Date: 2016-02-11
Speaker: JOHN LEWIS (democrat)
Chamber: H

of the Student NonViolent Coordinating Committee. Senators Robert Kennedy. Hubert Humphrey. and Everett Dirksen. President Johnson said before signing the Voting Rights Act. in: "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." The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was critical to preventing brazen voter discrimination violations that historically left millions of African Americans disenfranchised. In 1940. for example. there were less than 30.000 African Americans registered to vote in Texas and only about 3% of African Americans living in the South were registered to vote. Poll taxes. literacy tests. and threats of violence were the major causes of these racially discriminatory results. After passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. which prohibited these discriminatory practices. registration and electoral participation steadily increased to the point that by 2012. more than 1.2 million African Americans living in Texas were registered to vote. In 1964. the year before the Voting Rights Act became law. there were approximately 300 AfricanAmericans in public office. including just three in Congress. Few. if any. black elected officials were elected anywhere in the South. Because of the Voting Rights Act. as of 2013 there are more than 9.100 black elected officials. including 43 members of Congress. the largest number ever. The Voting Rights Act opened the political process for many of the approximately 6.000 Latino public officials that have been elected and appointed nationwide. including 263 at the state or federal level. 27 of whom serve in Congress. Native Americans. Asians and others who have historically encountered harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited greatly. The crown jewel of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Section 5. which requires that states and localities with a chronic record of discrimination in voting practices secure federal approval before making any changes to voting processes. Section 5 protects minority voting rights where voter discrimination has historically been the worst. Since 1982. Section 5 has stopped more than 1.000 discriminatory voting changes in their tracks. including 107 discriminatory changes right here in Texas. And it is a source of eternal pride to all of us in Houston. that in pursuit of extending the full measure of citizenship to all Americans that in 1975. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. who also represented this historic 18th Congressional District of Texas. introduced. and the Congress adopted. what are now Sections 4(f)(3) and 4(f)(4) of the Voting Rights Act. which extended the protections of Section 4(a) and Section 5 to language minorities. Barbara Jordan championed this reform because as she stated during the floor debate on the 1975 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act: "There are MexicanAmerican people in the State of Texas who have been denied the right to vote. who have been impeded in their efforts to register and vote. who have not had encouragement from those election officials because they are brown people[.] "So. the state of Texas. if we approve [the Jordan language included in the bill]. would be brought within the coverage of this Act for the first time." We must remain ever vigilant and oppose all schemes that will abridge or dilute the precious right to vote. And we are here today to remind the nation that the right to votethat "powerful instrument that can break down the walls of injustice"-is facing grave threats. The threat stems from the decision issued in June 2013 by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder. 570 U.S. 193 (2013). which invalidated Section 4(b) of the VRA. and paralyzed the application of the VRAs Section 5 preclearance requirements. Earlier this week. the Maryland Senate voted to override Governor Larry Hogans veto of a bill that allows formerly incarcerated individuals to register to vote after they are released from prison. Also. the Iowa Supreme Court will also be considering amending laws to grant the right to vote those who have been incarcerated in the past. Amending this legislation is important for the population because it will help in the reintegration of these individuals. and secure their right to vote. In light of this. there is still progress in the fight to restore the right to vote. According to the Supreme Court majority. the reason for striking down Section 4(b): "Times change." Now. the Court was right. times have changed. But what the Court did not fully appreciate is that the positive changes it cited are due almost entirely to the existence and vigorous enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. And that is why the Voting Rights Act is still needed. Let me put it this way: in the same way that the vaccine invented by Dr. Jonas Salk in 1953 eradicated the crippling effects but did not eliminate the cause of polio. the Voting Rights Act succeeded in stymieing the practices that resulted in the wholesale disenfranchisement of African Americans and language minorities but did eliminate them entirely. The Voting Rights Act is needed as much today to prevent another epidemic of voting disenfranchisement as Dr. Salks vaccine is still needed to prevent another polio epidemic. However. officials in some states. notably Texas and North Carolina. seemed to regard the Shelby decision as a green light and rushed to implement election laws. policies. and practices that could never pass muster under the Section 5 preclearance regime. We all remember the Voter ID law passed in Texas in 2011. which required every registered voter to present a valid governmentissued photo ID on the day of polling in order to vote. The Justice Department blocked the law in March of 2012. and it was Section 5 that prohibited it from going into effect. At least it did until the Shelby decision because on the very same day that Shelby County v. Holder was decided officials in Texas announced they would immediately implement the Photo ID law. and other election laws. policies. and practices that could never pass muster under the Section 5 preclearance regime. The Texas Photo ID law was challenged in federal court and thankfully. just yesterday. the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos