[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H5904-H5911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VOTER SUPPRESSION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
[[Page H5905]]
General Leave
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include
extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, it is great to be here with you this evening
and to talk about a very important topic.
Before I get into the topic of this hour, it is with great honor that
I rise today to coanchor this CBC Special Order hour with my dear
friend, Delegate Stacey Plaskett from the Virgin Islands, and also
acknowledge our CBC chair, the Honorable Cedric Richmond from the great
State of Louisiana.
For the next 60 minutes, we have a chance to speak directly to the
American people on issues of grea importance to the Congressional Black
Caucus, the Congress, the constituents that we represent, and all
Americans on this very important issue of voter suppression.
Before I go into my remarks, Mr. Speaker, we do have some colleagues
here that would like to also speak about this very timely and important
topic.
There have been many developments that have occurred over the last
week dealing with commissions that are being formed out of the White
House to help aid in voter suppression and other things that have been
very troubling.
So I am going to ask for the first speaker to rise, and that would be
my colleague, also from the great State of Texas, from Harris County
and the city of Houston, the Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee, who has been
very thoughtful and been a great voice on expanding the rights to vote
of all Americans. I thank Representative Jackson Lee for taking the
time during this hour to come out and talk about this very important
topic.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Veasey), the coleader of this hour, along with Delegate
Plaskett, for not only their astute leadership of the hour, but
certainly of their astute leadership of the issue. I am delighted to
join my colleagues. I thank the chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus, Mr. Cedric Richmond, for continuing to make sure that the
conscience of the Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus, is heard on
these crucial issues.
Mr. Veasey, I am going to focus my issues--because this is not a
Republican or Democratic issue. It is an American issue. I do want to
personally thank you for your leadership as the named plaintiff of the
Texas voter ID litigation, which has been--how should I say? I wanted
to say Earth-shattering--but it has been groundbreaking in its
recognition of the diminishing of the rights of people to vote by a
draconian voter ID law. We know that it has been somewhat modified, but
your astuteness recognizes that, even in its modification, in the
coming elections, we should be very wary of the effort that the State
will utilize the voter ID law for voter suppression.
So today I want to rise in the backdrop of the Shelby case, which
many of us are well aware of. The Shelby case, which occurred in
Alabama, was the unfortunate case that turned back the clock on the
1965 Voting Rights Act that had been working for decades with
absolutely no problem; but, unfortunately, this conservative-leaning
Supreme Court made decisions not on what is good for America, not even
on what is good in terms of the law, but decided to eliminate section
5.
{time} 1930
I am reminded of the very astute words of Justice Ginsburg, very
astute words, when she was appalled that the Supreme Court yielded to
what I would consider misinterpretation, that there is no problem with
discrimination and there is no problem with racism, and Justice
Ginsburg very astutely said: Well, we have been very fortunate that the
polio vaccination has all but extinguished polio in the United States.
That is great news. But because we have extinguished polio, does that
mean we need to get rid of the polio vaccination? And any commonsense
thinker, any American, any hardworking American, would absolutely,
because they love their children and their families, would have a
resounding ``no.''
So why would you get rid of section 5 when there is documentation,
unfortunately and sadly, of discrimination and of racism? Racism is a
question of being discriminated against because of race. It does not
say Black, it does not say any particular type of race, but it does
mention race. That means that section 5 was a protector for all
Americans and giving them the added protection of one vote, one person.
So, unfortunately, on June 28, 2017--and, by the way, Mr. Speaker,
the pending meeting of this established Commission, the Presidential
Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, PACEI, is going to be
meeting July 19, this week. This is a dangerous phenomenon.
The chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach wrote to the
Nation's secretaries of state requesting extensive personal information
on American voters--personal information, when we have stood in this
well fighting against the PATRIOT Act when it was not written well
after 9/11 because its premise was to spy on the American people and to
ignore the Fourth Amendment, which is to protect Americans against
unreasonable search and seizure.
This is unreasonable search and seizure. Let me list for you what
this Commission is asking for. Some of this is public knowledge, but
listen to this list: the full first and last names of all registrants;
middle names or initials, if available; addresses, dates of birth,
political party, if recorded in your State; last four digits of Social
Security, if available; voter history--voter history--what elections
you voted in from 2006 onward; active and inactive status.
I would venture to say that if I asked my Republican colleagues if
they want their constituents sending this information in I would hear a
little bit of grumbling.
Canceled status; information regarding any felony convictions.
All these are State issues.
Information regarding voter registration in another State;
information regarding military status; and overseas citizen
information.
First of all, there is no documentation of massive voter fraud.
