[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27710]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  REDISTRICTING IN THE STATE OF TEXAS

  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, over the last 48 hours a 
number of us had the displeasure of reading in The Washington Post an 
article detailing the antics of the process of redistricting in the 
State of Texas. Many of us who were engaged in that process a good year 
or two years ago remember sitting down and presenting a very fair case 
to the Justice Department lawyers that the plan that was offered by 
Texas Republicans would undermine the Voting Rights Act and be 
discriminatory.
  Lo and behold, though we presented a very fair case, and the Justice 
Department lawyers agreed with us and wrote accordingly, what came out 
of the Justice Department was completely different. I cannot imagine 
any greater abuse of power than what happened in the Texas 
redistricting plan, where the lawyers for the Justice Department, civil 
servants who did their work and indicated that the plan would violate 
the Voting Rights Act of 1965, were not allowed to prevail.
  I would ask the Attorney General present now to investigate what 
occurred with respect to the Texas redistricting plan. We all know 
politics are in play, but they should not be in play in the works of 
our various executive agencies to provide the truth to the American 
people.

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