[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 35 (Thursday, March 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                      IN SUPPORT OF VOTING RIGHTS

  (Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning feeling 
like Fannie Lou Hammer. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I 
am sick and tired because, the courts are consistently inconsistent in 
their interpretation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
  I am sick and tired because there are six States in this country that 
have lawsuits pending challenging the creation of minority districts: 
North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Texas, 
all of which are southern States that have a history of discriminating 
against minorities at every level conceivable, education, housing, 
employment, public facilities and, more importantly, the political 
process. Of these six States, our great Justice Department has found a 
need to intervene in only one, which is a miscarriage of justice, to 
say the least, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion.
  I ask the question, Mr. Speaker, if we as Members of Congress who 
pass Federal laws virtually every day cannot depend on the Department 
of Justice to defend those laws, which they are constitutionally bound 
to do, then who will. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, if a minority voter in 
this country cannot depend on the Department of Justice to intervene on 
his behalf, when his voting rights are being violated, maybe we do not 
need a Justice Department after all.
  Again, I call upon the Justice Department and the Attorney General in 
particular to live up to its responsibility and exercise its fiduciary 
responsibility and obligation and defend the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

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