``The right to vote, and the sanctity and privacy of the vote, is
protected by the U.S. Constitution, including the Fifth, Fourteenth,
and Fifteenth Amendments. Due process. All of these allow you to have a
degree of privacy. It is an obligation of your administration,'' which
is a letter to President Trump that I am reading from, ``to preserve
the sanctity and privacy of the vote, not to undermine it as would be
the case if Texas were to comply with the PACEI's unconscionable
request. The only approved government use of voter registration data,
outside of voting, is jury selection, not a Presidential Advisory
Commission of dubious purpose formed to search for nonconsistent
evidence to vindicate your false claim that you lost the popular vote
by 2.9 million votes, the largest loss in American history, because
`millions of people who voted illegally.' ''
As you well know, that was a statement that no one can document by
this present administration. So this Presidential Advisory Commission
is a doubling down of an executive order to find a problem that does
not exist. It is a solution, a false solution, seeking to find a
problem. It is a dangerous proposition. It is an invasion of the
privacy of the American people. And any good person who believes in the
right to privacy, any conservative, liberal, moderate, anyone with any
political philosophy who believes in the Constitution of the United
States should stand arm in arm together against PACEI.
It is the beginning of Big Brother, the arm of Big Brother, the
frightening Big Brother, to intrude into the homes of the American
people and to secure information that is, in fact, challenging whether
you can move from one State to the next, challenging whether or not you
can have a voter card canceled or expired, challenging individuals who
have been given pardons but had a felony, and challenging military
persons who move from place to place. This is an insult, and this is
[[Page H5906]]
clearly voter suppression, not in any way a way to speak to the issue
of fraud.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to take this very seriously. I have
asked my State to stand down. I have asked the President to pull this
request, and I, frankly, believe this executive order should be
eliminated.
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record two documents related to this.
Congress of the United States,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, July 6, 2017.
President Donald J. Trump,
The White House, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: I am writing to urge you to rescind your May 11,
2017 Executive Order establishing the Presidential Advisory Commission
on Election Integrity (PACEI) and to direct that the PACEI be dissolved
immediately. The PACEI is charged with studying ``the registration and
voting processes used in Federal elections'' and identifying
``vulnerabilities in voting systems'' that could lead to voter fraud.
Many people, however, suspect that the real purpose of the Commission
is not investigate widespread voter fraud, which every reputable study
has already debunked as a myth, but to gather data to aid in future
voter suppression efforts.
On June 28, 2017, PACEI Chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris
Kobach wrote to the nation's secretaries of state requesting extensive
personal information on American voters threatens to violate individual
privacy. Specifically, the PACEI seeks to obtain, inter alia: ``the
full first and last names of registrants, middle names or initials if
available, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in
your state), last four digits of social security number if available,
voter history (elections voted in) from 2006 onward, active/inactive
status, cancelled status, information regarding any felony convictions,
information regarding voter registration in another state, information
regarding military status, and overseas citizen information.''
Releasing the confidential voter information sought by the PACEI
which will be stored in an unsecure database on unsecured servers and
accessible to the public is illegal, irresponsible, jeopardizes civil
liberties and privacy rights, and puts our national security at risk.
It is important that all voters, including those in the 18th
Congressional District of Texas whom I am privileged to represent, be
fully protected. While supplying only public voter information may seem
secure, the sad fact is that it is not. There is no publicly available
record for voter registration information for any state in America.
Such data set is protected under the principle of collective privacy,
recognized by the Supreme Court in the landmark decision of NAACP v.
Alabama, 377 U.S. 288, 84 S. Ct. 1302, 12 L. Ed. 2d 325 (1964), which
held that compelled disclosure of affiliation with groups engaged in
advocacy may constitute an impermissible chilling effect on the freedom
of association guaranteed by the First Amendment. The Court has
affirmed this principle and it is now settled law. Accordingly, Texas
cannot, consistent with the U.S. Constitution, supply the private voter
information requested by the PACEI. Indeed, if the information sought
was public as PACEI contends, there would be no need for it to request
the information from state governments.
The right to vote, and the sanctity and privacy of the vote, is
protected by the U.S. Constitution, including the Fifth, Fourteenth,
and Fifteenth Amendments. It is an obligation of your administration to
preserve the sanctity and privacy of the vote, not to undermine it as
would be the case if Texas were to comply with the PACEI's
unconscionable request. The only approved government use of voter
registration data, outside of voting, is jury selection, not a
presidential advisory commission of dubious purpose formed to search
for nonexistent evidence to vindicate your false claim that you lost
the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, the largest loss in American
history, because ``millions of people who voted illegally.''
Voter suppression is real but the oft-repeated claim that American
elections are rife with voter fraud is a myth. A comprehensive 2014
study published in The Washington Post found out of more than a billion
votes cast only 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud from 2000
to 2014, and that event this tiny number was likely inflated because
the study's author counted not just voter fraud prosecutions or
convictions but all credible claims. Numerous other reports have
reached the same conclusion.
Finally, it should be noted that compliance with the PACEI's voter
data request would put the security of the nation's electoral processes
at risk. We know from recent and painful experience, including the
cyberattacks on the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel
Management, not to mention SONY and Yahoo, that large centralized
databases are targets of opportunities for criminals, terrorists, and
foreign adversaries. It would be the height of recklessness for Texas
to provide the PACEI with personal information of millions of person
via unsecured email address to be stored in undersecured databases on
undersecured servers.
