[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24806]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


           VOTING RIGHTS ACT EXTENSION NOT NEEDED IN GEORGIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Westmoreland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Mr. Speaker, in 1965, Congress passed the Voting 
Rights Act to stop the systematic civil rights violations that were the 
status quo in my home State of Georgia and various other States. In 
those dark days, the Federal Government rightly stepped in to extend 
the guarantees of our Constitution to every American, regardless of 
race.
  Georgians have worked together closely for the past 40 years to heal 
the wounds of the past, and we have progressed tremendously. Black 
Georgians today are equal partners, not only in access to the voting 
booth but also to elected positions of power.
  In the parts of Georgia that experienced the most oppressive and 
violent abuses of civil rights, that is in counties and cities where 
African Americans are a majority, black Georgians are now the leaders 
of those local communities. African Americans hold a significant 
portion of the seats in the Georgia legislature, where many have held 
positions of great influence. Nine of our 34 Statewide elected posts 
are held by African Americans, a percentage that comes close to 
mirroring their proportion of the State's population.
  Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker is an African American who 
has twice won Statewide election to that post. Our Statewide elected 
labor commissioner is black, as are three justices on our State Supreme 
Court. Four African Americans hold seats in our 13 member House 
delegation. Two of those black members defeated white candidates in 
majority white districts.
  African Americans have exercised their electoral muscle for decades 
now in Georgia. Blacks in Georgia have higher levels of voter 
registration and participation than do whites. In fact, blacks in 
Georgia have higher registration rates than do most blacks outside the 
South.
  Furthermore, black and white candidates for public office draw 
comparable support from white voters. In other words, black and white 
candidates of the same party win or lose at the polls with similar vote 
percentages. No longer will Georgians vote against a black candidate 
simply because he or she is black.
  With these facts in mind, I call on Congress to let Section 5 of the 
Voting Rights Act expire. Section 5 was implemented as a temporary 
statute to correct a specific problem. In the late 1960s, the Supreme 
Court ruled that Section 5 was constitutional only because it was 
narrowly tailored and temporary. Mr. Speaker, I would suggest to my 
colleagues here in the House that 40 years is more than temporary.
  Now Congress is considering extending Section 5 for another 25 years, 
to 2030, without giving any consideration to the changes that have 
occurred since 1965. If there is a need for Section 5 today in Georgia, 
it must be needed everywhere.

                              {time}  1915

  If it is good for Georgia, it will be good for your State too. But if 
you do not think your State election laws should be subjected to 
Federal oversight, then I challenge each and every one of you to at 
least, Mr. Speaker, look at the facts of today's Georgia before casting 
a vote that does not affect your constituents, but does affect mine.
  Georgia has fulfilled the vision of the Voting Rights Act and should 
be treated the same as every other State.

                          ____________________