Maxine Waters: “I rise in support of the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act, H.R. 9, and strongly oppose the Gohmert…”

“I rise in support of the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act, H.R. 9, and strongly oppose the Gohmert amendment. It reduces the 25-year reauthorization period of the expiring provisions to 10 years. The provisions set to expire in 2007 include section 5, which requires jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to obtain Federal approval for any new voting practices or procedures implemented. Section 203 ensures that American citizens with limited English proficiency get the help they need at the polls. Sections 6 through 9 authorize the Attorney General to appoint Federal election observers where there is evidence of attempts to intimidate minority voters at the polls. These provisions require the creation of a credible record. Most important, each of the expiring provisions depends upon the conduct of State elections, all of which operate independently and on schedules that do not coincide. Furthermore, lawsuits that come out of these expiring provisions make the creation of a record a very difficult task. If Congress were to reauthorization the Voting Rights Act for short periods of time, as this amendment suggests, it would create an incentive for jurisdictions to wait out their obligations rather than comply, thus contributing to the widespread noncompliance with the statute that continued into the late 1970s.…”