[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 187 (Monday, October 25, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5857-H5860]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VOTING RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Newman). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Torres) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that 
all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include any extraneous material on the subject of this Special 
Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, where did we get this notion 
that the filibuster is more worth preserving than the right to vote? 
That is surely not the lesson of American history. That is surely not 
what we teach our students in the classroom or our children at home. 
Yet, that is the lie that dictates what happens here in the Nation's 
Capitol, a lie that comes at a heavy cost to American democracy.
  It seems that there is nothing sacred in American politics--not the 
truth, not the peaceful transfer of power, not the full faith and 
credit of the United States, and, indeed, not even the right to vote.
  The enforcement mechanisms of the Voting Rights Act have been all but 
eviscerated.
  First, there is section 5, otherwise known as preclearance, which 
enables the executive branch, the Civil Rights Division of the 
Department of Justice, to enforce the Voting Rights Act. Then there is 
section 2, which enables the judicial branch, the courts, to enforce 
the Voting Rights Act. Both of these provisions have been gutted at the 
hands of rightwing judicial activism.
  The end of the Voting Rights Act as we know it has been a political 
windfall for the Republican Party, which is intent on holding power by 
any means necessary, even if it means disenfranchising Black and Brown 
voters.
  We are here to tell you that the Congressional Black Caucus will not 
stand by idly while the voting rights of Black Americans come under 
systematic assault. We will fight back because fighting is what we do 
in the Congressional Black Caucus and because there were many before us 
who were bloodied and bludgeoned and beaten so that we can have the 
right to vote. The least we can do is fight back.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), 
our dynamic leader, our dynamic chair.
  Mrs. BEATTY. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Torres for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, it is indeed my honor to stand in this Chamber tonight 
to speak up, to speak out about voting rights, voter suppression, 
fighting back, disenfranchised, section 4, section 5, section 2, all of 
which you will hear about tonight.
  We are here as members of the Congressional Black Caucus because we 
want to make sure that all of our colleagues hear our story, a story 
that they, too, should know so well, the story of a lady by the name of 
Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist from Mississippi who didn't 
even know that she could have had the right to vote.
  Recently, her granddaughter told that story. As I read that and 
thought about how she dedicated her life to voting rights, fast-
forward, think about our beloved friend, colleague, mentor, the late 
Congressman John Lewis, who stood on this floor at this microphone and 
told us his story, told us about that day when he was crossing the 
Edmund Pettus Bridge, what it felt like--dogs, hose, police officers, 
knocked down, and could have died.
  But the story ends with a good message because he would have done it 
all over again. He told us, if you see something, say something. He 
reminded us that it is our role to get in good trouble.

  So tonight, we want our colleagues, especially those on the other 
side of the aisle, to know that this is one of our top priorities. We 
want them to know that four times Republican Presidents reauthorized 
the Voting Rights Act. We want our colleagues in the Senate to know 
this should not be something that we are fighting over. This is 
something that we should be honoring and celebrating.
  As we gather here in this sacred Chamber, on the floor of the 
people's House, to discuss voting rights in America, to amplify Our 
Power, Our Message, we boldly announce that we are not going to let the 
clock be turned back.
  Let me end by saying on behalf of the members of the Congressional 
Black Caucus that this is something that we are asking all of our 
colleagues to join in and help us make sure that we can proudly say 
that we are reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act.
  Madam Speaker, I close by saying the CBC will do everything in our 
power to defend the right to vote. We are prepared to work overtime. We 
are prepared to go what I like to call old school: stand up and make 
some noise, march, protest, and, yes, even get arrested.