that Texas strict voter identification law discriminated against blacks and Hispanics and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To take another example. last year. Councilwoman Pat Van Houte. who serves on the Pasadena. Texas City Council was forcibly ejected by armed officers at the direction of Pasadena Mayor Johnny Isbell at a council meeting to consider a controversial redistricting plan. The Pasadena redistricting plan is one of the first to be implemented in the aftermath of the Shelby v. Holder decision. Pushed through by Mayor Isbell and narrowly passed by the voters. the redistricting plan switches two of the citys eight council seats from single member district to atlarge. Thus. the effect of the plan is to dilute the voting power of the poorer. predominantly Hispanic residents of the Pasadenas north side who opposed the change. and to increase the voting power of residents in the wealthier. whiter south side who supported it. This shameful episode is a reminder that the Voting Rights Act protected not only right to vote in federal elections but also applied to state and local jurisdictions as well. For example. Section 5 subjected to preclearance and could have blocked the Texas Education Administration (TEA) from closing the North Forest Independent School District (NFISD) and disbanding its locally elected school board comprised of 7 African American members. Once freed by the Shelby County decision from having to pass muster under Section 5. however. TEA directed the annexation of the NFISD by HISD and dissolved the school board. thus diluting the ability of the African American and Hispanic community residents served by NFISD to influence the decisions affecting the education opportunities of their children. Protecting voting rights and combating voter suppression schemes are two of the critical challenges facing our great democracy. Without safeguards to ensure that all citizens have equal access to the polls. more injustices are likely to occur and the voices of millions silenced. Those of us who cherish the right to vote justifiably are skeptical of Voter ID laws because we understand how these laws. like poll taxes and literacy tests. can be used to impede or negate the ability of seniors. racial and language minorities. and young people to cast their votes. Consider the demographic groups who lack a government issued ID: African Americans: 25%. Asian Americans: 20%. Hispanic Americans: 19%. Young people. aged 1824: 18%. Persons with incomes less than $35.000: 15%. Voter ID laws are just one of the means that can be used to abridge or suppress the right to vote. Others include: 1. Curtailing or Eliminating Early Voting 2. Ending SameDay Registration 3. Not counting provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct on Election Day will not count. 4. Eliminating Teenage PreRegistration 5. Shortened Poll Hours 6. Lessening the standards governing voter challenges to vigilantes like the King Street Patriots to cause trouble at the polls. Today. I call upon House Speaker RYAN to bring legislation intended to protect the right to vote of all Americans to the floor for debate and vote. Specifically. I call for the passage of the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendments Act. (H.R. 3899 and H.R. 885) of which I am an original cosponsor. which repairs the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court decision. This legislation replaces the old static coverage formula with a new dynamic coverage formula. or rolling trigger. which effectively gives the legislation nationwide reach because any state and any jurisdiction in any state potentially is subject to being covered if the requisite number of violations are found to have been committed. Alternatively. I call upon the Speaker to let the House debate and vote on the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 . a bill that provides even greater federal oversight of jurisdictions which have a history of voter suppression and protects vulnerable communities from discriminatory voting practices. Second. I call for the passage of H.R. 12. the Voter Empower Act of 2015. legislation I have cosponsored that protects voters from suppression. deception. and other forms of disenfranchisement by modernizing voter registration. promoting access to voting for individuals with disabilities. and protecting the ability of individuals to exercise the right to vote in elections for federal office. Before concluding there is one other point I would like to stress. In his address to the nation before signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. President Johnson said: "Presidents and Congresses. laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot. "But only the individual Negro. and all others who have been denied the right to vote. can really walk through those doors. and can use that right. and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfillment." In other words. political powerand the justice. opportunity. inclusion. and fulfillment it providescomes not from the right to vote but in the exercise of that right. And that means it is the civic obligation of every citizen to both register and vote in every election. state and local as well as federal. Because if we can register and vote. but fail to do so. we are guilty of voluntary voter suppression. the most effective method of disenfranchisement ever devised. And in recent years. we have not been doing a very good job of exercising our civic responsibility to register. vote. and make our voices heard. In the last two mayoral elections in Houston. barely 10 percent of city residents bothered to cast ballots (12% in 2011 and 13% in 2013). in many districtlevel elections. turnout rates were less than 10 percent. For millions of Americans. the right to vote protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is sacred treasure. earned by the sweat and toil and tears and blood of ordinary Americans who showed the world it was possible to accomplish extraordinary things. As we are approaching the 51st anniversary of that landmark law. let us rededicate ourselves to honoring those who won for us this precious right by remaining vigilant and fighting against both the efforts of others to abridge or suppress the right to vote and our own apathy in exercising this sacred right.