[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1003-H1009]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RATIFICATION OF THE 15TH AMENDMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Wexton). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the 
subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Nevada?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, today I rise to anchor the Congressional 
Black Caucus' Special Order hour, and I thank our chairwoman, 
Congresswoman Karen Bass, for her tremendous leadership in organizing 
this effort.
  Tonight, we are marking the 150th anniversary of the ratification of 
the 15th Amendment, which prohibits the Federal Government and each 
State from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
  In the aftermath of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, well over 
2,000 Black men were elected to local, State, and Federal offices, 16 
of whom served in Congress. Those elected officials were able to stand 
up for their communities and to work for the resources and protections 
they needed.
  Today, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are continuing 
their legacy. So tonight, we have a number of Members who will speak on 
both the importance of the 150th anniversary of the 15th Amendment as 
well as the present dangers that exist in this body and the issues that 
we are continuing to address.
  Today, we also received the President's budget. Every year, the 
President's budget shows that he does not reflect the values or the 
lives of the most vulnerable Americans or the success and security of 
hardworking families across this country.
  This year, I am proud to, again, stand with my colleagues on the 
House Budget Committee under the guidance of Chairman   John Yarmuth to 
work to protect the programs that the President is seeking to 
destructively slash in his proposal.
  Not only does his proposal threaten my constituents and their access 
to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act programs that protect my 
constituents with preexisting conditions, but it also hacks away at my 
State's and all of our States' dollars for affordable housing and 
nutrition assistance, just to name a few.
  The White House proposes to cut spending by $4.6 trillion over a 
decade. Medicaid will see a cut of about $900 billion in funding. 
Medicare would see about $500 billion in cuts over that same period. 
Funding for Federal disability programs, including Social Security 
Disability Insurance, would be cut $63 billion. The Supplemental 
Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, would be cut by $182 billion 
over 10 years as a result of the proposed strident work requirements 
proposed by this administration.
  This, after they gave themselves the biggest tax cut proposal enacted 
by Congress in 2017, giving the top billionaires and big corporations 
the greatest benefit from a $1.9 trillion tax cut.
  We knew it then and it is now proving out today: those tax cuts are 
being balanced on the backs of everyday Americans who are depending 
upon this Congress to stand up and to fight for them.
  So in the spirit of the 15th Amendment, we know that every voice 
matters regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 
So today, my colleagues and I will raise both the commemoration of that 
important amendment as well as speak truth to power as it pertains to 
these horrendous budget cuts that are being proposed.

  Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield to my colleague 
from the great State of California. She definitely speaks for me and so 
many other great Americans who are looking for strong advocates here in 
the United States Congress.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), 
my friend.
  Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman very much 
for yielding.
  First of all, I want to thank Congressman Horsford for those generous 
comments, but also for his leadership on so many fronts and for 
constantly really looking out for the most vulnerable and for those who 
oftentimes don't have a voice here.
  I am really delighted that under the leadership of our fearless 
chair, Congresswoman Karen Bass, who chairs the Congressional Black 
Caucus, she asked Mr. Horsford to chair this Special Order tonight, 
because it is so important that we talk about the budget cuts, and also 
in the context of commemorating this anniversary, the 150th anniversary 
of the ratification of the 15th Amendment.
  We continue to be the conscience of the Congress, and it is so 
important that we not only remember our history and educate those who 
may have forgotten about it, but also talk about how we got to where we 
are today.

[[Page H1004]]