This is why the large majority of states, 44 states and the District
of Columbia, have refused to comply with the PACEI's data requests. To
date, only five states have indicated they will cooperate with the
PACEI and with a data set this small, any findings drawn by the PACEI
will lack external validity and yield no generalizable conclusions. In
view of all the circumstances extant, the most reasonable and accurate
conclusion that can be reached about the PACEI is that it is not
intended to ferret out and prevent voter fraud, but to obtain
information that can be used to refine voter suppression efforts.
For these reasons, I strongly urge you to rescind your May 11, 2017
Executive Order and direct that the President's Advisory Commission on
Election Integrity be disbanded immediately. Thank you for your
consideration. Please contact me if you have any questions or need
additional information.
Very truly yours,
Sheila Jackson Lee,
Member of Congress.
____
[From Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas]
Trump's Voter Fraud Commission is a Fraud and Should Be Disbanded Now
Unable to cope with the brutal fact that he lost the
popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.9 million votes, the
largest vote deficit of any president in American history,
Donald Trump tweeted that he would have won the popular vote
but for ``millions of people who voted illegally.'' Instead
of producing any credible evidence to support this claim, a
hoax that has been repeatedly and decisively debunked by
experts, the President doubled down and issued an Executive
Order establishing the ``Presidential Advisory Commission on
Election Integrity'' (PACEI), appointing Kris Kobach, anti-
immigration warrior and poster-child for voter fraud
conspiratorialists everywhere, to lead the Commission.
It would be more accurate to characterize the PACEI as the
``Presidential Advisory Commission on Vote Suppression.''
Voter suppression is real but the oft-repeated claim that
American elections are rife with voter fraud is a myth.
According to a comprehensive 2014 study published in The
Washington Post, out of more than a billion votes cast
between 2000 and 2014, only 31 credible instances of
impersonation fraud were found, and even this tiny number was
likely inflated because the study's author counted not just
voter fraud prosecutions or convictions but all credible
claims. Numerous other reports have reached the same
conclusion.
Any lingering doubt regarding the true purpose of the PACEI
should be laid to rest by the request made by Commissioner
Kobach on June 28, 2017 when he wrote each of the nation's
state secretaries of state requesting that they provide the
Commission with ``the full first and last names of all
registrants, middle names or initials if available,
addresses, dates of birth, political party (if recorded in
your state), last four digits of social security number if
available, voter history (elections voted in) from 2006
onward, active/inactive status, cancelled status, information
regarding any felony convictions, information regarding voter
registration in another state, information regarding military
status, and overseas citizen information.''
The information requested by the Commission will not
prevent voter fraud. It will violate rather than protect
voter privacy. And it will make it easier to craft
legislation and devise campaign strategies intended to
suppress the vote in urban clusters and among targeted
demographic groups, particularly minority voters.
It is important that all voters, and the people of the 18th
Congressional District of Texas whom I am privileged to
represent, be fully protected. While supplying only public
voter information may seem secure, the sad
[[Page H5907]]
fact is that it is not. There is no publicly accessible
database of voter registration information in any of the 50
states or the District of Columbia. That is because
information of this kind is protected from public disclosure
under the settled principle of `collective privacy'
recognized by the Supreme Court in the landmark decision of
NAACP v. Alabama, 377 U.S. 288, 84 S. Ct. 1302, 12 L. Ed. 2d
325 (1964), which held that compelled disclosure of
affiliation with groups engaged in advocacy may constitute an
impermissible chilling effect on the freedom of association
guaranteed by the First Amendment, a holding that has been
affirmed repeatedly.
Accordingly, neither Texas nor any state can, consistent
with the U.S. Constitution, supply the voter information
requested by the PACEI. Indeed, if the information sought was
as public in nature as PACEI contends, there simply would be
no need for it to request the information from state
governments.
Trump's voter suppression commission is a solution in
search of a problem. Contrary to what Trump and Kobach would
have the public believe, American elections are not rife with
widespread voter fraud. Studies have shown that it is more
likely an American ``will be struck by lightning than that he
will impersonate another voter at the polls.'' No, the major
ill affecting our election system is not that too many people
vote due to voter fraud, but that too many people are
prevented from voting due to vote suppression schemes such as
discriminatory photo identification requirements, curtailment
of early voting, too few polling stations leading to long
lines and excessive wait times, purging of election rolls.
Even in the wholly unimaginable event that the commission
created by Donald Trump and led by Kris Kobach could be
trusted enough for states to cooperate by sharing their voter
data, there is no reasonable basis for assuming that
information would be kept secure and the privacy of voters
protected. Recent cyberattacks have made clear the
vulnerability of large central databases to cyberattack. An
information security breach at the Department of Veterans
Affairs compromised sensitive personal data of 26.5 million
persons and cost the VA between $100 million to $500 million
to remediate; another occurring at the Office of Personnel
Management impacted 22 million current and former federal
employees, many of whom held sensitive security clearances;
and the attack on Yahoo, the mother of all security breaches,
resulted in 1.5 billion user accounts being compromised.
