Chris Dodd: “Today we will vote on whether or not to take up one of the most important pieces of civil rights and voting rights…”

“Today we will vote on whether or not to take up one of the most important pieces of civil rights and voting rights legislation the Senate will consider in this Congress: the DC House Voting Rights Act of 2007. After months of careful consideration by the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, floor action on this bill has been blocked by a filibuster. We will soon see if there are sufficient votes to break that filibuster and enable it to move forward. We are in this procedural position because some of my Republican colleagues have persistently refused to even allow the Senate to take up and debate this measure, insisting on throwing up procedural roadblocks all along the way. I urge my colleagues to vote to bring this bill to the floor, and if that effort succeeds, to support its adoption. There is nothing more fundamental to the vitality and endurance of a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people than the people's right to vote. In the words of Thomas Paine: 'The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.' It is, in fact, the right on which all others in our democracy depend. The Constitution guarantees it, and the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly underscored that it is one of our most precious and fundamental rights as citizens.”