For the People Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Bush- Jones Amendment to H.R. 1, a critical amendment which clarifies that felony convictions do not bar any eligible individual from voting in federal elections, including individuals who are currently incarcerated.
This amendment seeks to reverse discriminatory voter restrictions that disproportionately affect the African American voting population, which continues to be targeted by mass incarceration, police profiling, and a biased criminal justice system.
Voting is a right of citizenship, not a privilege any of us earns, and should not be connected to punishment.
Felon disenfranchisement laws were crafted with the intent to disenfranchise as many African Americans as possible after the Civil War, and today, one in every 16 African Americans of voting age is disenfranchised, a rate 3.7 times greater than that of non-African Americans.
According to PEW Research, over 10 percent of the adult population in Texas was a felon as of 2010.
Nearly 5.2 million Americans are disenfranchised while serving time behind bars.
These Americans are full members of our civic life, and they have ties to their families and communities, engage in robust civic life, and many of them have been or will be released back into their communities.
The white supremacists who championed such measures were very clear on their reasons.
Disenfranchising a specific group of people undermines democracy, and it does so with a particular impact on people of color.
In many states, state disenfranchisement laws have explicitly racist origins, and it's time to put this ghost of Jim Crow behind us.
Many states have already begun to recognize the right to vote for those serving time.
Vermont and Maine are the only U.S. states, in addition to Puerto Rico, that allow all people with felony convictions, including those incarcerated, to vote.
Alabama, Mississippi, and Alaska allow some people who are incarcerated to vote, depending on their felony convictions.
Additionally, Washington D.C. passed a measure just last year which allowed those incarcerated to vote in the November 2020 election.
This amendment is supported by a host of civil rights, racial justice, and criminal legal reform organizations, including the Leadership Conference, Demos, the Sentencing Project, the National Immigration Project, the National Council of Churches, and more.
Madam Speaker, we must not allow our democracy to slide back into the worst elements of this country's past, to stand idly by as our treasured values of democracy, progress, and equality are poisoned and dismantled.
I urge all members to join me in supporting the Bush-Jones Amendment to H.R. 1.
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California, the chair of the Committee on House Administration, for the work that she has done.
It is interesting to hear a speech by the former President, following in his tradition of denial of a fair election, but announcing that he believes that there should be only 1 day for an election to take place, denying essential workers, not recognizing the disaster of COVID-19, denying rural voters and minority voters the opportunity in some stressful time to be able to vote.
H.R. 1 considers all factors in ensuring the empowerment of all voters in this Nation. The United Methodist Church offered these words, ``We hold governments responsible for the protection of the rights of the people to free and fair elections . . . the form and the leaders of all governments should be determined by exercise of the right to vote guaranteed to all adult citizens.''
This legislation recognizes that and recognizes that the dark days of 4 years ago of voter suppression and opposition to minorities voting, the lack of empowerment, are over with in H.R. 1. And I want to support amendments 22 and 23, to ensure that individuals with disabilities can vote.
I want to make sure that young people on college campuses are not discriminated against, as they have been in my community with polling places that they have had to stand in long lines.
I want to make sure as well that women are protected in privacy with making sure that their addresses are not printed so that they will not be subjected to assault, sexual assault, and violation of privacy. H.R. 1 provides an opportunity for justice and the right way to vote, I ask for the recognition of that.
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Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of En Bloc Amendment No. 3 to H.R. 1, which includes the Gallego Amendment, an important contribution to H.R. 1 that makes a long overdue technical fix to the Help American Vote Act to ensure and to protect the right to vote for Native Americans and others living with disabilities in the four corners region of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.
Specifically, this amendment will extend funding under the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access program to the Native American Disability Law Center to ensure people with disabilities in the region can fully participate in the electoral process.
Too often, voters in this region drive hours to reach their nearest polling place, only to find that the ballot is not accessible to them due to inadequate disability training, ADA accessibility, or other impediments to the constitutional right to vote.
Voting is a right of citizenship, and every polling place should be adequately equipped to serve those with disabilities.
Nearly 15 percent of those eligible to vote in Texas are persons with disabilities--almost 3 million people--and lack of accessibility causes people with disabilities to vote at lower rates than the general population.
According to a study by the Government Accountability Office, nearly two-thirds of the 137 polling places inspected in 2016 had at least one impediment to people with disabilities.
These impediments included: the accessible voting machine not being set up and powered on, malfunctioning earphones, lack of wheelchair accessibility, and less privacy than standard voting stations.
Many people with disabilities cannot mark paper ballots without assistance, so they rely on special voting machines, but untrained poll workers have discouraged the use of accessible voting machines, leaving voters with disabilities behind.
People with disabilities continue to report barriers including a lack of accessible election and registration materials prior to elections, lack of transportation to polling places, and problems securing specific forms of identification required by some states.
Mr. Speaker, it is long past time to keep our promise for a fully inclusive electoral process in Native and rural communities, and I urge my colleagues to vote for En Bloc Amendment No. 3 to H.R. 1.
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