  With these budget cuts that are going to severely, disproportionately 
impact the African American community, how can we not make the 
connection between our history and what is taking place here with this 
administration.
  Let me just lay out a few more of the budget cuts very quickly.
  I do serve on the Budget Committee with Mr. Horsford, and so we are 
going to be dealing with this for the next few weeks and really lay out 
how horrendous these cuts are.
  I also serve on the Appropriations Committee as an appropriator.
  We have to do a deep dive on this tonight, so let me just lay out a 
few more of these horrific cuts.
  There are cuts to lifesaving medical research. We're talking about 
that this administration wants to cut the National Institutes of Health 
by $3.3 billion and reduce the funding for the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention by $678 million.
  Education: This administration wants to impose an 8.5 percent cut on 
the Department of Education, which is a total cut of $6.2 billion, 
which includes cuts to after-school programs, which we, of course, know 
are extremely important in low-income communities and in the Black 
community.
  Infrastructure: This budget reduces the funding for the Army Corps of 
Engineers, which fixes our Nation's crumbling water infrastructure, by 
$1.7 billion.
  There are cuts to community development. It eliminates the Community 
Development Block Grant, making it harder for communities to address 
needs like safe housing, economic opportunities, and public facilities 
improvements.
  It eliminates the HOME Program. Here we are trying to increase access 
to affordable housing and eliminate homelessness, yet this 
administration's budget presents a cut in terms of just zeroing out the 
HOME Program. Of course, that is going to make it harder for low-income 
individuals to access affordable housing programs.
  It reduces rural broadband, cuts funding--this is hard to believe--
for small businesses. It cuts the funding for the Small Business 
Administration's Entrepreneurial Development grants by $93 million, 
making it harder for small businesses to grow and compete.
  We can go on and on and on, but we see this budget as a budget that 
we know is going to hurt those who don't have a lot of money, quite 
frankly, and who are striving to take care of their families and to 
live the quality of life that they so deserve as Americans.
  So we are going to fight, and we are going to make sure that this 
budget is dead on arrival, but we think it is important to lay out what 
the values are that are in this budget.
  It is an immoral budget, it is unethical, it is un-American, and I 
hope that tonight people will really understand they need to sound the 
alarm. It really is a budget that requires designating this as a state 
of emergency.
  With regard to 150 years ago: African American men were given the 
right to vote with the ratification of the 15th Amendment, that was in 
1870, but it was ratified, though, to ensure the freedoms outlined in 
the 13th and 14th Amendments.
  However, the promise of the 15th Amendment--going back now and right 
up to today--the integral promise of the right to vote for Black 
Americans was blocked, totally blocked until the Voting Rights Act of 
1965, which I remember very well. I was in high school then.
  It was just quite remarkable that in our lifetime, that the 15th 
Amendment still wasn't actualized. Almost a century now after, here we 
see still violence, racially charged State and local laws subjected 
Black men to the use of poll taxes and literacy tests to prevent them 
from voting.
  Through these discriminatory tactics, we still kept fighting. These 
tactics attempted to stop Black Americans from voting for our rights, 
but we are still fighting.
  It wasn't just Black men who were fighting for equality and fairness.
  Black women were marching in the streets long after the ratification 
of the 19th Amendment granting White women the right to vote. Black 
women continued to face the same discrimination at the polls that Black 
men had faced since 1870.
  What is worse, Black women faced the compounded prejudices of anti-
blackness and anti-women, but they were not deterred. They, we, 
continued to fight for equality along with African American men.
  Black women, like Mary Church Terrell, organized political 
organizations and participated in political meetings. Black women were 
involved in the U.S. political system long before they could legally 
cast a vote.

  Ninety-five years later, after decades of pressure and activism in 
the midst of the civil rights movement, then in 1965 the Voting Rights 
Act made voting more accessible to Black men and women. Despite the 
protections that this law put into place, the Black vote is still 
suppressed.
  Now we have new barriers such as gerrymandering, voter ID laws, voter 
purges, and the closing of polling locations in many minority 
communities.
  Now, instead of a poll tax, communities of color, especially African 
American communities, are waiting in line for 7, 8, and even 10 hours 
to vote.
  Instead of making it easier to participate in our democracy, we have 
States making it harder and pushing minorities out of reach.
  So today, 150 years after the 15th Amendment passed, this fight for 
the right to vote is more important than ever.
  Again, as I close, going back to these budget cuts, we have to let 
this administration know that there is power in the Black vote and that 
Black lives also do matter and that these budget cuts that we are 
talking about tonight, when you look at them, I am worried that they 
would take us back, take us way back to the days of Jim Crow and the 
days that we don't even want to remember.
  So, Madam Speaker, to Congressman Horsford, this is very timely 
tonight. I thank the gentleman for this Special Order, because the 15th 
Amendment and what is taking place today are very, very connected, and 
we need to remind our constituents of the risks and the dangers that we 
face at this point in our history.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from California 
again for her tremendous leadership and for reminding us about the 
history that brought us to this day, the fact that it was the 13th 
Amendment that abolished slavery; that it was the 14th Amendment that 
granted us citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to freedom; but 
it was the 15th Amendment, which was the last of the Reconstruction 
Amendments, which was designed to guarantee Black men the right to 
vote.
  As the gentlewoman rightly noted, Black women were a significant part 
of that effort, despite the fact that they weren't included in those 
initial rights until the 19th Amendment was passed. The fact is that we 
have come so far and made so much progress with the Voting Rights Act 
and know that this body, we passed H.R. 4, but we can't get agreement 
with our colleagues on the other side and the colleagues in the Senate 
to pass the Voting Rights Act.
  Fifty-five years after the initial Voting Rights Act was passed, to 
reauthorize that in this body shows just how much of a struggle we 
have, whether it is with our voting rights, whether it is with legal 
protections, or whether it is with the values that are reflected in the 
budget that we are deliberating this week that the President will 
submit.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman very much for her words of 
wisdom and know that, with the gentlewoman in this fight, we will 
continue to make progress and people will be heard.
  Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas 
(Ms. Jackson Lee), my colleague who serves on the Budget Committee, as 
well as the Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security Committee.
  She has many roles in which she understands the impact of the budget, 
the budget proposal that has been submitted by the President, which 
makes tremendous cuts to vital social service and safety net programs, 
as well as the threat and the assault that is on the

