Date: 2012-01-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

First. I want to speak to the gentleladys last comment and say that you have been a champion for the Virgin Islands. I have had the privilege of having several meetings there. They are generous people. they are our neighbors. and so I personally want to say. experiencing and understanding the impact of the loss of a major entity is something many of us have gone through. In this instance I wanted to say. yes. we will stand with you and be of help. Im introducing legislation that deals with trying to look at the energy industry in a way to help it grow in a fair way. to be environmentally safe. and I know that you are certainly someone who is a champion of the environment but have found that that business is served economically. and I want to make sure that we have these kinds of industries. and they are not mutually exclusive. I dont have the facts of what has generated this action. but we need to be helpful. My legislation talks about using the energy industry to also support improving the environment. and I think that creates jobs as well. So I just want to say that I look forward to working with you and thank you for bringing that issue to our attention. because voter protection gives people the opportunity for expressing their views. We know that the opportunity for work and for jobs is crucial as well. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about the need to protect democracy. to protect the voice of the American people. and to ensure the right to vote continues to be treated as a right under the Constitution rather than being treated as though it is privilege. I am joined by my colleagues here today to call on all Americans to reject and denounce tactics and measures that have absolutely no place in our democracy. I call on AfricanAmericans. Hispanic and Latino Americans. as well as AsianAmerican voters to band together to fight for their right to vote and to work together to understand their voting rights which are granted to citizens of our nation by our laws and our Constitution. I call on these citizens to stand against harassment and intimidation. to vote in the face of such adversity. The most effective way to curb tactics of intimidation and harassment is to vote. Is to stand together to fight against any measures that would have the effect of preventing every eligible citizen from being able to vote. Voting ensures active participation in democracy. As a Member of this body. I firmly believe that we must protect the rights of all eligible citizens to vote. Over the past few decades. minorities in this country have witnessed a pattern of efforts to intimidate and harass minority voters through socalled "Voter ID" requirements. I am sad to report that as we head into the 21st century. these efforts continue. Never in the history of our nation. has the effect of one person. one vote. been more important. A great Spanish Philosopher. George Santayana once said "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Our history has taught us that denying the right to vote based on race. gender or class is a stain on the democratic principles that we all value. The Voting Rights Act was a reaction to the actions of our passed and a way to pave the road to a new future. The Voting Rights Act (VRA) was adopted in 1965 and was extended in 1970. 1975. 1982. and 2007. This legislation is considered the most successful piece of civil rights legislation ever adopted by the United States Congress. Contrary to the prevailing rumor that the Act is due to expire. leaving minorities with no rights. the Act is actually due for reauthorization in the 2nd session of the 108th Congressthere is no doubt about whether it will continue to protect our rights in the future. The VRA codifies and effectuates the 15th Amendments permanent guarantee that. throughout the nation. no person shall be denied the right to vote on account of race or color. Adopted at a time when African Americans were substantially disfranchised in many Southern states. the Act employed measures to restore the right to vote to citizens of all U.S. states. By 1965. proponents of disenfranchisement made violent attempts to thwart the efforts of civil rights activists. The murder of votingrights activists in Philadelphia and Mississippi gained national attention. along with numerous other acts of violence and terrorism. Finally. the unprovoked attack on March 7. 1965. by state troopers on peaceful marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Alabama. en route to the state capitol in Montgomery. persuaded the President and Congress to overcome Southern legislators resistance to effective voting rights legislation. President Johnson issued a call for a strong voting rights law and hearings began soon thereafter on the bill that would become the Voting Rights Act. Congress adopted this farreaching statute in response to a rash of instances of interference with attempts by African American citizens to exercise their right to votea rash that appears to be manifesting itself again in this nation. Perhaps a legislative measure is needed to respond in a way that the VRA did. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the VRA in 1966 in a landmark decisionSouth Carolina v. Katzenbach. 383 U.S. 301. 32728: Congress had found that casebycase litigation was inadequate to combat widespread and persistent discrimination in voting. because of the inordinate amount of time and energy required to overcome the obstructionist tactics invariably encountered in these lawsuits. After enduring nearly a century of systematic resistance to the Fifteenth Amendment. Congress might well decide to shift the advantage of time and inertia from the perpetrators of the evil to its victims. It seems that the "obstructionist tactics" that threatened the aggrieved parties in Katzenbach have returned. The advantages of "time and inertia" that were shifted from bigoted bureaucrats to minority victims are slowly shifting back against their favor when educators. government leaders. and agencies are allowed to contravene the policy and legal conclusions given by the highest court in the country. Several factors influenced the initiation of this civil rights legislation. The first was a large shift in the number of African Americans away from the Republican Party. Second. many Democrats felt that it was a mistake of its Southern members to oppose civil rights legislation because they could lose more of the African American and liberal votes. No right is more fundamental than the right to vote. It is protected by more constitutional amendmentsthe 1st. 14th. 15th. 19th. 24th and 26ththan any other right we enjoy as Americans. Broad political participation ensures the preservation of all our other rights and freedoms. 3 State laws that impose new restrictions on voting. however. undermine our strong democracy by impeding access to the polls and reducing the number of Americans who vote and whose votes are counted.