On the recordNovember 16, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman for her question. Unfortunately, there is some very rough history to prove what needs to be done. It is not as if we are speculating on what the constitutional standard is. The constitutional standard has been developed. The States have to do their disparity studies all over again to show that groups should still be included. Some groups may fall out. This is delicate work, and in our constitutional government, we don't say every worthy group should have a preference. We need to make a showing, and if that showing isn't made, then the matter will not stand. If you want to give a very, very painful example of that, let's take the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court of the United States overturned, about 5 years ago, the Voting Rights Act. Guess why, Mr. Speaker? They said there had been some changes, and that people of color could now vote, as they couldn't always vote when the Voting Rights Act was passed. And so they threw it back to this Congress, and said: All right, you can have a Voting Rights Act but you must update the Act to show that there is still a disparity in voting. There are pending now three bills in order to do that. But if the Supreme Court did that on the Voting Rights Act, where the discrimination was perhaps the most apparent, from poll taxes to lynching, you can imagine where we would be on DBE, and we have got 30 years of court history to show it. We all want to do the best that we possibly can for our veterans.…
