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Republican Leadership Lets Southerners Hijack Voting Rights Bill |
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Even though the bill to reauthorize key sections of the Voting Rights Act has strong bipartisan support, House leaders allowed a group of Southern Republicans to hijack the legislation today.
Republican leaders postponed a vote set for this afternoon under objections from Southern Republicans who complained that the legislation unfairly singles out their states for federal oversight.
Many of the Southerners who oppose the bill, led by Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and Charles Norwood (R-Ga.), represent states with some of the most egregious records of discrimination in voting, according to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), which includes the AFL-CIO and several affiliated unions.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the House leadership must act to pass the bill:
It’s outrageous that our nation’s leadership can preach the value of freedom and democracy to audiences abroad and yet turn a blind eye to the systematic trampling of basic rights here at home.
We expect the House leadership to take the reins and move this bill past this small group of saboteurs before they leave Washington next week for a July 4th recess. The nation’s continued progress towards equality demands it.
You can help get this bill passed by calling your representative in Congress (202-224-3121) and urging him or her to vote to renew the legislation that has been called the most successful civil rights bill ever.
Wade Henderson, executive director of LCCR, blasted those who oppose reauthorization:
We are extremely disappointed that the House did not vote today to renew and restore the Voting Rights Act because a small band of miscreants, at the last moment, hijacked this bipartisan, bicameral bill.
Those members who held up today’s vote represent retrogressive forces that America hasn’t seen at this level since the 1960s. Many of those trying to derail the Voting Rights Act represent states with the most egregious records of discrimination in voting—discrimination that continues to this day.
A series of reports by the Voting Rights Act Collaborative, a coalition of civil rights groups, shows widespread violations in states where the law applies.
The reauthorization bill, called the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (H.R. 9), would renew for 25 years three key provisions that expire in August 2007. The legislation needs to be renewed now, supporters say, because next year’s crowded congressional calendar may prevent the bill from clearing all legislative hurdles before the act expires.
The Voting Rights Act outlawed discriminatory practices such as literacy tests and poll taxes that prevented people of color from voting. While the act’s prohibitions against racial discrimination in voting are permanent, important portions of the act could expire in 2007. The main provision the Southerners want to stop requires locales with long histories of voter discrimination to prove to federal authorities that any proposed changes to balloting laws or procedures will not negatively impact minority voters.
Other provisions require some states to provide bilingual election assistance, including bilingual ballots, election materials and poll workers, and another allows the federal government to send election examiners and observers.
The two top House Democratic leaders, Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Steny Hoyer (Md.), both called on the Republican leadership to move the legislation without delay.
“This legislation is a recognition that our democratic system is not perfect,” Hoyer says. “The specter of discrimination still haunts us, and we have a responsibility to be vigilant in protecting the most elemental expression of equality in democracy—the right to vote.”
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