Because large centralized databases are targets of
opportunities for criminals, terrorists, and foreign
adversaries, it would be the height of recklessness for Texas
or any state to provide the PACEI with personal information
of millions of persons via unsecured email address to be
stored in undersecured databases on undersecured servers. One
of the biggest strengths of the American election system is
its decentralized nature.
Aggregating all voter data into one centralized database
with questionable security protections makes that data highly
vulnerable to a cyberattack that could lead to the personal
information of hundreds of millions of Americans being stolen
and misused. Voter privacy and the integrity of the secret
ballot are integral to American democracy. Voter privacy
rights should and must be protected. This is especially true
since we now know for certain that adversaries like Russia
are actively involved in cyberwarfare campaigns to undermine
our democracy.
There is no denying that our election system is under
assault, but not in the way Trump imagines. Instead of
wasting taxpayer money to fund an investigation into voter
fraud, which is as mythical as a unicorn, American democracy
would be better served by focusing on and correcting the real
problem with our elections--voter suppression and external,
illegal, and international interference in our national
elections.
I am not opposed to employing reasonable, legitimate, and
workable means to safeguard the integrity of our electoral
system and to protect the precious right to vote. But Trump's
Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity is
incapable of doing either and thus should be disbanded and
dissolved immediately.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by holding up this map,
which indicates the colors of the individual States that are only
slightly adhering to this Commission. The orange and the blue are
individual States, some that are not adhering and some that are giving
basic public information, but not all the personal information.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I hope we can
collectively fight against the suppression of voters, and I thank him
for alerting the American people to this severe attempt to perpetrate a
wrongness, which is that there is voter fraud, and that we should not
violate the privacy of Americans.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my fellow Texan and colleague for
her timely remarks. I think the American public really would be
interested in what she talked about with the criminal background
history that this Commission wants.
I know that there are a lot of people--both Democrats and
Republicans, quite frankly, people of all political stripes--that made
mistakes when they were younger and now maybe they go and vote. They
are good Americans. They assimilate themselves into society. They have
learned from their mistakes, and they would be very disturbed to know
that this sort of information about something that they did when they
were 21 years old and now they are 40-something years old, they would
be very disturbed to know that this type of information was being
collected. I thank her for raising that issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), my
friend, to also speak on this issue. I thank him for taking the time to
come out here today and share some of the concerns that he has.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman from Texas
for sponsoring this CBC Special Order hour. It is a great
responsibility and a responsibility that he has done remarkably well in
governing the time and the topics on which we speak. This is a timely
topic, Mr. Speaker.
In a single decision, the U.S. Supreme Court set ablaze decades of
progress by overturning critical portions of the Voting Rights Act.
Four years after Shelby County v. Holder, voter protections that many
Americans rely on are again under assault.
Following that decision, we saw an eruption of unjust voting laws. It
is an unfortunate historical fact that, in the absence of Federal
safeguards, some States will erect prejudicial barriers to voting.
States previously under Federal overview were emboldened and, shortly
after the ruling issued, blatantly added discriminatory rules that
directly affected minority communities.
Sadly, one of the most significant and imminent threats to accessing
the polls comes directly from the administration. Since the
inauguration, the Trump administration has withdrawn from longstanding
legal challenges to discriminatory voter laws and created the
Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity that will
investigate the President's wildly unsubstantiated claims of voter
fraud. These sorts of actions and rhetoric only reassure States that
discriminatory voting laws will be tolerated and upheld in this
administration.
I urge Congress to take responsibility and restore vital voter
protections that have secured the integrity of our democracy for more
than 50 years. Although the Shelby decision was one of the most
disruptive judicial decisions in recent American history, passing good
voting rights legislation will redeem America's promise of a fair vote
for everyone of eligible age.
It appears that protecting America's basic right to vote will be a
task reborn with every generation. Obstacles to voting are no longer as
blatantly obvious as literary tests and poll taxes. Unjust voter ID
laws, voter intimidation, and unfair gerrymandering create barriers to
the polls for individuals from all skin colors and age groups.
Although these actions appear insurmountable, they are not. Voter
suppression is an affront to the Constitution and will not be
tolerated. If we continue to resist all attempts to turn back voter
protections, we will be successful and once again stand proudly on the
right side of history.
Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that this Nation appears to be going
in reverse. Gains that have been made by people who weren't necessarily
considered citizens when they first arrived here, but property, have
had to look to these rulings and laws being created in order for them
to have the rights every other American has.
The hands that built this great building could not vote, were
property. But it is a beautiful symbol of this Nation's history. The
ancestors of the people that helped build these beautiful buildings
here will be rolling over in their graves to learn that equality and
rights for all are still under attack.
So, Mr. Speaker, the CBC and, I hope, the whole Congress will be
vigilant in this area, making sure that all Americans, regardless of
where they come from, where they started, and when they were allowed
and even seen as citizens, have the right to vote in this great
country.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey,
particularly for pointing out about the
[[Page H5908]]
hands that built this building. That is something that is not widely
known, that the hands that built this building were not hands of free
men but hands of slaves that built this building that we stand under
today, that people come and admire from all around the world, and we
admire this building as a symbol of freedom. But the hands that built
it were not free hands.
