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Senate Approves Voting Rights Law, Adds César Chávez to Bill Name |
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is on its way to President Bush for his signature after the Senate voted unanimously, 98–0, today to reauthorize key sections of the law.
Passage came after an intensive, grassroots effort by union members, civil rights, religious and voting rights groups that put tremendous pressure on members of Congress to renew the legislation that has been called the most successful civil rights legislation in U.S. history. Activists’ efforts even moved some of the most recalcitrant senators to vote for the bill.
Responding to calls from the AFL-CIO and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, activists kept phone lines to Capitol Hill busy as they made a big push to get their lawmakers to reauthorize the critical provisions of the act.
The House voted July 13 to reauthorize key sections of the law by a strong 390–33 margin, with all the “nay” votes coming from Republicans.
By passing the measure, Congress renewed for 25 years key sections of the law, including those requiring language assistance and giving the federal government authority to review changes in voting rules in states with a history of discrimination.
During the nearly seven-hour debate on the Senate bill today, a parade of lawmakers praised the legacy of former President Lyndon Johnson, who proposed and signed the legislation in 1965. They also often invoked the words and spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., who led the fight for its passage, and the civil rights marchers who were beaten at the Pettis Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965, whose fate inspired a nation to support the VRA.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who was in the Senate when the VRA was passed in 1965, said during the debate:
By passing this act, we are taking a historic step in America’s battle to live up to its ideals. This act is Congress’s greatest contribution to the march toward equality.
But Kennedy warned his colleagues that the legislation will be worthless unless the Bush administration and the federal courts enforce the law and interpret it the way Congress intended.
Many congressional analysts and legal experts expect the voting rights issue to end up in court. They expect opponents of the VRA to sue to block implementation of the provisions passed by Congress. Several senators alluded to the possibility of a court fight and made sure they read into the record their intent that the law provide a guide for judges who may rule on it later.
The bill was sent to the floor today after the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved it yesterday without amendments. According to the Congressional Quarterly, the hearing room was filled mostly by delegates to the NAACP convention meeting in Washington, D.C., who gave the committee a standing ovation after the vote.
By voice vote, the panel also approved an amendment to add the name of César Chávez, the Mexican-American union leader, to the title of the bill. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) first suggested adding the name of a prominent Latino to go alongside the names of African-American civil rights figures Coretta Scott King, Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks.
The Senate added Chávez’s name to the title of the bill through a technical amendment that does not require a conference committee with the House. On the floor during debate, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) also proposed adding the name of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), who was one of the civil rights marchers beaten on the Pettis Bridge.
The committee rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would have weakened the requirement that states provide bilingual assistance to voters who have problems with English language proficiency.
Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) said the law is still very much needed:
It’s hard for some of us to admit that we still need this legislation. We’d like to say that we have reached our goal, but we know that we’re not there yet.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the only African American senator, said the vote gives Congress the opportunity to renew its commitment to voting rights:
We can’t afford to sit on our laurels with the reauthorization. Our challenges don’t end with this vote. We need to stop the abuses we’ve seen in the past elections.
Obama called for action to make sure election laws are enforced throughout the country, that voting equipment is equitably distributed to all communities and that it operates correctly. In Ohio, for example, many voting machines in the inner cities broke down on Election Day in 2004. Obama also called for an end to voter intimidation.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who attended segregated schools through the sixth grade, said his life has been better because of the civil rights movement:
In the 1960s, people died, gave their blood and sweat. They were willing to die to play a meaningful role in American life. And there is no more meaningful role than to be able to vote.
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