[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 73 (Thursday, May 24, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5603-S5604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         A CHANGE IN THE SENATE

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I rise for a couple of minutes to briefly 
discuss the change that occurred today in the Senate and to share some 
thoughts, if I may.
  First, I think I can safely speak for virtually all of us in this 
Chamber on both sides of the aisle in expressing our affection for our 
colleague from Vermont. He has been a friend to us for many years. He 
is known in this body as a good and decent man. I have no doubt that 
the high esteem in which he has been held will continue.
  Secondly, I think it bears mentioning that despite the change in the 
caucus ratio that will soon occur, the Senate is going about its 
business today much as it did yesterday and much as I am confident it 
will in the days to come. That is how this institution functions, and 
whether ratios change by 1 or 2 in one direction or the other is 
certainly big political news for some, I guess. My guess is that the 
substantive work will continue much as it has, with us having to work 
out differences and compromise to benefit the public at large.
  This conduct of business according to established and familiar 
routines is a good sign that the Senate will to a large degree continue 
to operate on a bipartisan basis to accomplish the work the American 
public sent us here to do.
  This change will, without a doubt, have an impact on committee 
ratios, on the subject of hearings and witnesses, and on the substance 
of legislation we will consider, to some degree. However, just as 
important, it should--and I believe will--cement the need for 
bipartisanship in how we conduct our business and in how we govern 
together

[[Page S5604]]

with the administration and the other body.
  We in the Democratic Caucus now share a new responsibility with our 
Republican friends for addressing and advancing, as equal partners, the 
interests of the larger American public. I know of nobody in our caucus 
who shrinks from or shirks that responsibility. Indeed, I think we all 
welcome it.
  Likewise for our Republican friends, bipartisanship will now become 
as much a necessity for them as it has been for us Democrats.
  Perhaps most importantly, it will not be enough any longer to embrace 
bipartisanship in word; we will from now on have to demonstrate it in 
deeds as well. I look forward to beginning this new chapter in the 
Senate's history with all of our colleagues.
  On that score, allow me to say that I hope one of the first orders of 
business we will take up after reorganizing will be election reform. I 
realize we have many important matters to consider regarding education, 
a Patients' Bill of Rights, prescription drugs, energy, the 
environment, environmental protection, minimum wage, and foreign and 
defense policies. The list is rather long and tremendously worthwhile.
  But I submit to our colleagues that election reform is also an issue 
that deserves our early consideration in the Senate. It is an issue of 
fundamental importance for the simple reason that it concerns the most 
fundamental of American rights, the right to vote. I know a number of 
our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have given various opinions 
on this matter, and even drafted legislation. These include my 
colleague from Arizona, Senator McCain, Senator Hollings, Senator 
McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Schumer, Senator Brownback, Senator 
Torricelli, and others.
  There are a lot of ideas kicking around on how we might improve the 
electoral process in this country. The list reflects a widespread and 
bipartisan recognition that the events of last November--not just in 
Florida and not just last November, but ones that have been ongoing for 
a number of years--illustrate that our electoral system is in need of 
repair and reform. With only one-half of all the eligible voters in 
this country participating in a Presidential election and one-quarter 
of those eligible voters choosing the President of the United States, 
then I think all of us recognize that, if we do nothing else, there is 
need for reform that would make this process more inclusive, to reach 
out to every American who is not participating in this process.
  I hope we will act in that recognition in the weeks to come, and I 
hope we will pass legislation which ensures that many of the mistakes 
and wrongs, if you will, in the electoral process will forever be 
events of the past, never to be repeated.
  Congressman John Conyers of Michigan and I have introduced 
legislation that will establish some minimum national requirements to 
ensure that voters, on Presidential races and races involving the 
National Legislature, regardless of race, disability, or language 
minority, will not be turned away from the polls in the next 
Presidential election. This legislation has well over 100 cosponsors in 
the House of Representatives, the other body, and 50 cosponsors in this 
Chamber.
  This bill would establish three commonsense requirements:
  First, that all voting machines and systems used in Federal 
elections, starting in the year 2004, conform to uniform, 
nondiscriminatory standards to ensure that no voter will be 
disenfranchised because of race; that blind and disabled voters can 
vote with independence and privacy; language minorities can read 
ballots and instructions in their native language; and all of us can 
vote with the assurance that our vote will not be canceled because of 
overvotes, undervotes, or outdated machinery.

  Second, the bill requires that all States provide for provisional 
voting so that no voter who goes to the polls is told he or she cannot 
vote because their name is not on a registration list or their 
identification is not good enough.
  Third, and lastly, the bill provides that all voters receive a copy 
or sample ballot with instructions on how to vote, including their 
rights as voters.
  In this Senator's view, with any legislation that doesn't include 
these three national requirements is simply unacceptable.
  Bills that only offer, on a voluntary basis, funding for States to 
take certain actions will not ensure that Americans--African Americans, 
Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, the blind and disabled, and many 
others--working men and women across the country, can exercise their 
most precious right to vote and to have their vote counted.
  Forty-seven years ago this month, the Supreme Court issued its 
landmark decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. On that 
May day, the Court did not rule that States could desegregate their 
classrooms. It ruled that they would do so ``with all deliberate 
speed,'' in the now famous words of that decision.
  Thirty-seven years ago, when we wrote the Civil Rights Act, the 
Congress did not say that restaurants, stores, hotels, and other public 
accommodations could desegregate their facilities. We decreed that they 
would do so, and do so without delay.
  When, in 1965, we passed the Voting Rights Act, the Congress did not 
say States could, if they so chose, do away with barriers to voting 
such as poll taxes and literacy tests. We said they had to do away with 
it because the right to vote was far too precious and too vital to be 
in any way denied to any American citizen based on race or ethnicity.

  Lastly, when in 1990 Bob Dole and President George Bush joined with 
George Mitchell, Ted Kennedy, and others to enact the Americans with 
Disabilities Act, we did not leave it to chance as to whether public 
facilities would be accessible to the disabled. We decided as a country 
that the time had come to remove those barriers to access.
  At critical moments, whether it was to go to a restroom or a 
restaurant or to have access to a hotel or any other public 
accommodation, we said that people had the right to be there, and in 
the case of a voting booth, it certainly ought to hold no less a status 
than a restaurant, restroom, hotel, or any other public accommodation. 
People ought to have the right to be in that voting booth, to cast 
their vote and have it counted.
  At critical moments in our history, such as those I just enumerated, 
our Nation has been resolved in advancing the cause of equality and 
freedom. We have not settled for voluntary measures when fundamental 
rights were at stake. I believe the same resolve is called for at this 
moment in our history when we know that so many Americans, perhaps 
millions, were denied the right to vote and the right to have their 
vote counted. With the same resolve demonstrated in times past, we can 
assure that will never happen again in America as it was so unjustly 
denied to many in the previous elections.
  I urge my colleagues to take a look at the proposed legislation. When 
we return after the break, I invite any comments, thoughts, and ideas 
on how this bill can be improved, but I hope there will be strong 
bipartisan support for this effort. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.

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