Hearing of the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee - The State of Civil and Human Rights in the United States

Hearing

Our identity as Americans is based on ideas and values, not ethnicity or creed.
This is what makes our nation unique. But since its founding, there has been a
divide between the promise and the reality of America. The man who wrote in our
Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal" was a slaveholder.
And the Constitution -- our founding charter -- treated African Americans as
property and women as second-class citizens.

The history of our country has been a slow march to fulfill the promise of our
ideas. Brave men and women have fought and sacrificed -- sometimes even giving
their lives -- in the struggle to create the "more perfect union" that our national
charter promised.

The election of our first black president shows that we have come a long way as a
nation. But it is important to recognize -- and to say clearly -- that there is still a
problem with racism in America and we still have work to do.

This Subcommittee has tried to look in the mirror -- to examine what more needs to
be done to protect civil and human rights in our country.

We have tried to understand the human impact of the issues we debate by hearing
directly from the people who are most affected. We have given a platform to
voices that are not often heard in the halls of Congress.

I have often said that this Subcommittee focuses on legislation, not lamentation.
And we have taken the words of our witnesses and translated them into action.

I worked with the first Ranking Member of this Subcommittee -- Senator Tom
Coburn -- to pass four laws that give the government more power to prosecute
human rights abusers. In 2012, the Obama Administration used this authority to
deport Liberian warlord George Boley for using child soldiers.

After we heard the powerful testimony of Cedric Parker, I worked with Senator
Jeff Sessions and other members of the Judiciary Committee to pass the Fair
Sentencing Act, which significantly reduced the sentencing disparity between
crack and powder cocaine and repealed a mandatory minimum sentence for the
first time since the Nixon Administration.

After this Subcommittee held the first-ever Congressional hearings on solitary
confinement -- where we heard from Anthony Graves and Damon Thibodeaux --
the federal Bureau of Prisons agreed to my request to submit to the first
independent assessment of its solitary confinement policies and practices.

After we heard the brave testimony of Harpreet Singh Saini, I successfully pushed
the Justice Department to begin tracking hate crimes against Sikh Americans, Arab
Americans, and Hindu Americans.

But, we have been reminded in recent days that there is much more work to do.

When our government still believes that it is acceptable -- in the name of security --
to profile people based on their race, national origin or religion, there is more work
to do.

When Muslim Americans are the targets of violent hate crimes simply because of
their religion, there is more work to do.

When states around the country adopt laws that make it harder for minority
communities to vote, there is more work to do.

When unarmed African-American men and boys are killed, and their names --
Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner -- bring tears to
our eyes, there is more work to do.

When protestors take to the streets to shout out:

-"Hands up, don't shoot."
-"I can't breathe."
-"Black lives matter."

… there is more work to do.

When a significant part of the American family is disenfranchised and does not
trust the police or the criminal justice system, there is more work to do.

Congress must play our part. We should start with a number of bipartisan efforts
to protect civil and human rights. For example, we should pass the Smarter
Sentencing Act, which I introduced with Senator Mike Lee, and which is
cosponsored by Senator Leahy, the Chairman of the Committee, and Senator Cruz,
the Ranking Member of this Subcommittee. The Smarter Sentencing Act would
make important reforms to our sentencing laws for nonviolent drug offenses.

We should restore federal voting rights for ex-offenders, which Senators Cardin
and Paul have both proposed. There are some 5.8 million Americans who, after
paying their debt to society, are still denied the right to vote. And this type of
disenfranchisement has a disproportionate impact on people of color.

We also should pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act, which was authored by
Chairman Leahy, and Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner. This
bipartisan legislation is a response to the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County
decision, which gutted the Voting Rights Act.

This is my last hearing as Chairman of this Subcommittee before I turn over the
gavel to Senator Cruz, the incoming Chairman. Clearly, there is much more work
to do, and I look forward to working with Senator Cruz in the 114th Congress as we
continue the struggle to create a more perfect union.

Source