[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 25, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H5729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      VOTING RIGHTS AMENDMENT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, how do we all get here? How do we get to be 
one of 435 people in the United States Congress, a great honor that it 
is to serve in this Congress?
  Madam Speaker, we all get here because people vote for us, the 
American public votes. It is the essence of a democracy. That is what 
makes this country great. That is why we have sent soldiers to Iraq and 
other places, to try to give other people democracy and have people 
vote.
  Forty-nine years ago, this Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. 
John Lewis, a Member of this Congress now, marched in Selma, Alabama, 
and was beaten by troopers to get the right to vote.
  Even before that, students went to Mississippi and throughout the 
South--which was called the Mississippi Freedom Summer--to register 
people to vote and had to fight to give African Americans the 
opportunity to vote.
  Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman were killed in Mississippi. They were 
Mississippi Freedom Summer fighters. I met with Andy Goodman's--who was 
murdered down there--brother yesterday because a year ago, almost to 
the day, if not to the day, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, 
ruled part of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional. Our Chief Justice 
said it is no longer needed.
  Well, he was wrong. It is needed. Everyone should be entitled to 
vote. There are issues about States, right now, denying people the 
right to vote--voter ID, Madam Speaker, long lines, ending early 
voting, different problems being placed before people to stop them from 
voting, that is anti-American, yet it is occurring in this country 
right now.
  There is a Voting Rights Amendment Act proposed, right now 
bipartisan, but limited bipartisan. Mr. Sensenbrenner and a few other 
Republicans--I can count them on both my hands--are cosponsors, along 
with Democrats, to pass a law that would require preclearance in States 
that have shown by actions--indeed, discriminatory practices--that 
would inhibit the right to vote and stop it before it becomes 
discrimination, but we have got just a paucity of Republican support.
  I haven't been a sponsor of that act because the decision was we 
wanted to be bipartisan, and for a Democrat to be a sponsor, they had 
to bring a Republican along.
  I went over here, Madam Speaker, and I talked to at least 15 
different Republicans and asked them to be a cosponsor because I 
thought they should have been a cosponsor because I wanted to be a 
cosponsor, and I had to bring somebody with me.
  It would have been easier to go to the South Pacific and find that 
airplane in the ocean than to find another cosponsor over here, so 
today, it is being opened up for Democrats to show that they want to be 
for voting rights. I will be added as a cosponsor today, and many, 
many, many other Democrats will be too. Madam Speaker, every Republican 
should join as well.
  This is American as apple pie, to have a Voting Rights Act that gives 
the courts--the Justice Department--the right to go and have 
preclearance and stop discrimination before it occurs.
  The Voting Rights Act amendment would create a new coverage formula 
to identify those States and localities with a recent history of 
discriminatory voting laws and practices that are still at high risk 
for continuing voting discrimination.
  It would enhance the authority of courts to order a preclearance 
remedy, require greater transparency regarding voting changes, and 
clarifies the Attorney General's authority to send Federal observers to 
monitor elections in jurisdictions subject to preclearance 
requirements.
  Those changes that the Voting Rights Amendment Act would make to 
current law would help prevent voting practices that are likely to be 
discriminatory before they have a chance to cause harm.
  The House Judiciary Committee, of which I am a member, and 
particularly the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, of 
which I am the ranking member, should have hearings immediately and 
pass this act now.
  Forty-nine years ago, this Chamber historically passed voting rights, 
and now, we can't pass an amendment. In 2006, the House voted to 
reauthorize the Voting Rights Act by a vote of 390-33, which meant, on 
both sides of the aisle, great majorities were for it, but now that the 
Supreme Court has struck it down and said we need to modernize it by 
finding States in localities that are currently exercising 
discriminatory practices, we can't come up with a formula because, 
politically, it would harm, theoretically, one side more than the 
other.
  Just as Mr. Gutieerrez spoke earlier about immigration and how that 
is going to affect the Republican Party in the future elections, voting 
rights will affect them too, and it won't affect them positively 
because, if the party becomes a party that is against people of color 
and giving them the American right to vote, as well as opportunities 
for sound and logical immigration practices, which this country needs 
for labor, it will be a minority party forever.
  I am not here to lecture the Republicans about what they can do to 
help themselves politically. I am saying what they can do to make 
America more America. Pass the voting rights amendment.

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