[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 51 (Wednesday, May 3, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3987-S3988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SPECTER (for himself, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Frist, Mr. Reid, Mr. 
        Grassley, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. DeWine, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. 
        Brownback, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Warner, Mr. Inouye, Mr. 
        Hagel, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Chafee, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Allen, Ms. 
        Landrieu, Mr. Obama, Mr. Salazar, and Mr. Menendez):
  S. 2703. A bill to amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965; to the 
Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to join the chairmen of both 
the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, the ranking member of the 
House Judiciary Committee, the Democratic and Republican leaders of 
both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and members of 
Congress from both parties to introduce a bill to reauthorize and 
reinvigorate the temporary provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 
The bicameral, bipartisan introduction of this bill reflects not only 
its historic importance as a guarantor of the right to vote for all 
Americans, but also the broad consensus that the expiring provisions 
must be extended this year without delay.
  There are few things as critical to our Nation, and to American 
citizenship, as voting. Like the rights guaranteed by the First 
Amendment, the right to vote is foundational because it secures the 
effective exercise of all other rights. As people are able to register, 
vote, and elect candidates of their choice, their interests and rights 
get attention. The very legitimacy of our government is dependent on 
the access all Americans have to the political process.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the result of an historic struggle 
for civil rights led by such American heroes as Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, who refused to be treated as 
second-class citizens. That struggle reached a crucial turning point on 
March 7, 1965, on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, AL, when State 
troopers brutally attacked John Lewis and his fellow civil rights 
marchers who were fighting for their right to vote.
  The events of that day, now known as ``Bloody Sunday,'' were captured 
in newspapers and on televisions across the country, and those powerful 
images marked a crucial turning point in securing the right to vote for 
all Americans. A few days after the violence of Bloody Sunday, 
President Lyndon Johnson outlined the proposed Voting Rights Act of 
1965, before a joint session of Congress. Within months, Congress 
passed it so that the Constitution's guarantees of equal access to the 
electoral process, regardless of race, would not be undermined by 
discriminatory practices.
  The enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 transformed the 
landscape of political inclusion. Prior to the Act, minorities of all 
races faced major barriers to participation in the political process, 
through the use of such devices as poll taxes, exclusionary primaries, 
intimidation by voting officials, language barriers, and systematic 
vote dilution. We have made great gains since that time, but our work 
is not finished. The record established in 10 hearings in the House of 
Representatives indicates that the tools provided by the expiring 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act remain necessary for protecting the 
voting rights of minority Americans in this country.

  Among the Act's most critical protections are the pre-clearance 
provisions of Section 5, which prevent discriminatory laws from going 
into practice. The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act 
of 2006 would extend these protections for 25 years, retaining the most 
effective measures to fight certain kinds of pervasive and recurring 
discrimination.
  The insidious discriminatory tactics that led to the original Voting 
Rights Act were deeply rooted. In the annals of our Nation, this fight 
dates back almost 100 years, to the ratification of the 15th Amendment 
in 1870, the last of the post-Civil War Reconstruction amendments. It 
took implementation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for people of all 
races in many parts of our country to gain the effective exercise of 
rights guaranteed 95 years earlier by the 15th Amendment. The pre-
clearance provisions were one of the primary reasons this Act succeeded 
where earlier attempts had failed. Section 5 requires certain covered 
jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to pre-clear all voting 
changes with either the Department of Justice or the U.S. District 
Court for the District of Columbia. In doing so, Section 5 combats the 
practices in these jurisdictions of shifting from one invalidated 
discriminatory tactic to another, which had undermined earlier efforts 
to enforce 15th Amendment guarantees.
  We have made significant progress toward a more inclusive democracy 
over the past four decades since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act 
in 1965. However, I fear that if we fail to reauthorize the expiring 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act, our country is likely to 
backslide. We must make sure those gains do not suffer the same fate as 
the gains in voting rights made during Reconstruction.
  After the Civil War, the Reconstruction Act promised that the 
guarantees of the 15th Amendment would be realized. Between 1870 and 
1900, 22 African Americans served in the United States Congress. In 
1868, Louisiana elected an African-American Lieutenant Governor, Oscar 
Dunn, and 87 African Americans held seats in the South Carolina 
legislature. However, these Reconstruction-era gains in African-
American voting and representation proved to be short-lived. Following 
the end of Reconstruction, the rights of African Americans to vote and 
to hold office were virtually eliminated in many areas through 
discriminatory legal barriers, intimidation, and violence. The changes 
were swift, systematic and severe. By 1896, Representative George White 
of North Carolina was the only African American remaining in the U.S. 
Congress, and it would take 72 years after Representative White left 
Congress for African-American voters in the South to elect another 
candidate of their choice to Congress.
  In Mississippi, the percentage of African-American voting-age men 
registered to vote fell from more than 90 percent during Reconstruction 
to less than 6 percent in 1892. Between 1896 and 1900, the number of 
African-American voters in Louisiana was reduced from 130,000 to a mere 
5,000. Unlike their short-lived gains made during Reconstruction, 
African-American voters' exclusion from the ballot box was persistent. 
Only 3 percent of voting-age African-American men and women in the 
South were registered to vote in 1940, only 1 percent in Mississippi--
just 1 percent. These numbers are staggering, and they provide a 
history lesson we should not ignore.