And of course what followed emancipation in this country--Jim Crow,
voter suppression, and all of those things--once we finally got past
the late sixties and seventies, to see some of that coming back again
is very, very disturbing, and I want to thank him for his timely
comments on that.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty). I
thank her spending so much time here on the House floor working the
Special Order hour, and particularly when it comes to the thing that we
are so worried about right now, which is the voter suppression
commission.
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Veasey for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, it is an honor for me to stand on this floor, but when I
think that tonight I have to stand here and talk about the topic that
the Congressional Black Caucus comes to the House floor to speak out
against is a sad day.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my classmate and colleague and friend,
Congressman Marc Veasey, for taking a leadership role and for making
that clarion call to ask us to come.
{time} 1945
Many of us will come tonight and speak out. Several of us will file
our message so it can be recorded. Others will be back in their
districts fighting for voting rights.
This is something we have to do because, unfortunately, it has been
over 50 years since President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Voting
Rights Act of 1965, which has been the most powerful tool in defending
the voting rights of minorities.
The Voting Rights Act, as you have heard tonight and you will
continue to hear, outlawed the harassment, the intimidation, and the
violence that many African Americans experienced when trying to
exercise their right to vote.
It ended some of the most overtly discriminatory practices in our
country's history by banning literacy tests, appointing Federal
examiners in certain problematic areas to register voters and monitor
elections, and criminalizing voter intimidation threats and coercion.
Also key to the Voting Rights Act, you have heard many of our
attorneys explain it and talk about the creation of the preclearance
process that required certain places with some of the worst histories
of discrimination to gain approval from a Federal court or the
Department of Justice before making election changes.
However, Mr. Speaker, during my first term in Congress, I became a
part of this history. It was in 2013 that the United States Supreme
Court struck down this crucial provision of the Voting Rights Act in
the Shelby County v. Holder decision, opening the door for States to
reduce--I am going to say that again, Mr. Speaker--opening the door to
reduce the electoral power of minority communities.
And with that door open, many States are taking this opportunity to
pass a slew or a wave of laws, including strict voter ID requirements,
early voting cutbacks, and registration restrictions, making it harder
for many hardworking Americans to vote. That is just not right. Every
citizen should have the right to vote.
Following the 2016 election, President Trump falsely claimed that
millions voted illegally, perpetuating the myth of voter fraud long
used to justify restrictive legislation that suppresses voters in low-
income areas. I stand here today to tell you that it is not true.
And when the Congressional Black Caucus hears the President of these
United States using terms like ``voter fraud'' or ``illegally voted,''
we can read between the lines, Mr. Speaker. He is signaling his intent,
in my opinion, to suppress the vote. He is signaling the support for
efforts that will make it even harder for poor people, people of color,
women, elderly people, to vote, one of the fundamental rights that we
have to vote.
While the legislative maneuvers to restrict our citizens' fundamental
right to vote should shock the conscience, it has not, and that is why
we are standing on this floor today. That is why we are asking
Democrats and Republicans to work together to correct this wrong.
We have witnessed the history of some 50-plus years of what happened
to many people in some of our Southern States. Mr. Speaker, it is just
not right, and that is why we are here today.
As former President Barack Obama said: ``This is something that has
constantly been disproved.'' As a matter of fact, ``This is fake
news.''
Now, one of my colleagues came to the floor tonight and said this is
not a Democrat or a Republican issue. Well, let me say it a little
differently. This should not be a Democrat or Republican issue; but if
it were a bipartisan issue, we wouldn't be standing here in this
Special Order hour demanding and asking that we come together, as
Democrats and Republicans, and restore the voting rights.
So let me be very clear. The Congressional Black Caucus, through the
leadership of our chairman, Congressman Cedric Richmond, through the
leadership of our power-of-the-hour chair, Congressman Marc Veasey, and
the other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, one of the largest
minority caucuses in this House, we stand ready to advocate, we stand
ready to protect those who we come here to protect.
So as elected officials, we have a responsibility to ensure the right
of ``one person, one vote,'' and part of this responsibility includes
making it easier, Mr. Speaker, not harder for citizens to vote. And we
will not stop our quest in ensuring justice for all Americans.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Beatty. I really
appreciate her participating again and her comments, and we are going
to take her call and continue to push on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to invite my friend and colleague up from
the great State of Pennsylvania, Representative Dwight Evans, to also
speak about this subject. Of course, throughout the history of African
Americans, Philadelphia and Pennsylvania have played a very critical
role. I am glad that my colleague from Pennsylvania is stepping up and
speaking about this very timely issue of voter suppression in the wake
of Shelby County.
I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).
Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the great State of
Texas, Congressman Veasey, for his leadership under Congressman
Richmond, and for what he and Delegate Stacey Plaskett have been
providing over the last couple of weeks.