[[Page H1005]]

voting rights that we are speaking about tonight.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson 
Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from 
Nevada for his great leadership and the importance of this moment 
tonight to honor 150 years of the passage of the 15th Amendment, our 
right to vote, and to be joined by my colleagues, Congresswoman Lee and 
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, and we thank our chair, 
Congresswoman Bass.
  The Congressional Black Caucus is the conscience of this Nation and 
always stands in the gap for the very important leadership on this 
issue.
  Might I also thank our colleague, whom we are so blessed to have 
amongst us. I think the gentleman takes the title of singularly being 
the conscience and the heart of the Congress. That is the Honorable   
John Lewis, who works with us and has always been our guide as relates 
to the question of the Voting Rights Act.
  Many of you are reminded of the fact that, as that Voting Rights Act 
was fought for and rejected and thought it was too dangerous to pass in 
the 1960s, moving up to 1965, it took the march across the Edmund 
Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, when   John Lewis, among others, was 
beaten almost to death and bloodied on that bridge by horsemen from the 
Alabama State Police. What a bloody and horrific scene. None of us can 
imagine what   John Lewis went through.
  He has continued in his service in the United States Congress to 
stand steadfast with us and to remind us that it is better to do the 
right thing, regardless of the consequences. When I think of him and 
this 150th year, I am reminded of how we should stand and fight and be 
reminded, again, that the precious right to vote can be one that can be 
quick and fade in the night and be taken away in the twinkle of an eye, 
as has been attempted over the years.
  President Johnson addressed the Nation before signing the Voting 
Rights Act, and said: ``The vote is the most powerful instrument ever 
devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible 
walls which imprison men,'' and women, ``because they are different 
from other men,'' and women.
  It is important to remind the Nation of the history of African 
Americans, the descendants now of enslaved Africans, to remind this 
Congress that, for nearly 250 years, the peculiar institution of 
slavery fed into the Nation's booming industries and facilitated its 
boundless growth.
  We were the economic engine of this Nation--slave, brutal labor. And 
as this country prospered, enslaved people were denied the fruits of 
their labor: no workers' compensation, no life insurance, no days off, 
no weekends. They were brutalized without vote, without presence, 
without even the dignity of being one person.
  They were denied a voice in America's fledgling democracy and only 
began to see that change as the attempt came to make a difference by, 
in 1869, passing the 15th Amendment over impassioned opposition.
  The 13th Amendment had been passed. As my recollection serves me, 
President Lincoln was not able to see the final passage of that, but 
that was passed--and how horrific that was--to be able to finally have 
slavery denied.
  In 1869, the lameduck Congress passed the 15th Amendment over 
impassioned opposition, but, Madam Speaker, it did not last long.
  In 1876, this thing call Reconstruction, the many African Americans 
who were in the Senate and House were stricken out because of the 1876 
compromise to take the priority of the South over the rights of human 
beings. And then came the horrors of poll tax, literacy tests, 
violence, Jim Crowism, the brutality against anyone who wanted to vote.
  Even when the 19th Amendment came in 1920, it was not Black women who 
received the right to vote. So this is a worthy honoring.
  My predecessor, the Honorable Barbara Jordan, my mentor and someone 
who encouraged me in the position I am now in, indicated, with her 
leadership in 1975, she was wise enough to include the State of Texas 
by adding to the Voting Rights Act Mexican Americans. She said:

       There are Mexican American people in the State of Texas who 
     have been denied the right to vote, who have been impeded in 
     their efforts to register and vote, who have not had 
     encouragement from those election officials because they are 
     brown people.

  By adding the Mexican American population community, Texas was added 
to the Voting Rights Act, and, lo and behold, we have suffered even 
with that addition because we have had poll tax ourselves. We have had 
the onslaught of the voter ID bill. The purging has been enormous in 
the State of Texas: the moving of polls, lights being out, electricity 
being out, machines not working.
  I recall in the 1940s, there were only 30,000 African American 
voters, and a small percentage of them throughout the South were 
registered to vote. We are back where we were.
  The State of Texas, as we come up on this election, has taken away a 
tool that has been used for decades, and that is the right to push a 
straight ticket. They know that the success of the 2018 election came 
about through young voters and elderly voters and diverse voters who 
knew how to do that one vote with these long ballots, and they took 
away that very right.
  The people could choose if they wanted to vote for one party or 
another. We are looking at whether or not that is violating the Voting 
Rights Act. It takes away a choice.
  Let me conclude my remarks by indicating the importance of this 
legislation and, again, take some words from President Lyndon Baines 
Johnson: ``Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the 
doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards 
which await the wise use of the ballot. But only the individual Negro, 
and all others who have been denied the right to vote, can really walk 
through those doors, and can use that right, and can transform the vote 
into an instrument of justice and fulfillment.''
  Lyndon Baines Johnson didn't realize that counties and cities and 
States across America would find ways to stop those on the basis of 
race and color and some other form of discrimination. He didn't realize 
that his job had not ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and as we 
reauthorized it just a few years ago. He did not realize that people 
would still be stopped from voting, those who have been incarcerated, 
mostly people of color.
  Today, I pay tribute to my colleague who is leading this and pay 
tribute to the colleagues who are bringing us to recognize the 150 
years. It is good to recognize, but the fight still is maintained.
  If their vote at the ballot box is going to be the change agent of 
this Nation so homeless persons will not still be homeless, people who 
are hungry will not still be hungry, small businesses that want to open 
their doors will not be denied because of the present leadership and 
administration, our vote counts, and the honor and tribute that we can 
give to those who were enslaved for 250 years is to use the precious 
right to vote.
  As they do so, our colleagues on the floor of this House will pay 
tribute to them by passing, as well, H.R. 40, which is a commission to 
study reparations and proposals.
  Use your vote for a reason to enhance and uplift.
  Use your vote to save those who cannot speak for themselves: the 
hungry and those who need access to medical care.
  Use your vote. That is the challenge for all of us.
  Honor the 150th year by your action, by your vote, and by your 
commitment to this Nation.
  Madam Speaker, 150 years ago this month, the 15th Amendment to the 
Constitution was ratified and because of that Amendment, and the Voting 
Rights Act it authorized and President Lyndon Johnson signed into law, 
I stand before you as Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who in 2017 
became the first African American woman to attain the position of 
Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, 
Homeland Security, and Investigations.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today not just to commemorate the landmark 
achievement of 150 years ago but to inform our colleagues and the 
nation of the need to redouble and rededicate our efforts to the work 
that remains to be done to protect the right of all Americans to vote 
free from discrimination and the injustices that prevent them from 
exercising this most fundamental right of citizenship.

