[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1114 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1114

  Expressing support for the designation of the month of September as 
                   ``National Voting Rights Month''.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 15, 2020

   Mr. Veasey (for himself, Mr. Suozzi, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Grijalva) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
     on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on House 
Administration, Intelligence (Permanent Select), Oversight and Reform, 
 Science, Space, and Technology, Education and Labor, Ways and Means, 
 Financial Services, Ethics, and Homeland Security, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing support for the designation of the month of September as 
                   ``National Voting Rights Month''.

Whereas voting is one of the single most important rights that can be exercised 
        in our democracy;
Whereas over the course of history, various voter suppression laws in the United 
        States have hindered, and even prohibited, certain individuals and 
        groups from exercising this right;
Whereas during the 19th and early 20th centuries, many Native Americans and 
        Americans who were born abroad, many individuals who did not speak or 
        write English, and many who were formerly subjected to slavery, were 
        denied full citizenship and prevented from voting by English literacy 
        tests;
Whereas since the 1870s, minority groups such as African Americans in the South 
        suffered from the oppressive effects of Jim Crow laws designed to 
        prevent political, economic, and social mobility;
Whereas African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and other 
        underrepresented groups were subject to violence, poll taxes, literacy 
        tests, all-White primaries, property ownership tests, and grandfather 
        clauses that sought to suppress their right to vote;
Whereas members of the aforementioned groups and others are currently, in some 
        cases, subject to intimidation, voter roll purges, bans on former 
        prisoners from voting, and financial barriers that act effectively as 
        modern day poll taxes;
Whereas in 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to protect the 
        rights of African Americans and other traditionally disenfranchised 
        groups to vote, among other reasons;
Whereas in 2013, in the landmark Shelby County v. Holder case, the Supreme Court 
        invalidated section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, dismantling the 
        preclearance provision in the law that protected voters in States and 
        units of local governments that historically have suppressed the rights 
        of minorities to vote;
Whereas since the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have 
        been vacated, among other effects, many States' gerrymandered districts 
        have gone unchallenged or have become less likely to be invalidated by 
        the courts;
Whereas these gerrymandered districts have been found to have a discriminatory 
        impact on traditionally disenfranchised minorities through tactics that 
        include ``cracking'', diluting their voting power across many districts, 
        and ``packing'', concentrating minority voters' power in one district to 
        reduce their voting power in other districts;
Whereas the courts have found the congressional and, in some cases, State 
        legislative district maps in Texas, North Carolina, Florida, 
        Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Wisconsin, and other States to be 
        gerrymandered districts that were created to favor some groups over 
        others;
Whereas the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court decision calls on Congress to 
        update the formula in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to better match 
        current data;
Whereas in at least 23 States, some form of restrictive voting law has been 
        instituted since 2013;
Whereas these restrictive voting laws encompass cutbacks in early voting, voter 
        roll purges, placement of faulty equipment in minority communities, 
        requirement of photo identification, and elimination of same-day 
        registration;
Whereas these policies could outright disenfranchise or make voting much more 
        difficult for more than 80 million minority, elderly, poor, and disabled 
        voters, among other groups;
Whereas in 2016 alone, discriminatory laws in North Carolina, Wisconsin, North 
        Dakota, and Texas were ruled to violate voters' rights and were 
        overturned by the courts;
Whereas the COVID-19 public health emergency has only exacerbated the state of 
        elections and voters' access to the ballot;
Whereas the lack of fair and safe election policies threaten minority 
        communities, which have been disproportionately impacted and 
        disenfranchised due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and their access to the 
        ballot;
Whereas tackling the challenges of administrating upcoming elections requires 
        increasing the accessibility of vote-by-mail and other limited contact 
        options to ensure the protection of voters' health and safety amid a 
        global pandemic;
Whereas as voting by mail becomes a safer and a more accessible option for 
        voters to exercise their Constitutional right to vote during these 
        unprecedented times, a fully functional and reliable United States 
        Postal Service is of paramount importance in successfully conducting 
        elections;
Whereas Congress must work to combat any attempts to dismantle or underfund the 
        United States Postal Service and thereby obstruct the passage of the 
        mail as blatant tactics of voter suppression and election interference;
Whereas there is much more work to be done to ensure all Americans have the 
        right to vote through free, fair, and accessible elections;
Whereas National Voter Registration Day is September 22; and
Whereas the month of September would be an appropriate month to designate as 
        ``National Voting Rights Month'' and ensure our democracy includes all 
        of us through the registration of voters and awareness of elections: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) supports the designation of ``National Voting Rights 
        Month'';
            (2) encourages all people in the United States to uphold 
        the right of every American to exercise his or her sacred and 
        fundamental right to vote;
            (3) commemorates the 100th anniversary of the House passage 
        of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to 
        vote, and the legacy of generations of suffragists that fought 
        to protect women's rights at the ballot;
            (4) encourages Congress to pass--
                    (A) H.R. 1 (S. 949), the For the People Act of 
                2019, to increase voters' access to the ballot, end 
                gerrymandering, create automatic voter registration, 
                limit the power of restrictive voter ID laws, make 
                critical investments in election infrastructure and 
                technology, and address corruption in campaign finance 
                and ethics;
                    (B) H.R. 4 (S. 4263), the John R. Lewis Voting 
                Rights Advancement Act of 2020, to restore the 
                protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that 
                prohibit discriminatory voting practices, remove 
                barriers to voting, and provide protections for 
                minority voters in States with a history of voting 
                discrimination;
                    (C) H.R. 7427, the ACCESS Act, to ensure every 
                eligible American voter is able to exercise their right 
                to vote safely and securely during a declared state of 
                emergency by guaranteeing no-excuse absentee voting, 
                expanding early voting, requiring state emergency 
                planning for voting during a state of emergency, 
                mandating emergency vote-by-mail and same-day voter 
                registration, and accommodations for voters on Indian 
                lands;
                    (D) H.R. 8015 (S. 4527), the Delivering for America 
                Act, to prohibit the United States Postal Services from 
                making changes to operations or levels of service from 
                those that were in effect on January 1, 2020, establish 
                requirements for the processing of election mail, and 
                provide additional funding for the Postal Service Fund;
                    (E) H.R. 2722, the Securing America's Federal 
                Elections (SAFE) Act, to provide funding for States to 
                improve the administration of elections, including 
                enhancement of technology, election security, replacing 
                antiquated voting systems, and meeting new standards 
                for administering elections; and
                    (F) other voting rights legislation that seeks to 
                advance voting rights and protect United States 
                elections;
            (5) recommends that our Nation's public schools and 
        universities develop an academic curriculum under which 
        students would learn about the importance of voting, how to 
        register to vote, where to vote, and the different forms of 
        voting; in addition to teaching the history of voter 
        suppression in America before and after the Voting Rights Act 
        of 1965, and current measures that have been passed to restrict 
        the vote;
            (6) encourages the Postal Service to issue a special John 
        Lewis stamp during the month of September to honor his life and 
        legacy and commitment to voting rights, and to remind Americans 
        about how ordinary citizens risked their lives, marched, and 
        participated in our great democracy so all Americans would have 
        the fundamental right to vote; and
            (7) invites Congress to allocate the requisite funds needed 
        for public service announcements on television, radio, 
        newspapers, magazines, social media, billboards, buses, and 
        other forms of media to remind Americans when elections are 
        being held, share important registration deadlines, and to urge 
        people to get out and vote.
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