[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4961 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4961

    To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to clarify the intent of 
                               Congress.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 26, 2000

 Mr. Watt of North Carolina (for himself, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of 
Texas, Mr. Wynn, Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Clyburn, Mr. Towns, Ms. 
   Norton, Mr. Fattah, Ms. Lee, Mr. Scott, Ms. Brown of Florida, Mr. 
   Hastings of Florida, Mrs. Meek of Florida, Mr. Clay, Mr. Lewis of 
 Georgia, Mr. Payne, Mr. Dixon, Mrs. Clayton, Mr. Conyers, Ms. Waters, 
  Mr. Meeks of New York, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Bishop, Ms. 
 Carson, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Ford, Mrs. Jones of 
 Ohio, Ms. Kilpatrick, Ms. Millender-McDonald, Mr. Rangel, Mr. Jackson 
 of Illinois, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Hilliard, Ms. McKinney, Mr. Owens, 
 Mr. Rush, and Mr. Jefferson) introduced the following bill; which was 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to clarify the intent of 
                               Congress.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Voting Rights Clarification Act of 
2000''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the Department of Justice has consistently enforced 
        section 5 of the Voting Rights Act by interposing objections to 
        changes in qualifications, prerequisites, standards, practices, 
        or procedures relating to voting where those changes were 
        motivated by any purpose or intent to discriminate on the basis 
        of race or color, not just the limited purpose or intent to 
        retrogress;
            (2) certain aspects of recent decisions and opinions of the 
        Supreme Court have unduly narrowed the standard of review 
        applied to changes affecting voting under section 5 of the 
        Voting Rights Act of 1965; and
            (3) legislative action is necessary to restore the prior 
        consistent and longstanding executive branch interpretation of 
        section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION OF PURPOSE TO DENY OR ABRIDGE.

    Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is amended by inserting 
``As used in this subsection, `purpose . . . of denying or abridging' 
is not limited to the purpose or intent to retrogress but can be any 
purpose or intent to discriminate.'' after ``procedure:'' and before 
``Provided,'' in the first sentence.
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