OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Voting Rights Act

Floor Speech

Date: June 27, 2013
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Elections

Mr. HORSFORD. Let me just say it's good to see the freshman class president from the other side at the Speaker's podium this evening.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down critical parts of the Voting Rights Act, and I, like my colleagues, am deeply disappointed in this decision.

Justice Scalia said the Voting Rights Act is a ``racial entitlement.''

Voting is not a racial entitlement. It is a right for every eligible voting age citizen. It is an American entitlement.

Voter suppression tactics have become more sophisticated, but they have not disappeared. The Voting Rights Act blocked more than 1,000 voting law changes between 1982 and 2006, and last year alone, the Voting Rights Act stopped a voter ID law in Texas and a Florida law that eliminated early voting days.

Now it has fallen to Congress to safeguard our most sacred right, and I will work with anyone from either party who understands the need to protect this fundamental right. I urge this body to work together to fix the Voting Rights Act.


Source
arrow_upward