Van Hollen Statement on he Voting Rights Act
Van Hollen Statement on the Voting Rights Act
Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) released the following statement:
"Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the renewal of the historic Voting Rights Act and vote for the bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee without amendments.
"I am very proud of the work we did on a bipartisan basis in the Judiciary Committee and want to commend the bipartisan leadership of the full committee, the subcommittee, and Mr. Watt.
"On March 15, 1965 - after years of struggle culminating in Bloody Sunday, when 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" - that 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.
"And 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 of discrimination remain. The testimony made it clear that Section 5, Pre-Clearance, 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 covered jurisdictions. The evidence showed that covered jurisdictions withdrew an additional 200 proposed voting changes from Section 5 review and an additional 600 voting changes were revised to ensure non-discriminatory impact. Anyone who says that we don't continue to need the Voting Rights Act is dead wrong.
"In addition, there were many other fact findings. We have a long way to come, Mr. Speaker, to achieve a more perfect union. I urge my colleagues to adopt the bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee without amendment."
http://www.house.gov/list/press/md08_vanhollen/VRA_Passing_Stmt.html