                              {time}  1945

  I remember that day clearly, fighting, marching, protesting. I 
thought of Fannie Lou Hamer. I thought of John Lewis and so many other 
soldiers, pioneers. I stand on their shoulders.
  Tonight, I ask us, let's stand together.
  Madam Speaker, it gives me great pleasure, as chair of the 
Congressional Black Caucus to recognize the gentlewoman from Alabama 
(Ms. Sewell), my colleague and my friend.
  I like to call her the current day mother of voting rights, fighting, 
and telling her story, leading us with John Lewis every year since I 
have been in Congress, and before, across that Edmund Pettus Bridge.
  Listening to her so scholarly debate the lawsuits that we have been 
confronted with, Shelby v. Holder.
  Listening to her explain preclearance and why we must fight and why 
we must have hearings. Why we must get it right because there is so 
much at stake.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman 
from Alabama (Ms. Sewell).
  Ms. SEWELL. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the illustrious chairwoman 
of the Congressional Black Caucus, Joyce Beatty, for her leadership. I 
want to thank Richie Torres for leading us in this Special Order hour. 
Nothing could be more profound in this hour than to be talking about 
voting rights.
  As we speak, our Nation is facing the most concerted effort to 
restrict the right to vote in a generation. Just this year, 400 bills 
have been introduced in State legislatures across this Nation to 
restrict the right to vote. In 19 States, at least 33 of these bills 
have become law, including the most egregious of State legislatures, 
Georgia, where now it is a crime to give a bottle of water to a voter 
as they stand in line.
  Even as our democracy comes under attack, we see Republicans standing 
firm in their opposition to protecting the right to vote, a bedrock 
principle that should never be partisan.
  Just last week, we watched as every Senate Republican voted to block 
debate on the Freedom to Vote Act, a commonsense bill that would ensure 
that every American has access to the ballot box.
  What are they afraid of, I ask? What are they afraid of?
  Last week's vote made clear that Senate Republicans are unwilling to 
even debate voting rights, let alone hold a fair vote. This just 
further demonstrates that in order to protect our democracy and the 
sacred right to vote; we must reform the filibuster to create a path 
forward for must-pass pieces of legislation.
  Madam Speaker, almost 3 weeks ago we saw Senator Leahy introduce S. 
4, the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in the Senate. 
But unless we take action on the filibuster, and take action now, this 
critical bill

[[Page H5858]]

will face the same fate as the Freedom to Vote Act.
  The way I see it, every Senator is now faced with a choice: it is 
voting rights or the filibuster; it is protecting our sacred right to 
vote and our democracy or the filibuster; it is advancing the legacy of 
John Lewis and the foot soldiers or it is a filibuster.
  Now, I know which side I am on. I hope our Senators will choose to do 
what is right and do away with an archaic procedural rule that has been 
used for decades to block racial justice in this country.
  President Biden also understands the urgency of this critical moment. 
On Thursday, at his town hall meeting, we heard President Biden express 
support for reforming the filibuster to pass must-needed voting rights 
legislation. I am glad that President Biden understands the urgency of 
this moment and the dire need for Federal oversight.
  You know, it was Federal oversight that brought us the Civil Rights 
Act of 1965. It was Federal oversight that allowed those marchers to 
march across that Edmund Pettus Bridge in my hometown of Selma, 
Alabama. You know when State legislatures go amuck, it is Federal 
oversight that we need to ensure that every American has access to the 
ballot box.
  Madam Speaker, it was foot soldiers like our late, great colleague 
and my mentor, John Lewis, who shed blood on a bridge in Selma for the 
equal right of all Americans to vote. If protecting that sacred right 
is not worth overcoming a procedural rule, then what is?
  Madam Speaker, it takes only 51 votes to sit a Supreme Court Justice 
and for a Supreme Court Justice to have life tenure on the Supreme 
Court. 51 votes. Yet, it takes 60 votes to stop debate and to allow a 
fair vote in the United States Senate on voting rights. This is 
unacceptable. It is un-American. It is unjust.
  We, in the Congressional Black Caucus, are saying: This is our 
message. This is our fight. Voting rights. We have no other choice, we 
must reform the filibuster and we must do so now.
  When I think about the shoulders on which we all stand, I am reminded 
of being in this House in 2015 during the State of the Union. I had as 
my special guest none other than Amelia Boynton Robinson, who at that 
time was 103 years old. She was the oldest living foot soldier that 
marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge with John Lewis and so many 
others.
  In 2015, the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march, she 
was my special guest. As we waited in a small room off of this Chamber 
for Barack Obama, then-President of these United States, to deliver 
that State of the Union, everyone wanted to take a picture with Ms. 
Amelia Boynton Robinson.
  They kneeled by her wheelchair, and said: Ms. Amelia, we stand on 
your shoulders. Oh, Ms. Amelia, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for 
your sacrifice.
  Well, Ms. Amelia was a little tired of people saying that to her over 
and over again. And when Eric Holder, the then-Attorney General of the 
United States, came and kneeled beside her, and said: Oh, Ms. Amelia, I 
stand on your shoulders. She said: Get off my shoulders, all of you, do 
your own work--is what she said.
  Madam Speaker, I am here to say that we, the members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus, are doing our own work. We are standing 
firm, we are standing solid, we are standing united in our effort to 
bring back the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

