly. how not having protection for the vote can. therefore. disallow them to vote. I guess the most provocative experience was a Republican President being joined by Republican and Democratic Members on a joyful sunny day signing the legislation that reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Mind you. Mr. Speaker. that bill exhibits. if you will. the pain and suffering of so many who marched and marched and marched and marched. Not only did they march. they died. like Jimmie Lee Jackson. Or our own colleague from Georgia. JOHN LEWIS. who reminds us every day of the fear and feeling of being beaten near to death in his march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Alabama. He also reminds us how precious the right to vote is. When Dr. Martin Luther King. who refused to give up or give out or give in. marched again. and they made itwith so many people from all backgrounds and all over the Nationto Montgomery. Alabama. on that fateful trip back. everyone was celebrating that they had marched for the Voting Rights Act. that they had gotten through without violenceattributable. of course. to a Texas President by the name of Lyndon Baines Johnson. When a wonderful. wonderful ladywhose children I had the privilege of meetingwas driving back some foot soldiers. whom we will honor shortly at the leadership of TERRI SEWELL. when they were driving back and Viola Liuzzo was behind the wheel. lo and behold. somebody violently took a gun and killed her. Voting has never been easy. Voting rights has never been easy. A lot of blood was shed. It baffles me why we are faced with a situation where the United States Supreme Court eliminated section 5not an illegal provision. but a provision that somebody disliked because. I believe. it empowered voters. What the Congress was tasked to do by the Court. which I think incorrectly and wrongly ignored 15.000 pages of testimony. ignored tens upon tens of witnesses in a meticulous rewriting of the Voting Rights Act to prove that it was still necessary. in a skewed deliberation. the Supreme Court decided to reject it. indicating that it was long passe. And. of course. some brilliant legislators used the example: because we have eliminated polio because of the vaccination. is it appropriate to get rid of the vaccination? No. it is not. Mr. Speaker. So with that skewed and. if I might use the term. weird reasoning. we are left holding the bag and the door is open to the kinds of laws. such as voter ID laws. that spread across America like a contagious disease because we did not have the protection of section 5. which the idea of section 5 was a preclearance for men and women of goodwill to look and determine whether or not a procedure was going to block individuals from voting. Of course. the voter ID law from Texas sprung up. You will soon hear from the gentleman from Texas . my dear friend and colleague. because he was. in fact. the leader on the lawsuit. Let me say that that terrible law blocked a lot of people from voting. I want to remind people that the day of August 6. 1965. in the presence of such luminaries as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. Whitney Young of the National Urban League. James Forman of the Congress of Racial Equality. A. Philip Randolph. JOHN LEWIS. Robert Kennedy. Hubert Humphrey. and Everett Dirksenmind you. a lady was missing. but. in the event. many women were foot soldiers. The point was made on the Voting Rights Act: The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. In this instance. I would modify it and say "women." When the voting ID lawbecause of the misgivings of the State of Texas and its legislaturewas put in place. there were 80 counties at least in Texas that did not have a Department of Public Safety office for individuals to be able to register or to be able to get an ID. That is a tragedy. Each moment there is something coming out of Texas that wants to. in essence. put down the rights of individuals to vote. One case that should be brought to our attention is a case before the Supreme Court that indicates a group of petitioners who dont like the fact that you represent a population of people. So they want to characterize and get a definition of what a person means. and they want to make that person be an eligible voter. So. in essence. a sick person laying in a bed who needs health care and needs to be represented is not an eligible voter. Or a senior citizen that has gotten so old and feeble that they may not have been registered because of their illness and their feebleness. but they need to be represented. Or it may be a childHispanic. African American. Anglo. or Asianwho is not at the age of voting and they are not an eligible voter. Or. as I know they are focusing on. is hardworking individuals who happen to be immigrants and they are not yet eligible to vote. And this case is brought primarily to make sure that those people who need to be represented to the extent that they are taxpayers but are not yet status. they will not be counted. This case is not anything to do with voter fraud. These people are not trying to vote. They are just trying to survive. But you are telling me that they are human beings. and this case is suggesting that they cannot be represented. This is the devastating impact of not having voter protection in section 5. So I rise today to ensure that it is heard throughout the land: We can pass voter restoration. voter advancement. We can pass fixing the Voting Rights Act and restoring section 5. There are many people in this Congress who previously were here when we stood with President Bush. a Republican. and Republicans and Democrats 981. 982 in the Senate. massive support in the House. to restore the Voting Rights Act. Let me ask the question. Mr. Speaker: Why now? Why are we struggling in this Presidential year not to allow people to vote? Let me close my remarks because we could go on withhow should I say itthe irony and. as well. the wrongness of not passing legislation. But let me say this in closing: Redistricting is a result of the Voting Rights Act. Those of us in Texas are still in litigationfor 20 years some of uson the question of redistricting and making fair districts where all people are represented. And the gerrymandering that has been done. that disallows and disenfranchises whole chunks of minorities. disallowing them from voting for the person of their choice. do you know what it brings about? It brings about this House in the majoritygood friends of minehaving the sheer gall to deny the Presidents representative of the Office of Management and Budget to present the Presidents budget. In its 41year history. that has never happened. But because we have these districts that are drawn. not representing the vast numbers of people who should be able to hear the Presidents statement about his budget. by having his representative. the OMB Director. come before Congress and speak about what the President is trying to do: reducing the deficit. providing for education. protecting health care. job creation. economic security. universal access to child care. education for all. yearlong Pell Grants. all of that. and a national security for peacewe cant hear from the OMB Director because of the skewed redistricting that allows for the majority to be so overwhelmingly in charge that they would deny the normal processes of government. The Voting Rights Act and the empowerment of voters is crucial and a fair redrawing of lines to let all of the people be heard and all of the voters be able to speak. That is why I am on the floor today. I am looking forward to reasonable people coming together and fostering legislation that answers the constitutional call that we all are created equal with certain unalienable rightsthe rights of life. liberty. and the pursuit of happinesswhich is embodied in the vote of the American people. I yield back the balance of my time.