[[Page H1006]]

  On August 6, 1965, in the Rotunda of the Capitol and in the presence 
of such luminaries as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. 
Ralph Abernathy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Roy 
Wilkins of the NAACP; Whitney Young of the National Urban League; James 
Foreman of the Congress of Racial Equality; A. Philip Randolph of the 
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; John Lewis of the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee; Senators Robert Kennedy, Hubert 
Humphrey, and Everett Dirksen; President Johnson addressed the nation 
before signing the Voting Rights Act:
  The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for 
breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which 
imprison men because they are different from other men.
  Madam Speaker, for nearly 250 years, ``the peculiar institution'' of 
slavery fed into the nation's booming industries and facilitated its 
boundless growth.
  Even as the country prospered, enslaved people were denied the fruits 
of their own labor.
  They were also denied a voice in America's fledgling democracy.
  This only began to change in the middle of the 19th century.
  At the close of the Civil War, the nation wrangled with the future of 
nearly 4 million Black people who, until the adoption of the 13th 
Amendment, had been held captive in the South.
  On the heels of the 13th Amendment, which formally ended slavery, 
Congress passed the 14th Amendment to guarantee Black people 
citizenship and equality under the law.
  But suffrage was an entirely separate question.
  As lawmakers mapped out plans to reunify the country, extending the 
right to vote was hardly a priority in the North but in the South, 
however, Black people were voting.
  In some states--Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina--the 
African-American electorate outnumbered its white counterpart because 
in 1867, when Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, the new laws 
established, among other things, conditions for the former Confederate 
states' return to the Union.
  Perhaps the most important stipulation was that the readmitted states 
had to draft new constitutions that guaranteed suffrage to citizens 
regardless of their race.
  It didn't take long for Lincoln Republicans in Congress to recognize 
that for Reconstruction to have a chance, African Americans would have 
to be able advocate for themselves in elections.
  So in 1869, the lame-duck Congress passed the 15th Amendment over 
impassioned position.
  The amendment, which was ratified in less than a year, made it 
illegal to ``deny'' or ``abridge'' the right to vote ``on account of 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude'' and gave Congress the 
power to enforce the new law.
  Soon, Black people began voting not only in the South but throughout 
the country.
  They were elected to statewide office and were even sent to 
Washington to represent Americans in both houses of Congress.
  That it all ended in 1876 when the Hayes-Tilden Compromise resolving 
the 1876 presidential election ended Reconstruction.
  The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was critical to preventing brazen voter 
discrimination violations that historically left millions of African 
Americans disenfranchised.
  In 1940, for example, there were less than 30,000 African Americans 
registered to vote in Texas and only about 3 percent of African 
Americans living in the South were registered to vote.
  Poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of violence were the major 
causes of these racially discriminatory results.
  After passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, which prohibited 
these discriminatory practices, registration and electoral 
participation steadily increased to the point that by 2012, more than 
1.2 million African Americans living in Texas were registered to vote.
  In 1964, the year before the Voting Rights Act became law, there were 
approximately 300 African Americans in public office, including just 
three in Congress.
  Few, if any, African Americans held elective office anywhere in the 
South.
  Because of the Voting Rights Act, today there are more than 9,100 
black elected officials, including 46 members of Congress, the largest 
number ever.
  The Voting Rights Act opened the political process for many of the 
approximately 6,000 Hispanic public officials that have been elected 
and appointed nationwide, including more than 275 at the state or 
federal level, 32 of whom serve in Congress.
  Native Americans, Asians and others who have historically encountered 
harsh barriers to full political participation also have benefited 
greatly.
  The crown jewel of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is Section 5, which 
requires that states and localities with a chronic record of 
discrimination in voting practices secure federal approval before 
making any changes to voting processes.
  Section 5 protects minority voting rights where voter discrimination 
has historically been the worst.
  Since 1982, Section 5 has stopped more than 1,000 discriminatory 
voting changes in their tracks, including 107 discriminatory changes 
right here in Texas.
  And it is a source of eternal pride to all of us in Houston that in 
pursuit of extending the full measure of citizenship to all Americans, 
in 1975 Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who also represented this 
historic 18th Congressional District of Texas, introduced, and the 
Congress adopted, what are now Sections 4(f)(3) and 4(f)(4) of the 
Voting Rights Act, which extended the protections of Section 4(a) and 
Section 5 to language minorities.
  During the floor debate on the 1975 reauthorization of the Voting 
Rights Act, Congresswoman Jordan explained why this reform was needed:

       There are Mexican-American people in the State of Texas who 
     have been denied the right to vote; who have been impeded in 
     their efforts to register and vote; who have not had 
     encouragement from those election officials because they are 
     brown people.
       So, the state of Texas, if we approve this measure, would 
     be brought within the coverage of this Act for the first 
     time.

