Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) for yielding me the time. I have been thinking a lot this morning about my growing up in South Carolina. I still remember as a young man driving in a driving rain from Charleston, South Carolina, going up to the little town of Kingstree in Williamsburg County, which I now represent here in this body. On that day, Martin Luther King, Jr., was coming to Williamsburg County to extol the necessity of voting to all of us. I will never forget his theme that day, ``march to the ballot box.'' It was just a few months after the 1965 Voting Rights Act had been passed into law, and that law has been renewed time and time again throughout the years. But several years ago, the Supreme Court took a look at the law and decided that the formula that had been used in section 4 should be updated. This bill, thanks to the work of Terri Sewell from Alabama and Marcia Fudge from Ohio, we have had 17 hearings around the country, eight by the Judiciary Committee--I thank Chairman Nadler so much for that--and nine by Marcia Fudge's committee. We have wrapped all of those findings into one bill because we are adhering to what Chief Justice Roberts asked us to do: update the formula. We have updated the formula. We are putting it on the floor today, and I do believe that this piece of legislation is deserving of bipartisan support. I can remember when this voting rights bill would pass both houses unanimously.…”