FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July

FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - July 13, 2006)

BREAK IN THE TRANSCRIPT

Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Chairman, I thank my colleague, Mr. Watt, for yielding.

I urge my colleagues to support the renewal of the historic Voting Rights Act today and vote for the bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee without amendment.

I am very proud of the work we did on that committee on a bipartisan basis and want to commend the bipartisan leadership of the full committee,

the subcommittee, and Mr. Watt for his leadership.

On March 15, 1965, after years of struggle culminating in Bloody Sunday, where our colleague JOHN LEWIS so bravely marched, President Lyndon Johnson came to this very place and, from the podium behind me, called upon the Congress and the Nation and said to us all we shall overcome; we as a Nation shall overcome years of discrimination and efforts to throw obstacles in the way of African Americans and other minorities from exercising their constitutional right to vote and exercising their right to fully participate in this great democracy of ours.

We have come a long way as a Nation, but we have a long way to go to really overcome, as President Johnson called upon us to do.

The evidence before the Judiciary Committee was absolutely clear that serious problems in discrimination remain. The testimony made it clear that section 5 preclearance has been used more between 1982 and 2005 than between the years 1965 and 1982. The evidence showed that since 1982 the Department of Justice has objected to more than 700 discriminatory voting changes that have been enacted by the covered jurisdictions. The evidence showed that the covered jurisdictions withdrew an additional 200 proposed changes from section 5 review and an additional 600 voting changes were revised to ensure nondiscriminatory impact.

Anyone who says that we do not continue to need the Voting Rights Act is dead wrong.

In addition, there were many other findings.

We have a long way to go, Mr. Chairman, to achieve a more perfect Union. I urge my colleagues to adopt the bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee, without amendment.

BREAK IN THE TRANSCRIPT

http://thomas.loc.gov/