[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 90 (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H5054]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   VOTING RIGHTS ACT REAUTHORIZATION

  (Mr. CLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the reauthorization of 
one of the most critical pieces of legislation that this House has ever 
produced, the Voting Rights Act.
  Today we have heard firsthand accounts of how this act changed 
America, and recent research confirms that the Voting Rights Act is as 
essential today as it was in 1965.
  The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law concluded that 
there is still a shocking continuing reality of racial discrimination 
in voting that is pervasive, and these problems are nationwide.
  Their three key findings were especially disturbing. First, records 
from the U.S. Department of Justice confirm that the actual number of 
documented complaints to Federal officials have increased between 1982 
and 2004.
  Second, polling places and voting hours in minority neighborhoods 
were routinely changed shortly before elections.
  And finally, election officials were found to have illegally purged 
voters from registration lists and to have refused to translate 
election materials.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time that people in power stop playing with that 
basic essential right to vote in this country.

                          ____________________