  We must do our own work, all of us. It is not enough to say that we 
stand on the shoulders of giants. We know these giants, our foremothers 
and our forefathers, they were tacticians, they were strategists. They 
just didn't happen upon Selma, Alabama. They just didn't happen upon 
Birmingham and Memphis and Atlanta. They went looking for good trouble, 
and good trouble they got in. We must do the same. We must take a play 
from their playbook.
  We must stand firm. We must stand united. We must stand undeterred in 
our efforts to beat down any barrier that stands in the way of 
protecting that sacred right to vote. It was John Lewis who said that 
the vote is the most sacred, the most fundamental right, nonviolent 
tool in our democracy. That is the vote. The vote is fundamental to 
this democracy, and everything else we do--well, everything else we do 
will be tainted if every American lacks the right to vote. There is 
nothing more sacred, more fundamental to this democracy, than the right 
to vote.
  How can a procedural rule stand in the way of that right?
  Now, I can tell you that my constituents back home don't understand 
the filibuster. They don't understand this archaic procedural rule that 
is in the Senate. When I tell them that that stands in the way of us 
passing the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, they say: 
Why? Didn't we go to the polls in record numbers in States all across 
this Nation, in southern States like Georgia to deliver the democratic 
majority? And they ask of us to protect that democracy now.
  John Lewis said that our fight is not a fight for 1 day, it is not a 
fight for 1 year, ours is a fight of a lifetime to secure that sacred 
right to vote. When I close my eyes, I can hear him. Can't you hear 
him? John Lewis said it firmly, he said it often: When you see 
something that is not right, that is not fair, that is not just, we 
have a moral obligation to stand up and do something about it.
  We in the Congressional Black Caucus know that our message, our 
fight, our cause, is nothing if not to defend the sacred right to vote. 
It is a right that is fundamental to our democracy and that no elected 
official should seek to undermine, to restrict any voice in this 
democracy.
  Our vote is our voice in this representative democracy. When you 
squelch the voice of one American who has that sacred right and is 
unable to exercise it because the lines are too long, because their 
names have been purged from a roll, it is a fundamental threat to all 
of us, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
  We know that. We live that. Martin Luther King told us that, but we 
live it every day. Nothing is more fundamental to our rights than our 
democracy and its foundation, its bedrock, the right to vote.
  When Barack Obama came into that small room off of this Chamber, 
Amelia Boynton Robinson cradled his face. I think all of us understood 
the import of that moment. Here was the first African-American 
President of these United States, and here was a woman, at 103 years 
old, who made the ultimate sacrifice, bludgeoned on a bridge, shedding 
blood on a bridge in my hometown of Selma, Alabama, so that all of us 
would have the right to vote and that one day she would see the fruits 
of her labor. Oh, what faith our foremothers and our forefathers must 
have had. Faith. Faith that their sacrifices were not in vain.
  And President Obama said: Oh, Ms. Amelia, to say thank you doesn't 
seem adequate. I get to give a speech as the President of these United 
States, and it is because of you. Without missing a beat, this woman, 
103 years old, frail, said: Oh, make it a good one. That better be a 
very good speech.