  When it comes to extending and protecting the precious right vote, 
the Lone Star State--the home state of Lyndon Johnson and Barbara 
Jordan--can be the leading state in the Union, one that sets the 
example for the nation.
  But to realize that future, we must turn from and not return to the 
dark days of the past.
  We must remain ever vigilant and oppose all schemes that will abridge 
or dilute the precious right to vote.
  Madam Speaker, I am here today to remind the nation that the right to 
vote--that ``powerful instrument that can break down the walls of 
injustice''--is facing grave threats.
  The threat stems from the decision issued in June 2013 by the Supreme 
Court in Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 193 (2013), which 
invalidated Section 4(b) of the VRA, and paralyzed the application of 
the VRA's Section 5 preclearance requirements.
  According to the Supreme Court majority, the reason for striking down 
Section 4(b) was that ``times change.''
  Now, the Court was right; times have changed.
  But what the Court did not fully appreciate is that the positive 
changes it cited are due almost entirely to the existence and vigorous 
enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.
  And that is why the Voting Rights Act is still needed.
  Let me put it this way: in the same way that the vaccine invented by 
Dr. Jonas Salk in 1953 eradicated the crippling effects but did not 
eliminate the cause of polio, the Voting Rights Act succeeded in 
stymieing the practices that resulted in the wholesale 
disenfranchisement of African Americans and language minorities but did 
eliminate them entirely.
  The Voting Rights Act is needed as much today to prevent another 
epidemic of voting disenfranchisement as Dr. Salk's vaccine is still 
needed to prevent another polio epidemic.
  However, officials in some states, notably Texas and North Carolina, 
seemed to regard the Shelby decision as a green light and rushed to 
implement election laws, policies, and practices that could never pass 
muster under the Section 5 preclearance regime.
  My constituents remember very well the Voter ID law passed in Texas 
in 2011, which required every registered voter to present a valid 
government-issued photo ID on the day of polling in order to vote.
  The Justice Department blocked the law in March of 2012, and it was 
Section 5 that prohibited it from going into effect.
  At least it did until the Shelby decision, because on the very same 
day that Shelby was decided officials in Texas announced they would 
immediately implement the Photo ID law, and other election laws, 
policies, and practices that could never pass muster under the Section 
5 preclearance regime.
  The Texas Photo ID law was challenged in federal court and 
thankfully, just yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth 
Circuit upheld the decision of U.S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzales 
Ramos that Texas' strict voter identification law discriminated against 
blacks and Hispanics and violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
  Madam Speaker, protecting voting rights and combating voter 
suppression schemes are two of the critical challenges facing our great 
democracy.
  Without safeguards to ensure that all citizens have equal access to 
the polls, more injustices are likely to occur and the voices of 
millions silenced.
  Those of us who cherish the right to vote justifiably are skeptical 
of Voter ID laws because we understand how these laws, like poll

[[Page H1007]]

taxes and literacy tests, can be used to impede or negate the ability 
of seniors, racial and language minorities, and young people to cast 
their votes.
  Consider the demographic groups who lack a government issued ID:
  1. African Americans: 25 percent;
  2. Asian Americans: 20 percent;
  3. Hispanic Americans: 19 percent;
  4. Young people, aged 18-24: 18 percent; and
  5. Persons with incomes less than $35,000: 15 percent.
  And there are other ways abridging or suppressing the right to vote, 
including:
  1. Curtailing or eliminating early voting;
  2. Ending same-day registration;
  3. Not counting provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct on 
Election Day will not count;
  4. Eliminating adolescent pre-registration;
  5. Shortening poll hours; and
  6. Lessening the standards governing voter challenges thus allowing 
self-proclaimed ``ballot security vigilantes'' like the King Street 
Patriots to cause trouble at the polls.
  Specifically, I call for the passage of H.R. 4, the Voting Rights 
Advancement Act, of which I am an original co-sponsor, which repairs 
the damage done to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court's Shelby 
decision.
  This legislation replaces the old ``static'' coverage formula with a 
new dynamic coverage formula, or ``rolling trigger,'' which effectively 
gives the legislation nationwide reach because any state and any 
jurisdiction in any state potentially is subject to being covered if 
the requisite number of violations are found to have been committed.
  Madam Speaker, before concluding there is one other point I would 
like to stress.
  In his address to the nation before signing the Voting Rights Act of 
1965, President Johnson said:

       Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the 
     doors to the polling places and open the doors to the 
     wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot.
       But only the individual Negro, and all others who have been 
     denied the right to vote, can really walk through those 
     doors, and can use that right, and can transform the vote 
     into an instrument of justice and fulfillment.

