OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Urging Passage of the Voting Rights Act

Date: July 12, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights


URGING PASSAGE OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT

Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was first passed, Martin Luther King said, ``This represents a shining moment in the conscience of man.''

What a wonderful opportunity for Democrats and Republicans to come together and reignite that shining light in the conscience of man.

The Voting Rights Act does two things: It does not allow jurisdictions to discriminate against any United States citizen that wants to exercise the most sacred of all rights, and that is the right to vote. That gives you some control over your own destiny. But it does something else. It encourages and accommodates all other United States citizens that may have some sort of obstacle to overcome in order to exercise the most precious of all rights. That is what the Voting Rights Act accomplishes.

And I am hoping that tomorrow we will have this wonderful opportunity to follow in the footsteps of those true giants in 1965 that came together on both sides of the aisle to pass the original Voting Rights Act.

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