                              {time}  2000

  We should make every day a good one; we who are the inheritors of 
this legacy, and we who are the beneficiaries of this movement. Every 
day should be a good one. We should not lay our head on a pillow if we 
have not advanced the legacy of these foremothers and forefathers. 
Every day should be a good one.
  So we call on the Senate to do what we know is right, to do what John 
calls good trouble. Get into some good trouble. Let's change those 
rules. We have it within our power to do so. After all, we control the 
Senate, we control the House, and we have the White House--gavels given 
to us by ordinary people who believed that we will take that power and 
exercise that power on their behalf.
  Nothing is more fundamental than the right to vote. So in the name of 
John Lewis, in the name of Amelia Boynton, and in the name of all of 
those known and unknown foot soldiers who have the audacity to make 
this Nation live up to its ideals of freedom, justice, and equality, 
are those empty words?
  We must breathe life into those constitutional principles, and we can 
do so if we have the will to do what we know is right.
  A filibuster or voting rights?
  Upholding the legacy of our foremothers and forefathers or a 
filibuster?

[[Page H5859]]

  Making sure that we do all that we can to protect this democracy or a 
filibuster?
  The choices are easy from where I sit. They are easy from where our 
constituents sit.
  I ask our Senators to do what they know is right. If ever there is a 
reason to reform the filibuster, it is for that constitutionally 
protected right to vote. We must do so, and we must do so now and pass 
S. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  Let us restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 
Let us pass the Freedom to Vote Act. After all, the first 300 pages 
were written by John Lewis. His Voter Empowerment Act is about access 
to the ballot box. It is about making sure that the least of these--the 
voiceless--have a voice in this democracy. We must restore the vote and 
the voices of the excluded.
  We can do that. Congress can do that. That was what the Supreme Court 
said in the Shelby v. Holder decision: Only Congress can come up with a 
modern-day formula to secure the right to vote and to get at the most 
egregious State actors. We understand that we are threading a thin 
needle, but we have done our job and now the Senate must do its. Let's 
get rid of the filibuster. Let's reform the filibuster at the very 
least and ensure that every American has a right to vote and to ensure 
that their vote is counted.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).
  Mr. EVANS. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the chairwoman for 
her leadership of the Black Caucus for this opportunity, and I would 
like to thank my colleague from the great State of New York for his 
leadership and what he has done.
  After listening to the mother, as the chairwoman said, I don't think 
it could have been expressed better. She did a fanatic job.
  Madam Speaker, in my home State of Pennsylvania, Republican 
majorities in the legislature are trying to stay in power by 
restricting people's right to vote. For 7 years, Governor Wolf's veto 
has protected voting rights, so they are trying to amend the State 
constitution to bypass him.
  We are seeing these types of voting suppression plans moving forward 
in several States as well as plans to override the votes after the 
votes have been cast.
  To those who want to suppress votes or throw out vote counts, why are 
you so afraid of the voters?
  Let me repeat that: Why are you afraid of the voters?
  Fortunately, Congress can still act. The House has acted twice. We 
have passed the For the People Act almost 8 months ago on March 3, and 
we have passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act in 
August. Now the eyes of the Nation are on the Senate.
  Will the Senators let the filibuster gut the sacred right to vote?
  Personally, I would support an end to the filibuster but, I don't get 
to vote on Senate rules.
  According to the Brookings Institute analysis, there are 161 
exceptions to the filibuster already. Let me repeat that: 161 
exceptions to the filibuster. Everything from executive branch and 
judicial appointments to budget reconciliation, to fast-track trade 
agreements, to military base closures and arms sales, but not for 
voting rights. There are 161 exceptions. Madam Speaker, you heard me 
just describe to you those exceptions.
  At a bare minimum, Senators who support voting rights need to create 
exception number 162 to the filibuster--a voting rights exception. The 
right to vote is the foundation of our democracy. The right to vote is 
the foundation of our democracy.
  Make that exception to the filibuster. Save our democracy.
  It is important to understand just at this moment, this is a moment 
in history. This is a moment. I had the pleasure of serving with the 
