Bill to Reauthorize the Voting Rights Act a Bipartisan Affair
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 5/3/2006
On May 2, thirteen Democratic and Republican legislators came together on the steps of the Capitol to announce their support for legislation to renew key expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).The bicameral, bipartisan introduction of the bill was an historic moment for a fiercely divided Congress. "Today we stand together to make sure the Voting Rights Act doesn't expire," said Sen. Bill Frist, R. Tenn.
The bill, HR 9/S. 2703, "The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006" was named for three famed heroines of the civil rights era.
"Today's historic, bicameral, bipartisan support for a bill to renew the Voting Rights Act highlights the importance of one of the most effective laws in U.S. history - one that helped the nation live up to its highest principles of freedom, justice, liberty and equality for all," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).
The legislators spoke about the importance of ensuring that the hard-won voting rights of minorities are not eroded. Civil rights icon and congressman, John Lewis, D. Ga., who was one of the leaders of the March on Selma that led to the passage of the VRA in 1965, said, "[We] stand on the shoulders of those who struggled and those who died" for all Americans' voting rights.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., D. Mich., called the bill "the most important bill I will be working on in the 109th Congress."
Congress has held 10 hearings since October on the effectiveness of the VRA's expiring provisions in preparation for the introduction of legislation. The House will hold two additional hearings on May 4.
Senate hearings are set to begin in the next two weeks.
"We're proud that our nation's legislators understand and support a bill that not only guarantees minorities the right to vote, but has enhanced opportunities for minorities to win elective office," said LCCR's Henderson.
The three key expiring provisions are: Section 5, which requires preclearance of voting changes in states and localities with a history of voting discrimination; Section 203, which requires counties where more than five percent of citizens who are not native English speakers to provide language assistance; and Sections 6-9, which authorizes the Department of Justice to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections.
Over the last 40 years, the VRA has been renewed four times by bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate and signed into law by both Republican and Democratic presidents.
