[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10593]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RESTORE THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

  (Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, first, let me thank Congressman Green for 
yielding to me the opportunity to speak out of order and to remind this 
body that, in a recent conversation I had with John Lewis, our hero and 
colleague, I asked him the question: Just what drove you to place your 
body in harm's way and your life in jeopardy for the civil rights 
movement?
  And he said, because he had confidence in this country, the Congress, 
and he also had confidence in the Supreme Court.
  Recently, he had to admit that the Court's action has really plunged 
a dagger in the heart of this legislation that so many Americans have 
depended on for fairness, which includes, of course, that basic 
constitutional right to vote. But that light was dimmed; it wasn't 
extinguished.
  And as I recall the Voting Rights Act that we did pass overwhelmingly 
in both Chambers, it was the names of Jim Sensenbrenner and John 
Conyers that come to mind. They both are still in this House. They both 
love the country, love the Congress, and love the Constitution. And I'm 
confident that, once again, they would bring together that coalition of 
Republicans and Democrats, that may see things differently as it 
relates to the ideology, but together they can bring the same forces 
that we had in 2006 to make certain that we restore the rights that the 
Supreme Court has taken away from us.

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