late John Lewis on the Ways and Means Committee. And I watched him when 
I was growing up as he walked across the bridge. I was 10 years old. He 
demonstrated to all of us in this country what it means to be the 
conscience; very similar to Congresswoman Joyce Beatty leading the 
Congressional Black Caucus. The Congressional Black Caucus is the 
conscience of this Congress, and we stand here today to add our voices 
to make sure that people understand that we are in this fight, we were 
determined in every way that you can think of, Madam Speaker, to fight 
for that exception on the filibuster. We want to be clear and concise 
and let people know that we are not accepting this. This is something 
that is unacceptable. We must have the right to vote.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman 
from Georgia (Mrs. McBath).
  Mrs. McBATH. Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank 
Congresswoman and Chairwoman Joyce Beatty of the Congressional Black 
Caucus for her astounding leadership and really being on the front 
lines for the Congressional Black Caucus, and I want to thank our 
colleague, Ritchie Torres, for his leadership tonight on the floor for 
our Special Order hour for voting rights.
  I really want to thank each and every one of my colleagues, whether 
they be members of the Congressional Black Caucus or just colleagues 
here in this body who have stood and fought for everyone's right to 
exercise their right to vote, to exercise what is important to them in 
this country to be fully and freely an American. I want to thank each 
and every one of them because it is for that reason--those reasons--
that we are here tonight.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today, like so many have done before me 
throughout the years, to stand for the right of every American citizen 
in this country to vote.
  During the civil rights movement, I was the child in the stroller at 
the March on Washington. I know many have heard me say before that my 
father was president of the NAACP chapter in Illinois, and I can still 
picture him to this day presiding over meetings at our kitchen table in 
our home. Our house was always filled with volunteers, civil rights 
leaders, and workers as they were working on their poster boards, 
preparations, and getting ready for rallies and for marches as they 
were preparing to fight for a brighter world.
  From the time that I could walk as a young child, I was always 
marching with my family. I have joked with my colleagues over and over 
again that the very first song I think I really truly learned how to 
sing was ``We Shall Overcome'' because that is what we were singing. 
That is what I remember in my mind. I knew the words to that song 
because I knew that they had depth, and I knew they were so important 
to my family. Even though I was so young and I didn't understand what 
we were fighting for, I knew what my parents were doing was vitally 
important to this Nation.
  I was raised by my parents to always fight for others, to fight for 
what is right, to stand up, to champion, to fight for the least of 
these, and to stand up so that every American's voice is heard and that 
their voice is counted.
  I remember all the nights that my mother would put my sister and me 
in the car and we would travel all around Illinois passing out The 
Voice newspaper which at that time was the Illinois civil rights 
newspaper. I remember getting stuck in the mud at night and being out 
in parts of Illinois where we didn't know where we were, but my mother 
put us in the car and did what she believed she had to do to make sure 
that the American people and people of color understood the fight that 
was going on on their behalf whether they were taking part in it or 
not, but that they understood and that they knew how important it was 
for them to be able to exercise what was important to them as human 
beings and as citizens in the United States of America.
  The struggle for voting rights was championed not only by my parents 
but was embodied by our great friend and colleague, Representative John 
Lewis. He inspired millions of Americans, and that is still carried on 
today. That is still so vitally necessary today. I live in Georgia, and 
Georgia has had a profound and rich history of all the American civil 
rights stalwarts who fought on the front lines for the very voting 
rights that we still talk about to this day and that we are still 
having to protect and champion to this day: Representative John Lewis, 
Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Joseph Lowery, C.T. 
Vivian, Ralph David Abernathy, and, of course, Andrew Young.
  These are the individuals who were on the front lines fighting for 
us--

[[Page H5860]]

Members of Congress African Americans--to be in this Chamber, to be in 
this House, to be in this body, and to represent the values and the 
dreams of not only people of our ilk but of the American people.

