Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006

FANNIE LOU HAMER, ROSA PARKS, AND CORETTA SCOTT KING VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION AND AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2006 -- (Senate - July 20, 2006)

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, as a cosponsor of the Senate bill, I am pleased the Senate is considering the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Reauthorization and Amendments Act, H.R. 9.

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law 41 years ago as a direct reaction to the vicious attacks against civil rights demonstrators crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. After these attacks, President Johnson was able to end a long deadlock with certain Members of Congress attempting to weaken the legislation. The act passed in August 1965 and successfully prohibited measures that localities had developed to disenfranchise racial and ethnic minorities, such as literacy tests, ``grandfather clauses,'' character assessments, poll taxes, and intimidation techniques, often violent. It was also drafted to prevent the racial gerrymandering, at-large election systems, staggered terms, and runoff requirements certain jurisdictions were using to dilute the effect of the minority vote.

Since then, sections 2 and 4 of the law, prohibiting the use of tests and devices intended to dissuade minority voting, have made obvious attempts to disenfranchise minorities a thing of the past. By requiring district court or attorney general determination of whether a proposed election change would abridge voting rights, section 5 has deterred measures frequently used before 1965 to weaken minority votes.

Thanks to the original law and the reauthorizations that followed, an increasing number of African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans have been voting, decreasing the gap between white and minority turnout. Minorities report fewer attempts to curtail their rights and minority districts have allowed a greater number of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans to be elected to office. The Voting Rights Act, then, has been successful in helping to carry out the promise of the 15th amendment.

Since 1965, Congress has responded to continuing or new evidence of disenfranchisement and vote dilution through the Voting Rights Act reauthorization process. And this reauthorization is no different.

The nonpartisan Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights, which President John F. Kennedy created to promote voting equality, established a commission to conduct an investigation into vote discrimination in preparation for this most recent reauthorization proposal. The conclusions of the Commission, echoed in the many congressional hearings held on the law, was that, while the Voting Rights Act has successfully eliminated systematic efforts to disenfranchise voters, restrictions to ballot access and weakening of the minority vote are still occurring. In fact, the Commission reported that attempts to repress the minority vote, ``are still encountered in every election cycle across the country,'' citing deterrents against English-language minorities, unduly burdensome requirements for registration and voting, and election laws that result in vote dilution. Unfortunately, the 41 years this law has been in effect have not yet overcome centuries of discriminatory practice.

Since the last reauthorization, the Supreme Court, in Reno v. Bossier Parish II and Georgia v. Ashcroft, has also curtailed the intent of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, deciding that the act does not prohibit redistricting with the purpose or effect of weakening minority votes. Many of the changes in the bill before us were drafted as a direct response to these cases. This act not only renews the expiring provisions, it restores the original intent of section 5 by prohibiting the approval of any proposed election law change having the effect of diluting a minority voting population.

As my courageous colleague, John Lewis, has said, ``The sad truth is discrimination still exists. We must not go back to the dark past.''

This reauthorization will provide the tools we need to honor our constitutional commitment to allow all of our citizens to vote. It reinvigorates the guarantee that is the foundation of our democracy the right to vote and it is a pledge not to return to a time when, as Martin Luther King said, ``The denial of this sacred right [was] a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition.''

I am honored to support this bill and would like to thank my colleagues, Senators SPECTER and LEAHY, for their work and leadership in bringing it to the floor.

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