By a wide margin, the House of Representatives voted today to reauthorize several key portions of the historic Voting Rights Act. In the process, the legislators defeated four amendments designed to gut the bill.
On a vote of 390–33, a strong bipartisan majority approved H.R. 9, formally titled the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. All 33 opposing votes came from Republicans.
The bill reauthorizes three important provisions of the Voting Rights Act that will expire in August 2007. The law, arguably the most successful civil rights legislation ever passed, outlaws such requirements as literacy tests and poll taxes to prevent people of color from voting and has helped ensure that they have an opportunity to achieve elective office.
The AFL-CIO and its partners in the Voting Rights Act Collaborative had strongly urged the House to pass the reauthorization without any amendments.
The amendments were introduced by a small, vocal band of extremist Southern Republicans from Georgia, Texas and other states.
The closest vote came on the bilingual-assistance amendment sponsored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). The amendment, which failed 185–238, would have eliminated provisions that require states covered under the law to provide bilingual voting assistance to citizens whose first language is not English.
(Find out more about King’s proposal from Elana Levin on DMI and Paul Kiel at TPM Muckracker, and see what Down With Tyranny says about the Southern Republicans’ efforts to stop the Voting Rights Act.)
Another amendment would have reduced the reauthorization period to only 10 years, less than half of the 25 years provided in the bill that passed. The other two amendments would have weakened provisions that require states with a documented history of discrimination to get approval from the U.S. Justice Department for any changes to voting laws and made it easier for states to bail out of the law’s requirements.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where the Judiciary Committee was scheduled to begin consideration of the bill today.
The 33 Republicans who voted against final passage of the VRA were: Richard Baker (La.), J. Gresham Barrett (S.C.), Roscoe Bartlett (Md.), Joe Barton (Texas), Jo Bonner (Ala.), Dan Burton (Ind.), John Campbell (Calif.), Mike Conaway (Tex.), Nathan Deal (Ga.), John Doolittle (Calif.), John Duncan (Tenn.), Terry Everett (Ala.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.), Trent Franks (Ariz.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Phil Gingrey (Ga.), Joel Hefley (Colo.), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Wally Herger (Calif.), Sam Johnson (Texas), Steve King (Iowa), John Linder (Ga.), Patrick McHenry (N.C.), Gary Miller (Calif.), Charlie Norwood (Ga.), Ron Paul (Texas), Tom Price (Ga.), Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.), Ed Royce (Calif.), John Shadegg (Ariz.), Thomas Tancredo (Ga.), William Thornberry (Texas) and Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.).