                              {time}  2015

  Had it not been for those individuals, as Representative Terri Sewell 
has mentioned, the foremothers, the forefathers, we would not be here 
today.
  Free and fair elections are the bedrock of American democracy. That 
is what this democracy was founded upon.
  As John Lewis used to say: ``Freedom is not a state; it is an act. . 
. . Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each 
generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just 
society.'' Together, each and every one of us must do our part.
  When I think about the fact that my father worked so hard in the 
civil rights movement, that my father was there in the White House with 
President Lyndon Baines Johnson for the signing of the Civil Rights Act 
of 1964, and when I think about the fact that I am here as a Member of 
Congress because of the work that my forefathers and foreparents and 
civil rights workers and leaders and volunteers and people who just 
believed, just believed in what the Constitution said and meant, 
believed in that by exercising the right to vote, the fact that now we 
are still fighting for those same rights and that people live in 
jeopardy of having those rights taken away is unconscionable.
  For every American who fought or bled or died, gave their life for 
people to have the right to vote, what is happening in this body, what 
is happening in the Senate, is unconscionable.
  We are better than this. America is better than this. We have been 
that beacon for the world for the sense of democracy, and we must 
continue to be that very thing.
  Across America, we are standing up.
  Across America, we will lead the fight for free and fair elections.
  Across America, we will lead the fight to ensure that every American 
has the right to make their voice heard.
  Across America, we will lead the fight to create a more just society. 
We must. The times demand it.
  Every one of us in this body was born for a time such as this, and 
God demands that of us at this time.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman 
from Illinois (Ms. Underwood).
  Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.
  I rise today to urge the Senate to defend the American people from 
the ongoing assault on their sacred right to vote.
  People of color are disproportionately impacted by the recent 
onslaught of attacks on this fundamental right by certain State 
legislatures and partisan litigators. This is only the latest salvo 
from a decades-long war on voting rights, a war that has always been 
and still is fueled by racism. But although people of color are the 
primary targets of these attacks, we are not the only casualties.
  The right to vote is the foundation of any democracy. Without it, the 
United States would cease to be a government of, by, and for the 
people. Those are the stakes. This is a life-and-death issue for our 
country itself.
  Earlier this year, I proudly voted with most though, unfortunately, 
not all of my colleagues to designate Juneteenth National Independence 
Day as a Federal holiday. With this vote, we recognized that America 
cannot truly be a free country until every American is free.
  Freedom cannot be conditional on who you are, where you live, what 
you look like, how many hours you work, what language you speak, or 
what bus you ride. That is why every attack on voting rights cracks the 
foundation of our democracy. If we allow it to keep crumbling away chip 
by chip, soon, the whole structure will collapse.
  Last week, Senate Democrats brought an urgently needed voting rights 
bill to the floor, where every single Republican voted to defeat it. Of 
course, this defeat was made possible by the filibuster, an 
undemocratic procedural weapon that has been wielded for a century and 
a half to block anti-lynching legislation, civil rights, and voting 
rights.
  Americans are tired of seeing their rights sacrificed on the altar of 
the filibuster. Every Senator faces a choice about what is more 
important to protect, an antiquated procedural rule or our 
representative democracy.
  I urge my colleagues in the Senate to prioritize our democracy and 
ensure access to the ballot box is not undermined by restrictive State 
laws. A democracy for some is not a democracy for all.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. Madam Speaker, how much time do I have left?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 16 minutes remaining.
  Mr. TORRES of New York. I will use far fewer than 16 minutes.
  Madam Speaker, the lesson of history is State and local governments 
cannot be trusted to respect voting rights in the absence of Federal 
oversight. Federal voting rights enforcement is essential, as essential 
as the right to vote itself. And the most powerful tool for voting 
rights enforcement is preclearance. Preclearance has been so effective 
that, from 1965 to 2006, it kept 1,200 State and local voting 
restrictions from taking effect.
  The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore preclearance as the 
gold standard of voting rights enforcement, not only for some States 
but for all.
  The John Lewis Voting Rights Act makes real the creed of America, 
liberty and justice for all.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________