Andre Carson: “I thank the two gentlemen who have put in laborious time in crafting legislation which admittedly does advance, does…”

“I thank the two gentlemen who have put in laborious time in crafting legislation which admittedly does advance, does progress the electoral system. We attempted last night through the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings) to offer an amendment that was rejected because of the closed rule. I wanted to come to the floor and speak in a bipartisan way, those veterans who are Democrats and those who are Republicans and perhaps those who are libertarians but who form this bipartisan coalition of suffering posttraumatic stress and who end up after war, who have been there protecting this country, who end up homeless, who end up in prison. As we know, many States deny those individuals who have been convicted of felonies from ever having the right to participate in the electoral process. We do not deny Members of Congress from coming to Congress because they are convicted felons, but we do deny people who have sacrificed their life and their well-being. Our amendment had the support of the Vietnam Veterans Coalition and many others. I would just encourage that we defeat the rule so that we can ascertain that democracy does indeed work.”