House Votes to Extend Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON, July 13, 2006 — -- The House has voted to extend the Voting Rights Act for 25 more years. The bill, which if passed into law would guarantee that no one would be denied the right to vote because of race, passed 390 to 33.

Republican leaders had wanted to bring the extension of the landmark civil rights legislation to the floor several weeks ago but first had to deal with discontent among their own rank-and-file.

One of the issues that slowed the bill's progress to the floor was its provision that states that have a history of discrimination against blacks and other minority voters continue to receive extra monitoring. Some Southern lawmakers say that their part of the country continues to suffer from a perception of discrimination even though significant progress has been made in expanding voting rights

"This rewrite of the Voting Rights Act gives no consideration to any changes that may have occurred since the first law was passed in 1965," argued Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga. "The House is voting today to keep my state in the penalty box for 25 more years."

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., argued that in certain parts of the country, there is still work to be done.

"Racial discrimination continues to exist and threatens to undermine the progress that has been made over the last 40 years," he said.

Some Southern members of Congress also agreed that there was good reason to continue the heightened attention on states where in the past people have had to fight for their right to vote.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., speaking with emotion, told his colleagues, "Yes, we've made some progress, we've come a distance."

However, the 10-term House member, a civil rights icon who suffered a concussion and almost died in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., continued, "The sad truth is, discrimination still exists."

The other contentious issue the House GOP leadership had to handle was a provision requiring bilingual ballots for citizens whose English is poor.