[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 25 (Thursday, February 11, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H763-H764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             VOTING RIGHTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) is recognized 
for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), who represents the Houston 
and Harris County area, who does such a great job of speaking out on 
these issues.
  Representative Jackson Lee and really the entire delegation down 
there--Representatives Gene Green and Al Green, along with 
Representative Jackson Lee--do a great job of keeping this on the 
forefront of Texans' minds and on the United States' mind.
  Texas is such a large State that oftentimes, legislation that is 
passed out of Texas has an impact on the rest of the Nation. It does 
seem that much of the discriminatory laws regarding redistricting and 
regarding voter suppression, like the voter ID bill, sadly, has 
emanated from our State.
  Mr. Speaker, let me tell you just how bad it is in our State. This is 
going to be really hard for some people to believe. But in the State of 
Texas, if a young person on a college campus were to find themselves 
their freshman year lost on the campus, or if they were to find 
themselves in a little bit of trouble on campus, they would be able to 
show their student ID to the proper law enforcement official, who is a 
police officer recognized by the State of Texas, on the campus to 
identify themselves. That ID works for them to be able to legally 
identify themselves.
  In the State of Texas today, that same young person would not be able 
to show that same student ID at the voting place, at the voting booth, 
to be able to cast a vote. If you bring your concealed handgun license 
in, then you can cast a vote. The student will be given a provisional 
ballot that wouldn't count, and the person with a concealed handgun 
license would be able to cast a legal ballot.
  Who is that really going to hurt? You have so many young people, 
particularly young people that don't come from wealthy families, whose 
parents really struggle to send them to college. They don't have cars 
in college, so they don't have their driver's license. They really rely 
on their student identification for everything that they do.
  In the State of Texas, they absolutely cannot use that ID.
  There are many things about the Texas voter ID law, to be honest with 
you, I really don't like. I became a plaintiff in the suit to try to 
scale back what I consider a very egregious act against voters in the 
State of Texas.
  I was very delighted that back in July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for 
the Fifth Circuit actually upheld a lower court's decision that the 
Texas voter ID law had a discriminatory effect on minority voters and 
violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
  I hope this means that the proper action will be taken to do 
something to scale back this law and the impact that it is having on 
people that simply want to exercise their suffrage, people that simply 
want to be able to vote. We take it for granted that you can simply 
vote. But this Texas voter ID law, and many laws from my time in the 
State legislature that were proposed--luckily, some of them advanced--
would really roll back the clock on individuals that want to exercise 
their right to vote.
  I will tell you what I have done in the meantime is joined as an 
original cosponsor of the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015 that 
restores the right and advances the voting rights that were provided to 
us in 1965 by providing a modern day coverage test which will protect 
our communities from these types of discriminatory practices.

[[Page H764]]

  I will tell you, I am very proud to join with Terri Sewell, with 
Representative Judy Chu, with Representative Linda Sanchez, and, of 
course, with Representative John Lewis, who understands probably more 
than anyone in this body what discriminatory laws can do to affect a 
community.

                              {time}  1830

  This bill, Mr. Speaker, provides coverage for 13 States upon 
enactment: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, South 
Carolina, North Carolina, Arkansas, Arizona, California, New York, and 
Virginia. I am a very proud Texan--I love everything about our State--
but, unfortunately, we have been at the forefront of discrimination 
against voters, and Texas is included in this legislation as well. This 
new geographic formula is based on current conditions and on a 25-year 
look-back provision.
  I hope that we will be able to work together in a bipartisan manner 
to protect not just some of our voters but to protect every single 
voter in the United States who would like to cast a ballot. It doesn't 
matter if a voter is poor and was not able to go and renew his driver's 
license so that his driver's license may be 61 days expired. It doesn't 
matter if it is a student whose parents are just putting every little 
bit of money that they have to get him through college, and, because of 
that, his only ID is his student identification card, and he would like 
to use that. We need to be able to make it easier for individuals to 
vote in our State.
  Everybody wants people to be able to lawfully vote, too. We ought to 
be able to work together in order to pass strong voting rights laws 
that protect all of our citizens, because we certainly don't want to 
discourage anyone from voting, and we certainly don't want to look like 
we are going backwards from where we once were, back in the 1960s.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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