[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16396]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  ANNIVERSARY OF WOMEN'S RIGHT TO VOTE

  (Ms. HARRIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark an important 
anniversary in our Nation's history. Eighty-five years ago, on August 
18, 1920, the 19th amendment to the Constitution was ratified, 
extending the right to vote to American women.
  The road to the 19th amendment was long and difficult, paved with 
hard work and struggle. The birth of the women's suffrage movement can 
be traced to the Women's Rights Commission in Seneca Falls, New York, 
in July of 1848, which laid out the principles that would guide the 
women's movement.
  More than seven decades later, those principles were at last codified 
into our Constitution, moving our Nation closer to meeting the promise 
of its founding.
  Today, we have more women than ever serving in elected and appointed 
positions in our local, State, and national governments. Not only in 
this Chamber, but also in the United States Senate, in the President's 
Cabinet, and in a wide range of Governors' offices, as well as other 
positions. This represents a vast change from where we stood 85 years 
ago, and our Nation is stronger for it.
  As we watch the spread of freedom across the globe, and as more and 
more women take on the rights and responsibilities of full political 
citizenship, let us pay tribute to those women who blazed the trail for 
those of us who have followed.

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