Civil and Human Rights Coalition Requests VRAA Hearing After Goodlatte Comments at a Forum this Morning

Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the response below to a statement made by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte about the status of the bipartisan Voting Rights Amendment Act (VRAA).  At a forum dubbed “Conversations with the Chair,” Zirkin asked Goodlatte when the nation could expect a hearing on the VRAA, which is currently awaiting committee action.  Goodlatte responded that his committee had already held a hearing on the VRAA, which is not the case. Zirkin’s follow-up to that question is below:

“Chairman Goodlatte should be commended for recognizing the needs of millions of voters across the nation currently at risk of suffering discrimination at the polls due to the Supreme Court’s significant weakening of the Voting Rights Act.  But I’d like to respectfully point out that he misspoke when he said that his committee had already held a hearing on the Voting Rights Amendment Act. 

The truth is that we have not had a hearing on this bill, despite the strong bipartisan consensus behind it. The VRAA has support across the Judiciary Committee, from Members like Republican co-sponsors Congressmen Sensenbrenner, Chabot, and Bachus, and Democratic co-sponsors like Congressmen Conyers and Scott and Congresswoman Jackson Lee.

The hearing Chairman Goodlatte referred to was held in 2013 in the immediate aftermath of the Shelby County decision, in which Chief Justice Roberts invited Congress to update the Voting Rights Act to reflect the current reality of voting discrimination in this country. While that hearing was important, it took place months before the VRAA was introduced. It is now urgent that the Judiciary Committee take the next step of holding a hearing on the bill itself.

Protecting voting rights is a bipartisan issue, and this is bipartisan legislation. Now is the time to move forward. The civil and human rights community urges the Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on the VRAA at the earliest possible date.” 

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its 200-plus member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.