House Votes Down Stearns Amendment
Feature Story by Tyler Lewis - 6/29/2006
The House voted down, 254-167, an amendment to the Voting Rights Act reauthorization bill (HR. 9) that would have had disenfranchised millions of American citizens who do not speak English very well.Rep. Cliff Stearns, R. Fl., proposed Monday to strike a blow to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, which provides language assistance to minorities, in another Republican attempt to weaken the nation's most effective civil rights law.
The amendment, No. 21 to the SSJC appropriations bill H.R. 5672, directs the Department of Justice not to expend funds to enforce the minority language provisions of the VRA, essentially subverting the VRA reauthorization process.
This latest attack on the VRA reauthorization comes on the heels of a stalled vote in the House last week, which was hijacked by a group of Southern Republicans, led by Lynn Westmoreland, R. Ga., who objected to the language provisions.
Civil rights groups stated that the new amendment was yet another attempt to scapegoat minorities and disenfranchise those citizens who do not speak English well.
"Efforts by a few rebels in the House to gut the language minority provisions of the Act have been thwarted twice," said Julie Fernandes, senior policy counsel at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "It is now time for the House to bring HR 9 to the floor for a vote."
Key provisions of the VRA will expire next summer: Section 5, the federal pre-clearance provision, which requires certain jurisdictions to obtain federal approval before making any voting or election changes; Section 203, which requires certain jurisdictions to provide language assistance to limited English proficient voters; and Sections 6-9, which authorize the Department of Justice to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was last reauthorized in 1982.
