[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 52 (Friday, March 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1605-H1606]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 SCORCHED EARTH TO MISSISSIPPI BURNING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from South Carolina?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, last March, as the tragic failure of the 
Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic was 
becoming very apparent, the House Democratic Caucus held a conference 
call to discuss the crisis. Recalling the lessons of history, like the 
aftermath of World War I, the Spanish Flu, the Great Depression, and 
World War II, that it is usually the least of these among us that are 
the hardest hit during the crises and the last to recover after these 
crises are over, if they are able to recover at all; I expressed at 
that time to the Caucus that the legislation before us offered a 
tremendous opportunity to restructure things in our vision. I was 
referring then, as I often do, to the vision expressed in our Pledge of 
Allegiance to our Nation's flag of liberty and justice for all.

                              {time}  1315

  Shortly after the media reported these comments, Senator McConnell, 
the majority leader of the Senate, derided them on the Senate floor. 
Referring to me by position, he declared: ``This is not a political 
opportunity. It is a national emergency.''
  I wholeheartedly agree with the now-minority leader of the Senate 
that the coronavirus pandemic was and remains a national emergency. But 
because the previous administration and Senate Republicans failed to 
address it with appropriate urgency and a vision of liberty and justice 
for all, the American people, through the political process last 
November, entrusted Democrats with an opportunity to build back with a 
better and more equitable vision for the future of our great country.
  The American Rescue Plan has begun that process, and it is enjoying 
widespread, bipartisan support across the entire spectrum of the 
country. It did not get a single Republican vote in the House or the 
Senate. Because of the use of the budget process commonly called 
reconciliation, Republicans were not able to block by filibuster the 
American Rescue Plan, and that is proving to be a good thing.

[[Page H1606]]

  But the Senate minority leader and several of his colleagues seem to 
be hellbent on using archaic Senate procedural rules to allow the 
minority in the Senate to block any legislation designed to protect the 
voting and civil rights of our country's minority citizens as we 
continue our pursuit toward the fulfillment of liberty and justice for 
all.
  We have been here before. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Senate 
filibuster was used to kill civil rights legislation and protect Jim 
Crow laws. Today, Senate Republican leaders are employing the same 
tactics to obstruct voting rights and civil rights legislation. Their 
efforts are designed to gain power for their party by suppressing 
political participation by minorities.
  The minority leader has threatened that if Senate Democrats modify 
the filibuster rules to do to him as he did to President Obama, he will 
resort to scorched-earth tactics. This threat of scorched-earth tactics 
by the Senate minority leader in defiance of American democracy is 
reminiscent of ``Mississippi Burning,'' which highlighted the lynching 
of three civil rights workers who were simply registering Black voters 
in Mississippi in June 1964. They were murdered by the KKK, with the 
cooperation of law enforcement officials, to keep them from assisting 
minority citizens who simply wanted to vote. It was 44 days before 
their bodies were located and four decades before anyone faced legal 
consequences for their deaths.
  Today, Republicans are using the big lie about the 2020 elections as 
a pretext to advance a litany of minority voter suppression laws. They 
know that our vision of liberty and justice for all enjoys majority 
support among voters, so they seek to suppress enough votes so that 
their oppressive policies and bankrupt ideas can prevail. The minority 
leader wants to allow a minority of his minority to block measures that 
would prevent a return to bygone days.
  To confront this threat, the Senate must eliminate the 60-vote 
threshold to end a filibuster on voting rights and civil rights 
legislation. Just as Mississippi Burning was met with the Civil Rights 
Act and Voting Rights Act, the threat of scorched earth must be met 
with the For the People Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act.
  I didn't march in the streets and spend nights in jail as a young man 
to find myself fighting the same battles generations later, but it 
appears the minority leader and his Republican colleagues are preparing 
to retread old ground, and I am prepared to stand my ground.
  To the minority leader and his colleagues, I say: This is not a 
political opportunity. This is a national emergency.
  Since this country's inception, equal rights for people of color have 
been restricted by those in power who seek to hold on to power by using 
their power to deny the greatness of this country to those who do not 
look like them.
  Extending debate on legislative issues is one thing, but when it 
comes to rights rooted in the Constitution, the filibuster has no 
place.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________