Bill Text: TX HCR117 | 2013-2014 | 83rd Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Expressing support for the Voting Rights Act and urging the United States Congress to protect every citizen's right to participate in the political process by making permanent the provisions of Section 5 of that legislation.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-05-06 - Referred to Elections [HCR117 Detail]
Download: Texas-2013-HCR117-Introduced.html
83R22088 BPG-D | ||
By: Miles | H.C.R. No. 117 |
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WHEREAS, The United States Congress passed the Voting Rights | ||
Act on August 6, 1965, and more than four decades later, this | ||
legislation continues to play a vital role in preventing and | ||
addressing real threats to a fundamental right of every American; | ||
and | ||
WHEREAS, One of the most effective civil rights laws in | ||
history, the Voting Rights Act was designed to enforce rights that | ||
had been granted to minority voters nearly a century earlier by the | ||
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution; | ||
although these amendments had prohibited racial discrimination in | ||
voting, communities of color continued to face disenfranchisement | ||
from discriminatory state voting laws; and | ||
WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act immediately invalidated the | ||
worst Jim Crow laws in the South and greatly increased minority | ||
participation in the electoral process; moreover, the Act opened | ||
the way for the election of more officials from minority | ||
backgrounds; in the mid-1960s, there were only about 70 African | ||
American elected officials in the South, and by the turn of the 21st | ||
century, there were some 5,000; and | ||
WHEREAS, In recent years, the Voting Rights Act has helped | ||
Latinos make similar gains; the number of Latinos serving in | ||
elected office rose from about 3,700 in 1996 to more than 5,800 in | ||
2011; and | ||
WHEREAS, Most provisions in the Voting Rights Act are | ||
permanent, notably the portions that guarantee that no one may be | ||
denied the right to vote because of his or her race or color; some | ||
enforcement-related provisions require periodic reauthorization, | ||
however, and over the years, Congress has repeatedly extended them | ||
because many state and local governments have continued to erect | ||
barriers to minority political participation; these renewals were | ||
endorsed by Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, | ||
and most recently, President George W. Bush, who signed the Voting | ||
Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006; that | ||
legislation passed with overwhelming, bipartisan support after | ||
house and senate hearings exhaustively examined a new generation of | ||
tactics having discriminatory impact, including at-large | ||
elections, annexations, last-minute polling place relocations, and | ||
redistricting; and | ||
WHEREAS, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued a call for a | ||
strong voting rights law, and the Voting Rights Act was enacted | ||
during his presidency; recognizing and upholding the legacy of this | ||
great Texan will promote equality for all citizens; and | ||
WHEREAS, In the past, the Supreme Court has consistently | ||
upheld the authority of Congress over the VRA, including Section 5; | ||
settled case law supports our historic reliance on Congress to | ||
develop remedies for discrimination and to create uniform federal | ||
laws that ensure each citizen can enter the voting booth with the | ||
certainty that his or her vote will be accurately and fairly | ||
counted; and | ||
WHEREAS, Sadly, attempts at voter suppression have not ended, | ||
as Congress recognized in 2006 when it renewed the landmark Voting | ||
Rights Act for another 25 years; if the United States is to continue | ||
to serve as a beacon of democracy in the world, we cannot allow the | ||
discriminatory practices of the past to resurface; now, therefore, | ||
be it | ||
RESOLVED, That the 83rd Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
hereby express its support for the Voting Rights Act and urge the | ||
United States Congress to protect every citizen's right to | ||
participate in the political process by making permanent the | ||
provisions of Section 5 of that legislation; and, be it further | ||
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
Representatives of the United States Congress, to the United States | ||
Supreme Court, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to | ||
Congress with the request that this resolution be officially | ||
entered in the Congressional Record. |