  As part of the Voting Rights Act reauthorization in 1975, Congress 
added Section 203, which requires bilingual voting assistance for 
certain language minority groups. This provision was enacted pursuant 
to congressional power to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments. Section 
203 has been a key factor to expanding the inclusiveness of democracy 
to all citizens and has led to extraordinary gains in representation 
and participation made by Asian-American and Hispanic-American 
citizens. Like Section 5, Section 203 is expiring in 2007. The Voting 
Rights Act Reauthorization and

[[Page S3988]]

Amendments Act of 2006 would extend these critical protections for 25 
years.
  Hispanic-American populations have been one of the primary minority 
language groups to benefit from the protections of the bilingual 
provisions of the Voting Rights Act. For example effective 
implementation of the bilingual provisions in San Diego County, CA, 
helped increase voter registration by more than 20 percent. And voter 
turnout among Hispanic Americans in New Mexico rose 26 percent between 
2000 and 2004 after television and radio spots in Spanish educated 
listeners about voter registration and absentee ballots.
  Voting rights belong to people who are American citizens. They are 
trying to vote but many of them are struggling with the English 
language due to disparities in education and the incremental process of 
learning. It is imperative that all citizens be able to fully exercise 
their rights as citizens, particularly a right as fundamental as the 
right to vote. Renewing the expiring language provisions of the Voting 
Rights Act will continue to help make that a reality.
  Rather than merely extending the Voting Rights Act, Congress now has 
an opportunity to reinvigorate the Act, strengthening and improving its 
remedies. The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 
2006 does so by clarifying certain parts of Section 5 to give clear 
guidance to the Courts and to restore the original understanding of the 
Act. Two recent Supreme Court decisions have significantly narrowed 
Section 5's effectiveness and undermined the purposes of the Act.
  The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 
remedies the Supreme Court's holding in Reno v. Bossier Parish, by 
making clear that a voting rule change motivated by any discriminatory 
purpose violates Section 5. Under the holding in Reno v. Bossier 
Parish, certain voting rule changes passed with the intent to 
discriminate against minorities could pass Section 5 muster. Because 
such an interpretation is inconsistent with purposes of the Voting 
Rights Act to eliminate discriminatory tactics that undermine the 
guarantees of the 15th Amendment, the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization 
and Amendments Act fixes this inconsistency by clarifying that a voting 
rule change motivated by any discriminatory purpose also cannot be pre-
cleared.

  The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 also 
remedies the Supreme Court's holding in Georgia v. Ashcroft. Under the 
test established in Georgia for assessing a jurisdiction's challenge to 
denial of Section 5 pre-clearance, the court can give greater weight to 
numerous undefined considerations than to the ability of a minority 
community to elect a candidate of its choice. This test is as difficult 
to administer as it is contrary to the purposes of the Act. This act 
fixes both of these problems by restoring the original understanding 
that the purpose of the Voting Rights Act is to protect the minority 
community's ability to elect their preferred candidates of choice and 
by setting forth defined factors.
  In addition to restoring the Act's original meaning, this Act makes 
changes to the expiring Federal examiners and observers provisions to 
better allocate resources for combating discrimination in voting. The 
Voting Rights Act provides for Federal examiners to ensure that legally 
qualified persons are free to register for Federal, State, and local 
elections and that observers to observe whether citizens who are 
eligible to vote are able to exercise the right to vote. Federal 
observers are the most frequently used federal oversight tool in voting 
and the only Federal officials authorized to enter polls and places 
where votes are tabulated. This Act eliminates Federal examiners 
because they have not been appointed to jurisdictions certified for 
coverage in more than 20 years, and other laws such as the Help America 
Vote Act now address the concern of voting rolls. At the same time, the 
bill strengthens the observers provisions to allow the assignment of 
federal observers upon finding that there is a reasonable belief that a 
violation of the 14th or 15th Amendments will occur, without having to 
first certify federal examiners.
  The Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendment Act also removes 
an impediment to effective protection of voting rights by authorizing 
the prevailing party in a lawsuit brought under Section 2 to recover 
expert costs as part of the attorney fees already authorized. This will 
have a significant impact on the ability of litigants to successfully 
combat discrimination in court.
  The process of reauthorization began in the House of Representatives, 
where Representatives Nadler, Chabot and Watt presided over 10 hearings 
on the effectiveness and continuing need for the expiring provisions of 
the Voting Rights Act. Last week, the distinguished House Judiciary 
chairman and ranking member appeared before the Senate Judiciary 
Committee and introduced the extensive record from those hearings. I am 
grateful for the hard work that has been done in the House, and I want 
to thank Chairman Specter for agreeing to move forward promptly with 
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the expiring provisions.
  Congress has reauthorized and revitalized the Act four times, each 
time with overwhelmingly bipartisan support. As I noted last week in 
welcoming the House Judiciary chairman and ranking member, we are 
repeating the bicameral and bipartisan process of the 1982 
reauthorization. In 1982, Chairman Specter and I were both Members of 
the Judiciary Committee, along with Senators Kennedy, Biden, Hatch and 
Grassley. Under the chairmanship of Senator Strom Thurmond, 
reauthorization was reported by the Judiciary Committee and passed both 
houses of Congress. I am hopeful that our Committee can accomplish the 
work that needs to be done and report this bill to the full Senate 
before the Memorial Day recess.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is one of the most important laws 
Congress has ever passed, helping to usher the country out of a history 
of discrimination and into the greater inclusion of all Americans in 
the decisions about our Nation's future. Our democracy and our Nation 
have been better and richer for it. While I hope some day these 
extraordinary remedies are not needed, I urge the Senate to build on 
the work done in the House of Representatives to extend the expiring 
provisions so that we can eliminate recurring discrimination and make 
sure that the gains we have made are not lost. I am heartened that this 
is not a partisan issue benefiting one party or another. Rather, as 
demonstrated by the bicameral and bipartisan process we continue for 
reauthorizing and revitalizing the Act's expiring provisions, this is 
about making our democracy reflect the will of all of the American 
people.
                                 ______