Right now, as Members of Congress, we are in what I call an Article
I, section 1 moment. Article I, section 1 in the Constitution grants us
this power. We need to harness the power of the process to ensure that
accountability and transparency for Philadelphians, Pennsylvanians, and
all the American people.
We know that voting is a fundamental right, and we know that the
Federal Government should not be in the business of dealing with
personal information of voters nationwide. Philadelphians,
Pennsylvanians, and Americans have a right to privacy. Myself and my
colleagues before you today intend to do everything we can to ensure
privacy is guaranteed and protected
The Trump administration has yet to instill confidence and garner
respect from the American people. Voting is a right that cannot and
will not be taken away. The right to vote is a core American value and
guiding principle that must be protected and not tampered with in any
way.
Believe me when I tell you, President Trump, we know what you are
trying to do here. We see the actions of your administration for what
they are. Our neighborhoods are at risk of voter suppression, and we
cannot and will not stand for it.
Last week, I was proud to join my colleagues, the chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus, Chairman Richmond, and the United States
Senator from New Jersey, when they stood up last week and introduced a
piece of legislation to revoke President Trump's executive order.
[[Page H5909]]
I am proud to stand with the Governor of my State and my friend,
Governor Tom Wolf, who has been very outspoken in speaking out for
Pennsylvanians all across the Commonwealth and clearly told the
President he will not disclose personal PA voter information.
I want to leave you with a quote from Dr. King: ``We may have all
come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.''
I have lived my entire life in the City of Philadelphia and know that
it is a sanctuary city. We are so much stronger when we celebrate our
differences and use them as strengths to uplift us.
We will not accept this voter suppression. Together, we will ensure
the choir of our voices are heard loud and clear. We have an obligation
to build a stronger tomorrow for all of our neighborhoods.
Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues from the Congressional Black
Caucus to send a message, a message and a voice that we will not just
sit here idly by. We will not allow this process to just run roughshod.
As I said from the beginning, this is an Article I, section 1 moment
where we all recognize that we, in Congress, Democrat and Republican
alike, recognize that we have an obligation and responsibility to the
American public. And this is not about partisanship. This is about a
fundamental right, and we don't take it lightly.
So I applaud the leadership, again, of my colleague from the great
State of Texas, for what he is providing here, and all the members of
the Congressional Black Caucus.
Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments and
appreciate him taking time out to talk about this very critical
announcement.
As soon as everyone in the Black community, Black communities around
the country, and elected officials around the country who are concerned
about voter suppression and other tools and tactics that have been used
to suppress the African-American vote, we went to action, and I
appreciate that the gentleman was one of the first people to step up
and appreciate his participation tonight.
Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who
was not able to make it here this evening, will be including a
statement in the Record. She represents the 30th Congressional District
of Texas and is my next-door neighbor. She represents Dallas and the
southern suburbs of Dallas. I appreciate her weighing in on this topic
as well.
Mr. Speaker, the foundation of American democracy is that, no matter
who you are, we are all equal once we step into that voting booth. And
the courage that has been displayed by brave foot soldiers who risked
and, in some cases, gave their lives to guarantee that constitutional
promise was fulfilled must never be forgotten, and this is really
important to point out.
I mean, we have Representative John Lewis, who is a hero of the civil
rights movement. But I always encourage people to watch the
documentary, ``Eyes on the Prize'' so they can see how people were
treated, how people were treated by law enforcement, how people were
treated by people who were in positions of power, people who were
active in the community, people who belonged to the Lions Club,
belonged to the Elks Club, the way they treated people who were simply
trying to register to vote.
There is one scene that I will never forget; it was about a woman who
was trying to go and vote, and she was being kicked and shoved and hit
and knocked to the ground by law enforcement in Alabama for simply
trying to exercise her right to vote that was given to her in the early
1900s when women in this country were finally given the right of
suffrage.
It is really in their memory that Congress originally passed the
landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. And for years, both Republicans and
Democrats reauthorized the Voting Rights Act, agreeing that equal
access to the polls must be preserved for generations to come.
But sadly, Mr. Speaker, in 2013, that tradition dramatically changed.
The Supreme Court ruling in Shelby County v. Holder struck down section
4 of the Voting Rights Act and made Congress responsible for updating
the VRA. The Court has left it to Congress to create a new formula for
determining which States and other jurisdictions should be discovered
under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act to ensure protection against
discrimination.
But 4 years later, we can confidently say that the Supreme Court
ruling set into motion what most of us feared--that minorities and low-
income Americans would have to face unfair and punitive barriers from
exercising their most basic right as American citizens, and that is the
right to vote.
{time} 2000
In the years since the Shelby County decision, Republican
legislatures nationwide have been in power to unleash an avalanche of
purposely restrictive laws that have been aimed to keep, again, mostly
Black and Latino voters away from the poll. Even when you do discovery
and when you look into why these laws were passed by State
legislatures, it is clear what the intent was.
It is a tactic that the Republican Party has indirectly endorsed,
since they believe that trying to earn the vote of the growing minority
population, that they would rather keep them away from the polls
altogether.
