Thursday, June 26, 2014
Floor Speech: Calling on colleagues to restore voting rights protections
As Delivered on the Senate Floor
Mr. President, last Friday was Juneteenth, which marks four of the most important days in our nation's long and continuing march towards racial justice and civil rights in this country.
First, on June 19 in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery in all U.S. Territories.
Then three years later, a month after the end of our civil war, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, to free the last of our nation's slaves.
Nearly a century later, on June 19, 1963, with Jim Crow laws still a stain on the moral fabric of our country, President John F. Kennedy sent his Civil Rights Act of 1963 to Congress.
And the following year, as the nation mourned its loss, President J.F.K., President Johnson shepherded the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to final passage.
As we mark these days in our nation's history – from the end of our darkest period to some of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation passed – we know we still have further to go. It's appropriate that we do so this year especially, that we mark June 19 and these four moments across our nation’s history because as a result of the Supreme Court's decision last year, the Shelby County case, a key piece of President Johnson’s Voting Rights Act of 1965 stands in bad need of repair and revision. In fact, the Voting Rights Act itself is at risk of becoming a dead letter in the future of voting in our country.
Now, just two years ago, I had the opportunity to join many of my colleagues here in the Congress from the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats in returning to Selma, to the site of Bloody Sunday, to the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Many of us, members of Congress, got a chance to hear again from Congressman Lewis about the events of that day, that day that was etched into the consciousness of this country and mobilized millions to speak out to their Representatives and Senators and moved this Congress finally to enact legislation that would unlock the keys to the ballot box across the country.
I was so proud earlier this year to join with Chairman Leahy, of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and with Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman John Lewis, an icon and leader in the American civil rights movement, Congressman John Conyers and Republican Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner to introduce a bill that would restore the core protections made possible in the original Voting Rights Act.
The bill we introduced doesn't look at discrimination through the lens of the past. It focuses on modern day violations, not the things that happened 50 years ago. It takes up the challenge laid down by the Supreme Court and comes up with a new formula and a new approach that makes voting rights and elections more transparent and has been carefully crafted to be both effective and to pass in this Congress.
It is, Mr. President, a voting rights bill that is modern to confront modern voting rights challenges.
As a country, we have come a long way since 1965, but we are not where we need to be yet. As much as we may at times not want to admit it or confront it, racial discrimination in voting is not a relic of the past, but a tragic reality of today.
Just yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on what to do to address the loss of a key part of the Voting Rights Act that's known as preclearance. In 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, a bill that each and every senate republican voted for in 2006. Let me be clear about that again. In 2006, this body unanimously reauthorized the Voting Rights Act. And yet in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down an essential provision of that very act.
Mr. President, the Voting Rights Act and leadership to address the challenges of civil rights in this country have long been bipartisan in nature. My own family and friends who are Republicans are justifiably proud of their Party's leadership role in addressing the darkest days and the biggest challenges of civil rights in the last century in this country.
But today we are struggling in this body to find a single Republican cosponsor for this important and necessary bill. And I ask my friends, is this because there’s nothing that remains to be done? Is that 2006 law unanimously passed by this body so obsolete that there is no legislative response necessary to Shelby?
I think a response is necessary.
Just a month after the Supreme Court’s decision, North Carolina passed a restrictive – a deeply restrictive voting law that in addition to a strict photo ID requirement reduces early voting and forbids local jurisdictions flexibility in setting hours for early voting, among other restrictions.
After the Shelby County decision in Pasadena, Texas, that city's voters adopted a plan to reduce the number of single member districts from eight to six, adding two at-large representatives, a change nearly certain to reduce Latino representation on their City Council.
And just hours after the decision, the State of Texas announced plans to implement its photo ID law that had long been blocked under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
Again and again, Mr. President, shortly following the Shelby County decision, jurisdictions moved to implement discriminatory voting changes that had previously been blocked under Section 5.
Something needs to be done.
I’d suggest to my colleagues, if you don't like this proposal, please come forward with something you can support, with something that looks forward, not back, that has a formula that protects voting as the most sacred and foundational right of our republic and that allows us to come together.
History will not look kindly on our inaction.
Mr. President, just two days ago, we honored the memory of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King with the Congressional Gold Medal. What better way to honor their legacy than to come together in a bipartisan way and strengthen the rights they fought so hard to secure for every American.
Voting is fundamental and ensuring that every American really has the right to vote is at the core of what makes our democracy vibrant.
So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together and to find a way forward for us to put voting rights first and to restore the important legacy of June 19 from across so many incidents and so many years and to move us forward on a positive path.