Sensenbrenner To Introduce 25-Year Voting Rights Extension Legislation, Delivers Remarks Today at the NAACP’s 96th Annual Convention

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) today is announcing he will introduce legislation to extend the Voting Rights Act for 25 years and is calling for a bipartisan approach to civil rights issues.

Chairman Sensenbrenner will be addressing these issues during a speech later today in Milwaukee at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s (NAACP) 96th Annual Convention. (Chairman Sensenbrenner also spoke at the organization’s 2001 Annual Convention in New Orleans.)

Chairman Sensenbrenner's prepared remarks are below.

Good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to talk briefly about two important issues facing us right now: an extension of the Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in the Kelo case, which held that the government can use “economic development” as a reason for taking private property.

Among my proudest moments was accompanying members of the NAACP and Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo for the signing of the No FEAR Act, legislation that aims to stamp out discrimination in federal agencies. The bipartisan passage of No FEAR, the first civil rights legislation of the 21st century, should serve as a model for future civil rights bills.

On August 5, 2005, the United States will celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the most significant pieces of legislation enacted during the 20th Century – the Voting Rights Act. This profound legislation pushed back against those unwilling to treat all citizens as equals and restored the dignity and equality that our Constitution is intended to preserve for all citizens.

Our democratic system of government has as its most fundamental right the right of its citizens to participate in the political process. Adopted 135 years ago, the Fifteenth Amendment ensures that no American citizen’s right to vote can be denied or abridged by the United States or a State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. As far too many here know and have experienced, some government entities have not only been unfaithful to the rights and protections afforded by the Constitution, but have aggressively – and sometimes violently – tried to disenfranchise African-American and other minority voters.

In his momentous speech delivered to Congress on March 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson stated, “[e]xperience has clearly shown that the existing process of law cannot overcome systematic and ingenious discrimination. No law that we now have on the books – and I have helped to put three of them there – can ensure the right to vote when local officials are determined to deny it. In such a case our duty must be clear to all of us. The Constitution says that no person shall be kept from voting because of his race or color. We have all sworn an oath before God to support and to defend that Constitution. We must now act in obedience to that oath.”

Seeing the Voting Rights Act’s impact compelled me in 1982 to lead the House Republican effort to extend it for 25 years. This effort wasn’t easy – but then again, very important things never are. While I proudly display in my Washington office one of the pens President Ronald Reagan used to sign this extension, the fruits of this effort can best be seen on the faces of those not only participating in the political process but actively leading it.

In the 1960s, all major civil rights legislation was passed with strong bipartisan support. Lately, this has not been the case as some have tried to use the issue of civil rights to obtain a partisan advantage. This is both wrong and shortsighted. The stakes have not been higher in the past 20 years.

In 2007, several key protections contained in the Voting Rights Act will expire, including the federal oversight protections provided by Section 5. I am here to tell you publicly what I have told others privately, including the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, Representative Mel Watt – during this Congress we are going to extend the Voting Rights Act. I am not alone in the Congress in supporting an extension; indeed, House Speaker Dennis Hastert last week stated that reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act is high on his list of issues the House will address this Congress.

Soon I will be introducing legislation to extend the Voting Rights Act. Just like its enactment and its 1982 extension, this bipartisan effort will succeed. Ladies and gentlemen, while we have made progress and curtailed injustices thanks to the Voting Rights Act, our work is not yet complete. We cannot let discriminatory practices of the past resurface to threaten future gains. The Voting Rights Act must continue to exist – and exist in its current form.

I also want to mention my strong opposition to the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in the Kelo case, which held that the government can use “economic development” as a reason for taking private property from one small homeowner and giving it to a large corporation simply because the corporation’s greater wealth will bring the government more tax revenue.

As the NAACP so correctly noted in its brief filed with the Supreme Court in the Kelo case, “The takings that result [from the Court’s decision] will disproportionately affect and harm the economically disadvantaged and, in particular, racial and ethnic minorities and the elderly.”

The noxious practice endorsed by the Court’s Kelo decision has generated bipartisan opposition. Last week, I introduced H.R. 3135, the “Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2005,” with the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Conyers, as the lead Democratic cosponsor, and Representatives Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson-Lee, and 87 additional Members as original cosponsors.

This legislation would prevent the Federal government from using economic development as a justification for taking privately-owned property. It would also prohibit any State or municipality from doing so whenever Federal funds are involved with the project for which the government’s takings power is exercised.

American taxpayers should not be forced to contribute in any way to the abuse of government power. One man’s home must not become a hotel or strip mall solely because the government seeks more tax revenue. I am looking forward to working with you and all organizations opposed to the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision. We must ensure that churches, homes, farms, and other private property cannot be bulldozed in abusive land grabs that benefit other private individuals, who claim that their use of the land will increase tax revenues.

Last week, America celebrated the 229th anniversary of her independence. Let us all work towards the day – envisioned by our Founders and affirmed by Frederick Douglass – in which the rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by our Founders is shared by all Americans.

Ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to continuing to work together and thank you for this opportunity to address you.