OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Restoring Voting Rights

Floor Speech

Date: Oct. 8, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2015, H.R. 885, and urge Republican Leadership to bring it to the floor for consideration.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was born from the ``Bloody Sunday'' marches from Selma to Montgomery.

With its enactment over fifty years ago, it protected the ability of every American to make their voice heard at the voting booth.

In 2013, that changed. In the two years since the Supreme Court struck down one of the Voting Rights Act's most important provisions in Shelby County v. Holder,--the Justice Department's ability to prevent discriminatory rules--our democracy has been weakened.

Mr. Speaker, every American deserves unfettered access to exercising one of our most basic rights--the right to vote.

It is time for Congress to right the wrong created by the Shelby decision and pass H.R. 885, legislation that restores the full power of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

I urge my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 885, and I strongly urge Republican Leadership to bring it to the floor for a vote before October 31st.

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