  In other words, political power--and the justice, opportunity, 
inclusion, and fulfillment it provides--comes not from the right to 
vote but in the exercise of that right.
  And that means it is the civic obligation of every citizen to both 
register and vote in every election, state and local as well as 
federal.
  Because if we can register and vote, but fail to do so, we are guilty 
of voluntary voter suppression, the most effective method of 
disenfranchisement ever devised.
  And in recent years, Americans have not been doing a very good job of 
exercising our civic responsibility to register, vote, and make their 
voices heard.
  Madam Speaker, for millions of Americans, the right to vote made 
possible by the 15th Amendment and protected by the Voting Rights Act 
of 1965 is sacred treasure, earned by the sweat and toil and tears and 
blood of ordinary Americans who showed the world it was possible to 
accomplish extraordinary things.
  So on this 150th anniversary of that landmark amendment, let us 
rededicate ourselves to honoring those who won for us this precious 
right by remaining vigilant and fighting against both the efforts of 
others to abridge or suppress the right to vote and our own apathy in 
exercising this sacred right.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for her 
tremendous leadership and for bringing such concise points to both the 
budget realities that we are faced with in this current budget proposal 
by the administration, as well as what is at stake with the 150th 
anniversary of the passage of the 15th Amendment.
  The fact that so many people have worked so hard for prior 
generations, we now, in this generation and those Members here in this 
body who have been duly elected by our constituents, have a solemn 
responsibility to respect that Amendment and the protections that come 
with it.
  Too many times in this body, we have had an opportunity for our 
colleagues on the other side to work with us in a bipartisan manner to 
pass the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Fortunately, the 
House Democrats have moved it as part of the For the People Agenda. It 
is sitting on Senator Mitch McConnell's desk. We are asking them to 
take that bill up and to vote on it in honor of the passage of the 15th 
Amendment and its 150th Anniversary.
  I thank the gentlewoman for bringing that perspective to the floor 
tonight. We are calling on all of our colleagues to work with us on 
this important legislation, as well as H.R. 40 and the other measures 
that the gentlewoman spoke about.
  I thank the gentlewoman for her time tonight.
  I now yield to a great leader in this body. She serves as the chair 
of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. She is also a 
member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
  As the chair of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, she 
is one of five chairs for the Congressional Black Caucus. That is a 
tremendous accomplishment in its own right, but it reflects the legacy 
on which we stand as Members of this body.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Johnson).
  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I am proud to stand with the Members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus tonight to celebrate the ratification of the 
15th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted African 
American men the right to vote.
  The 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits the 
Federal Government and each State from denying a citizen the right to 
vote based upon the citizen's race, color, or previous condition of 
servitude.
  We are still fighting for that right; although, we are celebrating 
the 150th anniversary of that right.
  In Texas and throughout our country, we are still fighting for the 
right to vote and the right to have our voices heard without ridiculous 
impediments and barriers that you have heard about tonight. The 
memories of the poll tax and jelly bean jars to be counted are still 
with us.
  I am old enough to remember that, when I became 21, at that time, to 
vote, I had to pay a poll tax. So it was important to be able to just 
vote. But I say to young people today that we still have to fight 
equally as hard for our right to vote.
  I have lived through the periods in American history when the 
fundamental right to vote has been continuously challenged for people 
of color, where discrimination was the law of the land and separate but 
equal was the norm. These rights guaranteeing the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
Amendments to the Constitution are sacred and continue to be protected 
so we may live in freedom. But the fight for freedom is daily.
  The 15th Amendment is part of the Reconstruction Amendments. The 13th 
Amendment abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment granted citizenship to 
all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed all 
citizens equal protection under the laws. And the 15th Amendment 
protected the right to vote.

                              {time}  2000

  The 13th and 14th Amendments were intended to establish equal rights 
for former slaves, and here we are, celebrating the 150th anniversary 
and still being treated as if slavery is the law of the land.
  Reconstruction, a period in American history that lasted more than a 
decade, from 1863 to 1877, was devastating for African Americans and 
denied us the basic freedoms promised by the Constitution. This led to 
mass segregation in the South.
  Clearly, our young people of color today did not live through much of 
this, and many of us didn't. Yet, we continue to live it every day.
  Madam Speaker, you have heard remarks on the budget, and you have 
heard remarks that specifically single out people who are least able to 
look out for themselves because of segregation and racism. They are 
also the ones who are first to be punished.
  We will not be silenced, however. We will use our right to stand for 
all the people who have been guaranteed the right to be full Americans 
until we become full Americans.
  Mr. HORSFORD. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for her strong 
leadership, for sharing her perspective tonight, and for reminding us 
about the reality of the poll tax, the literacy tests, and the 
grandfather clauses that were once common mechanisms used to 
disadvantage minority voters, particularly African American voters.
  Tonight, Madam Speaker, again, we are recognizing the 150th 
anniversary after the ratification of the 15th Amendment. Tremendous 
gains were