Prior to Shelby, States with a history of voter suppression and
discriminatory practices were required to preclear any changes in their
election laws with the Department of Justice prior to enactment. But
now, in the absence of an updated VRA, States no longer require the
DOJ's approval.
I want to talk about my own State, the State of Texas, which has
really served as an incubator for the suppressive tactics that
Republicans nationwide have been eager to enact for years. I saw this
up close and personal in the 8 years that I spent in the Texas
Legislature, where I saw Texas Republicans enact SB 14, which severely
restricted the types of IDs that voters could bring to the polls in
order to cast the ballot. Texas Republicans claimed that limiting
acceptable IDs would prevent widespread in-person voter fraud. As vice
chair of the Voter Identification and Voter Fraud Select Committee in
the Texas state house, I witnessed how Texas Republicans failed to
produce any piece of evidence to prove that massive voter impersonation
was occurring statewide.
Hearing after hearing--you can go back and look at the record, going
back to 2005--I and my other colleagues who served on the committee and
who were concerned about some of the voter suppression tactics asked
the question: Show us evidence that voter suppression is taking place.
We have time here during this legislative session.
That was what we would ask over and over again, and not one person
could bring any evidence that this had happened.
Their flawed argument justified limiting voter IDs and instead
favored an approach that would exclude student IDs but actually say
that it was okay to use a concealed handgun license as a form of ID.
What is interesting about that is that these student IDs, campus law
enforcement, which, in the State of Texas, where I am from, again, if a
kid has alcohol or if someone is roaming around campus and the police
need to be able to verify who they are and identify them, that student
ID that is issued by a State university in the State of Texas serves as
ID for law enforcement personnel on those campuses to be able to verify
whether that student is, in fact, who they are and belongs on that
campus. That same ID, again, that is issued by the State of Texas could
not be used to go and vote. It just doesn't make any sense.
When the law was enacted, of course, the DOJ blocked the measure.
However, hours after the Shelby decision, Governor Perry enacted Texas'
restrictive voter ID law. I became a named plaintiff in the case
because I knew that, despite Republicans' claims that the law would
disproportionately disenfranchise Latino and African-American voters--
the State's own estimates showed that it would potentially
disenfranchise over 600,000 Texans who are registered but do not have
one of the required forms of ID. And there are lots of different
reasons why people may or may not have an ID.
If they were born in a foreign country and they are now American
citizens, they may have a hard time getting access to some of those
documents. They may not have the money
[[Page H5910]]
or the transportation to go to the county that they were born in to be
able to get the documents that they need in order to get one of these
IDs. Again, there are costs and there are transportation and geographic
barriers that may take place.
You may have people who were born in the country by midwives, and
they are particularly African-American baby boomers and older that
migrated from places like Longview, Texas; Marshall, Texas; Tyler,
Texas, and they weren't really even raised in those cities. They were
raised in smaller towns outside of those cities and they may not have
those proper forms of ID.
Remember, segregation was very rampant back then in Texas, and many
people were born by midwives, were born in their houses and what have
you. There are variations of spellings of last names. I have that in my
own family. There are just so many other examples of that.
I am proud to report that two Federal courts, including the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals, which is easily considered by most to be the
most conservative appeals court in the country, have found the law to
be discriminatory in its intent and its effect. Despite this victory,
we knew that Texas was only the beginning. We have heard about so many
other laws around the country that exclude people from being able to
register to vote unless they have a passport, or unless they have their
birth certificate, which makes it almost impossible for nonprofits to
set up a table at a busy grocery store, for instance, on a Saturday and
do any sort of voter registration. There are just all sorts of issues
out there. There are organizations like King Street Patriots, for
instance, that pride themselves on their ability to try to suppress the
minority vote. Again, Texas was only the beginning. And, sadly, Mr.
Speaker, unless we can find a new way to come together to do what is
right when it comes to suffrage in this country, it seems like this is
going to be something that we have to fight for a long time.
Now, sadly, I am ashamed to say that our President has also taken a
page out of the Republican playbook and has begun to perpetuate the
same myths about widespread voter fraud that, sadly, we have been
fighting since the Reconstruction era, Mr. Speaker. Very, very, very
sad.
Nearly 3 months after winning the Presidency, President Trump could
not handle the fact that, despite winning the Presidency, he lost the
popular vote. An unsatisfied with the results, President Trump does
what he does best: he went to Twitter to blame his unpopularity on
widespread voter fraud.
And, worse, now he has created this Presidential commission on
election integrity. It is a sham commission that will, no doubt, work
to justify claims that elections are being compromised by our own
citizens and serve as a catalyst to continue the wave of voter
suppression and intimidation that we have witnessed across this
country.
I am proud that the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus, and the Asian Pacific American Caucus have all gotten
together to introduce legislation to ensure that not a single dollar
from the taxpayers is spent towards this phony commission.
