[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11774]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       OPPOSING BILINGUAL BALLOTS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. GINNY BROWN-WAITE

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 19, 2006

  Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in 
support of reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  However, I am greatly concerned that provisions providing for 
bilingual ballots remain in the bill.
  Let me be clear: I support both legal immigration and celebrating 
one's heritage.
  However, the bilingual ballot provision has long kept new citizens 
from increasing their knowledge of our language and from fully 
integrating into our society.
  Not only is it expensive to print ballots in a variety of different 
dialects and tongues, but it reinforces a fractious society.
  Later this week I plan to offer an amendment with my good friend and 
colleague, Congressman Steve King of Iowa, to strip this arcane and 
divisive language.
  I ask for my colleagues' full support of this measure and I yield 
back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________