[[Page H1008]]

made during that Reconstruction period, where well over 2,000 Black men 
were elected to local, State, and Federal office, 16 of whom served in 
Congress.
  For instance, Hiram Rhodes Revels, the first African American Senator 
representing Mississippi, was elected to Congress in 1870. Senator 
Revels was sometimes called the 15th Amendment in flesh and blood.
  Senator Revels and his colleagues were only part of the story. All 
told, about 2,000 African Americans held public office at some level of 
government during Reconstruction.
  But, sadly, this happened in the face of literacy tests, poll taxes, 
and grandfather clauses, once the most common mechanisms used for 
disadvantaging minority voters.
  After the end of Reconstruction, these amendments were rarely 
enforced for nearly 100 years after their ratification. So even despite 
the fact that these gains were made, they were not enforced. That is 
why we need to have laws that are enforced, and we need to remind this 
administration that they are not above the law and that they have to 
follow the law and enforce the law.
  Black families were separated from their White counterparts and 
forced to use lesser facilities. They were maligned, tormented, and 
treated without respect. Black children were forced to attend rundown 
schools without the necessary books to succeed.
  This rampant segregation thrived across the country until the Supreme 
Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down the 
inherently flawed concept of separate but equal. Sadly, we are still 
trying to ensure that separate-but-equal concept no longer applies.
  It is 150 years on from the ratification of the Black men's right to 
vote, however, and we are still fighting to protect those rights in the 
face of voter suppression efforts across this country.
  Each election cycle, untold numbers of eligible Americans are 
prevented from voting due to barriers in the voter registration process 
and restrictions on casting ballots. Just since the 2010 elections, 24 
States have implemented new restrictions on voting.
  Alabama now requires a photo ID to cast a ballot.
  Other States, such as Ohio and Georgia, have enacted use-it-or-lose-
it laws, which strike voters from registration rolls if they have not 
participated in an election within a prescribed period of time.
  In Georgia, in 2018, 53,000 voter registrants, 70 percent of whom 
were Black, were unable to vote because of minor misspellings or 
missing hyphens on their registration forms.
  That is why we must draw attention to the suppression of the Black 
vote on this day that we honor the ratification of the 15th Amendment. 
Our ancestors require it.
  While today we mark the ratification of the 15th Amendment and the 
Black men's right to vote as my colleague, Representative Barbara Lee, 
indicated, we must also acknowledge that Black women were denied that 
right for nearly another 100 years.
  During the 19th and 20th centuries, Black women played an active role 
in the struggle for universal suffrage. We will be recognizing the 100-
year anniversary of the 19th Amendment this August, and it is important 
that we remember that Black women attended political conventions at 
their local churches where they planned strategies to gain the right to 
vote.
  In the late 1800s, Black women across the country worked for 
churches, newspapers, secondary schools, and colleges, which gave them 
a larger platform to promote their ideas. They participated in 
political meetings and organized political societies.
  In spite of their hard work, many people didn't listen to them. Black 
men and White women usually led civil rights organizations and set the 
agenda, and they often excluded Black women from their organizations 
and activities.
  In 1896, reformers like Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Charlotte 
Forten Grimke founded the National Association of Colored Women to 
discuss ways of attaining women's rights and women's suffrage. Their 
motto was: Lifting as We Climb.
  In 1913, Ida B. Wells founded the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago, the 
Nation's first Black women's club focused specifically on suffrage. 
Seven years after the founding of the Alpha Suffrage Club, the 19th 
Amendment was ratified.
  The 19th Amendment technically granted women in the United States the 
right vote, but Black women were excluded from those rights due to the 
ever-present racism still pervading every corner of society in this 
country at that time. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act was passed 
nearly a half-century later on August 6, 1965, that Black women were 
officially allowed to exercise their right to vote--Madam Speaker, 
1965.

  Yet, Black women today are the strongest in our families. They are 
strong in our communities, and they are strong civically. They 
understand how much has been fought and has been sacrificed in order 
for them to have that right.
  So when I talk to young people and they ask me: Why should I vote? 
Why does this matter? What do I have to lose?
  We need to be reminded tonight that people had a lot to lose. Some 
lost and some gave their very life, Members like our esteemed civil 
rights icon   John Lewis gave blood so that we would have the right to 
vote.
  It is important for us to remember that right. That right is based on 
this premise that the Federal Government and each State may not deny a 
citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or 
previous condition of servitude.
  That last piece I really want to underscore because the massive 
incarceration that has occurred over the last few decades and the 
number of formerly incarcerated citizens who still to this day in some 
States do not have their right to vote, the 15th Amendment guarantees 
them that right.
  As we recognize this 150th anniversary, we need to challenge policies 
like the one in Florida where the people of Florida decided to restore 
those formerly incarcerated citizens and give them the ability to vote, 
and then the Republicans in the legislature imposed a fee for them to 
be able to vote. That is not what this says under the 15th Amendment.
  Those in Georgia being denied the right to vote by having their name 
stricken from the voting rolls, that is not what the protections under 
the 15th Amendment provide for.
  This is something that, to me, is very alarming because it speaks to 
the very essence of who we are as a people and the democracy that we 
uphold in this institution. So, tonight, I want to commend my 
colleagues, the entire Congressional Black Caucus; our chairwoman, 
Karen Bass; and every single Member who will stand with us to pass H.R. 
4, which we have done out of this House to call on Senate Majority 
Leader Mitch McConnell and to ask him to bring that bill to a vote, for 
the President to sign it, to ensure that every single person's vote is 
protected in this country and that we end these tactics where we are 
intimidating people from participating in this process.
  This goes to the civic engagement of this country. People should 
participate by registering to vote. They should participate in the 
Census, which is occurring this year. They should participate by making 
sure their voice is heard at the ballot box every election.
  Madam Speaker, again, I thank my colleagues for joining me for this 
Special Order hour. As we commemorate the 150th anniversary of the 15th 
Amendment, we remind ourselves what is at stake. As we deliberate on 
the President's budget tomorrow and in the coming weeks, let us be 
reminded of what is at stake.
  I know for me and the people whom I represent in Nevada's Fourth 
District, my job is to never forget where I come from, what I am 
fighting for, or whom I am fighting for, and it is the people of my 
district.
  I am proud that Nevada was the first State of the 28 States to ratify 
the 15th Amendment. We did so on March 1, 1869. We are battle born in 
Nevada. We come from a strong history, and one of the things that we 
will always do is protect the rights of our fellow citizens to have 
their voice heard.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. FUDGE. Madam Speaker, this month, we mark the 150th Anniversary 
of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, granting African American 
men the right to vote. Later this year, we will also celebrate the 
centennial of

