FROM THE OFFICE OF
Congressman Artur Davis
7th Congressional District of Alabama
208 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-0107
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | ||
| July 17, 2006 | ||
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CONGRESSMAN DAVIS OFFERS REMARKS SUPPORTING VOTING RIGHTS ACT RENEWAL DURING HOUSE FLOOR DEBATE |
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WASHINGTON (July 13, 2006) - U.S. Representative Artur Davis (D-Ala.) has been an outspoken advocate for the immediate renewal of the Voting Rights Act in its current form. After weeks of delay encouraged by Members who sought to alter the Act through four proposed amemdments, the issue was finally brought to the floor. All four amendments were defeated, and the House voted 390-33 for final passage of the Act. During the floor debate on July 13, Congressman Davis offered the following remarks supporting passage of the Act.
Mr. Chairman, I wish my colleagues from Georgia understood something very fundamental about this Voting Rights Act. It is not a burden on the South. It is not some scourge or tool of oppression against the South. It has been a liberator for people, black and white; and I wish my colleagues from Georgia understood this basic truth that all the children who are here understand today. There were Barack Obamas in the old South. There were Mel Watts in the old South. There were Bobby Scotts in the old South. There were Jesse Jacksons that lived in the South in the 1930s. But their talent was not allowed to breathe until this act was passed. It gave all kinds of people of genius and brilliance and talent a chance to be elected to office. That is the legacy that we celebrate here today. So I urge all of us to join Mr. Sensenbrenner in this bipartisan statement today that the Voting Rights Act belongs to all Americans, black and white, Democratic and Republican, and everyone who believes that merit ought to determine who holds office in this country. -###- Mr. Chairman, Mr. Norwood said some things change in 25 years, and he is right about it. One thing that has not changed in 25 years is that people say one thing and have a different agenda. We have heard all day that we are opposed to unfunded mandates, and now we want to put a new mandate on the Department of Justice with no new money. We have heard, when Mr. Westmoreland writes about this topic in the pages of The Hill, that he wants to lift the South from the whims of Federal bureaucrats, and this amendment would empower the bureaucrats of the Department of Justice more than ever. We heard his remarks, again on this amendment, by saying, I want to save the Voting Rights Act; and then he proposes to save it by making it harder to administer, more subject to judicial challenge, and far more complicated. It has not changed. People say one thing and have another agenda. I close by saying the agenda today appears to be to water down this act and strip it of a lot of its power, and that is wrong. -###- |