[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 24 (Monday, June 21, 1993)]
[Pages 1109-1110]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Voting Rights Act

 June 17, 1993

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been a topic of substantial 
discussion in recent days. I want to make absolutely clear my full 
support for the act.
    The Voting Rights Act is central to our Nation's efforts to 
eradicate racial discrimination and secure equal opportunity for all 
Americans. As I said last month upon signing the motor voter bill, the 
Voting Rights Act is part of a great tradition of laws that have widened 
the circle of liberty to encompass more and more of our citizens. This 
administration remains unwavering in its commitment to effective 
enforcement of the act and the Nation's other civil rights laws.
    The Voting Rights Act was adopted to give reality to the 15th 
amendment's guarantee of the right to vote, the most basic right of a 
democracy. When first adopted in 1965, the act responded to long-
entrenched barriers that systematically denied voting rights to African-
Americans. As more subtle forms of disenfranchisement came to be 
employed, the Congress, with bipartisan agreement, strengthened and 
extended the Voting Rights Act in 1982. The Voting Rights Act offers two 
major protections: It imposes a nationwide prohibition of any electoral 
process that results in discrimination, and requires that certain 
specially covered jurisdictions obtain administrative or judicial 
preclearance before implementing voting changes.
    I fully and enthusiastically support Attorney General Janet Reno, 
and the attorneys of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of 
Justice, in their efforts to enforce vigorously the Voting Rights Act. 
Where the Voting Rights Act is violated, this administration will 
continue, as it has in pending Supreme Court litigation in which the 
Department of Justice has filed briefs, to seek effec- 

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tive relief by applying the full range of remedies available under law, 
including remedies that have previously been employed by the Department 
of Justice or approved by the courts. I also look forward to working 
with Attorney General Reno and Members of Congress to enact legislation, 
as needed, to clarify and reinforce the protections of the Voting Rights 
Act.
    In 1965, President Johnson hailed the Voting Rights Act as ``a 
triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that has ever been won on any 
battlefield.'' Effective enforcement of the Voting Rights Act will allow 
us to continue that triumph. Inclusion of all Americans in the political 
process is necessary if we are to work together as communities, States, 
and a Nation to address the difficult challenges that confront us all.