[[Page H1009]]

the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women, and 
therefore African American women, the right to vote.
  These important anniversaries give special meaning to Black History 
Month this year, reflected in the 2020 theme, ``African Americans and 
the Vote.'' This theme speaks to the long struggle on the part of Black 
men and women to secure their place in American democracy, through the 
Constitution and its guarantee of an unfettered and unabridged right to 
vote.
  The 15th Amendment was the third and final amendment adopted in the 
aftermath of the Civil War. Together, the 13th, 14th, and 15th 
amendments abolished slavery, granted citizenship to African Americans 
and etched the right to vote into the Constitution.
  While these amendments protected and expanded the rights of African 
Americans, too often throughout our history these rights existed on 
paper only. For the first century following ratification of the 15th 
Amendment, racial violence, poll taxes, and other forms of voter 
discrimination and disenfranchisement prevented African Americans from 
making their voices heard at the ballot box.
  Progress was slow. For every one step forward, we were often pushed 
two steps back. But the Civil Rights movement and, most importantly, 
the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 brought America closer to 
its promise of all Americans receiving equal protection under the law.
  This struggle continues today. A century and a half after receiving 
the right to vote and more than 50 years after passage of the Voting 
Rights Act, African Americans continue to face discrimination and 
barriers at the ballot box. Voter purges, early voting cutbacks, strict 
ID requirements, and discriminatory gerrymandering of legislative 
districts are just some of the modern-day tactics that prevent African 
Americans from making their voices heard.
  As we celebrate this important anniversary, may we work to fulfill 
the text of the 15th amendment, which said the right to vote ``shall 
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on 
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.''
  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 150th 
anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the 
Constitution.
  The right to vote freely and fairly is the foundation of our 
democracy. And yet, 150 years ago, this great nation prohibited an 
entire group of citizens from voting by law. 150 years seems so long 
ago but at the same time so near to us now.
  We know that even though, 150 years ago, our lawmakers said you 
cannot deny voters based on the color of their skin, that states were 
still allowed to functionally discriminate against African Americans. 
Back then it was literacy tests, when they knew the people who could 
not read were by and large former slaves. Poll taxes for black people. 
Threats of having your house burned down, being beaten, or even 
murdered if you dared to try and exercise your Constitutional right to 
vote.
  These practices persisted for a long time, until the Civil Rights 
Movement of the 50s and 60s. The brave actions of these peaceful 
protesters put them directly into harms way. Many were beaten, like our 
colleague John Lewis, and tragically some were murdered, including Dr. 
Martin Luther King, Jr.
  Their leadership directly paved the way to the passage of the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965. This landmark legislation finally prohibited any 
voting law that intentionally or not, resulted in the discrimination 
against racial minorities. Section 5 closely monitored states that had 
previously used such laws in the past, so they could not slip under the 
radar.
  Unfortunately, Section 5 enforcement was struck down by the Supreme 
Court in 2013. The rationale was this fight was so long ago that such 
monitoring was not needed anymore. I can assure you it was not that 
long ago to me nor anyone else who lived through it. 48 years is not 
even a lifetime for most Americans, and yet it was supposed to be long 
enough to correct nearly 400 years of oppression and disenfranchisement 
for African Americans.
  Of course, the predictable has now happened because 48 years was not 
long enough to right the wrongs. We are seeing new voting laws that 
will harm people of color, the poor, and the elderly 
disproportionately: new photo ID requirements, registration 
restrictions, and even mass purging of the voter rolls. Voter 
suppression is happening in 2020 in the same states Section 5 watched 
closely from 1965 to 2013.
  We have indeed come a long way from codifying voter suppression 
explicitly by race. We have come a long way from the physical violence 
that was a real threat when heading to the polls. However, we still 
have so far to go. It is too easy to get complacent--to think what we 
have won cannot be taken back. But it can be, it already was in 2013. 
Now we have to get back to work--protect what we have and push for what 
we don't.
  I rise today appreciating how far we have come in the last 150 years 
and remembering how far we must go in the next 150 years.

                          ____________________