Sam Brownback: “I rise to speak on the DC Voting Rights Act today. It is a tough issue. It is one with which I am familiar. I have…”

“I rise to speak on the DC Voting Rights Act today. It is a tough issue. It is one with which I am familiar. I have chaired the DC Subcommittee both on the authorizing and the appropriating side. I have worked in the District of Columbia on a number of different issues. I reside here when I am not in my home State of Kansas. My home is in Kansas, but I have an apartment that is here, so I am living in the District. I have talked with many people about the Voting Rights Act issue. I am sympathetic with the people of the District of Columbia not having an elected delegate to represent them, although I know very well the lady who is representing them in the House, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is an outstanding Representative for the District of Columbia, although she does not have the right to vote on the floor. I have worked with her on many issues to rebuild the family structure in Washington, DC with things such as Marriage Development Accounts. I worked with her on revitalizing the District of Columbia with an economic revitalization bill that passed when I first came into the Senate in 1996. I worked with her and others on the schools in Washington, DC, and the deplorable state of the schools in Washington, DC. I have worked on all these issues and I am familiar with this issue and the Voting Rights Act of 2007. Yet I cannot support this bill.”