Again, I think that everybody should be concerned about this
commission. Any commission that wants to gather private information on
citizens, put it in a database, information that--quite frankly,
mistakes that people made back when they were in college. There are a
lot of people out there that I know, that I went to high school and
college with, people that I have known around the Fort Worth and Dallas
community for a long time, all around the State of Texas, they made
mistakes when they were younger. Maybe it was a DWI. Maybe it was some
other sort of issue, but they have assimilated themselves back into
society. They are working. They are paying taxes. And the fact that
this database would want to take the mistakes that they made in their
youth and put them in this database and to look at whether or not they
are committing some sort of fraud is just something that--again,
doesn't matter if you are Democrat or Republican, there are a lot of
people out there who made mistakes when they were younger. It is just
awful that this could come back to haunt them.
The fact is that the voter fraud myth has been debunked by various
reputable research organizations, including the ACLU, the Brennan
Center for Justice, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Pew Research
Center, to name a few. But that has not changed the fact that
Republicans and now our President want to turn back the clock on voting
rights. It is really sad, Mr. Speaker.
The commission recently requested sensitive voter information as part
of their fake investigation, and we are already seeing the effects. Out
of fear of having their Social Security, voting history, party
affiliation, again, their criminal background history that I talked
about in a concentrated voter base, news sources have already reported
voters deregistering to vote. That is sad because that is exactly the
type of voter intimidation that Republicans want to nationalize.
House Republicans have purposely dragged their feet on updating the
VRA and ignored their duty to uphold the Constitution and ensure the
sacred right of all Americans to be able to cast their vote.
Even as these courts begin to rule against the purposely prejudiced
tactics of these GOP State legislatures, it is up to us to bring our
voices together and lift the veil on their true intentions. It is our
duty now to stand up against these discriminatory practices that are
being implemented nationwide, because the President's sham commission
will have its first meeting this Wednesday, and we have to send one
message loud and clear: We will not allow voter suppression to become
normal. We have to make that clear.
I thank my colleagues for working alongside me in this fight, because
every member of the Congressional Black Caucus is talking about this in
their district when they are going back, townhalls, various other
events that are out and about in their respective areas that they
represent around our country to let them know what is in store.
I have got to tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am confident that we will once
again be able to ensure that the sacred right to vote is not denied to
a single American. It has been overcome a lot. We are going to continue
to overcome this, just like we have after the Reconstruction era, like
we did in the 1960s, and we are going to fight this all the way until
we get the fairness that we want.
I want to remind everybody that there is going to be a voter
suppression forum tomorrow that members of the Congressional Black
Caucus, along with the House Judiciary Democrats, will host on this
very topic, voter suppression in the wake of Shelby County, which is
the name of the Special Order that we are working on right now. And
Members will hear from Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan
Grimes and others about the President's voter fraud commission and the
bipartisan backlash that it is facing. The forum will be live-streamed
on the House Judiciary Democrats' Facebook page. I invite all Americans
to join in this very important and crucial conversation that is going
to be taking place on Wednesday.
I thank everybody again that came out to participate for this Special
Order hour on voter suppression in the wake of what happened in Shelby
County.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time
Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in
solidarity with my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to
speak out against voter suppression. Voter suppression is a serious
issue that threatens the integrity of our elections. While the
Congressional Black Caucus members have highlighted their numerous
concerns, we should all be deeply involved in combating voter
suppression and expanding access to the polls for all Americans--
particularly in the wake of the destructive ruling in Shelby County v.
Holder.
When fellow Texan and former President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed
the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, our country was in the midst of
wrestling with literacy tests, the purging of voter rolls, and
intimidation by those who wished to keep minorities and other
vulnerable segments of the population from casting their ballots at the
polls. It was a difficult time in our nation's history, but one that we
seemingly overcame together in a broad recognition that all Americans
should have equal access to the polls. The positive effects of the
Voting Rights Act grew quickly apparent.
[[Page H5911]]
Following passage of the VRA, nearly 1 million black voters
registered to vote within just four years, including over fifty percent
of the black voting age population in every southern state. We
witnessed the number of black elected officials in the South more than
double, from 72 to 159, following the 1966 elections. By the mid-1980s,
there were more African Americans in public office across the South
than throughout the rest of the nation combined.
More than fifty years later, we are once again faced with the same
fight under a different, more sinister guise. The United States Supreme
Court's decision in Shelby v. Holder has brought our nation back to our
darkest times in history. Discrimination on the basis of race is a
persistent reality throughout many localities in states once protected
by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act--including my home state of
Texas. Absent these protections, many voters are at risk of losing
their fundamental right to vote.
On May 11, 2017, President Trump issued an executive order that would
create an ``election integrity'' commission. The stated purpose of this
commission was to combat voter fraud, but we know the true meaning
behind an executive order of this nature. It is to repeat the egregious
mistakes of our past and once again prevent legitimate voters from
exercising their constitutional rights to vote.
Mr. Speaker, the concerns of the Congressional Black Caucus and the
concerns of countless Americans are worthy of our time in Congress. We
must speak out against thinly-veiled commissions meant to suppress the
vote. We must bolster the Voting Rights Act to its former power and
encourage others to combat voter suppression and protect unfettered
access to the ballot.
____________________