July 27, 2006 Voting Rights Act Reauthorized The Road to Reauthorization On July 27, 2007, President Bush, in a south lawn ceremony, signed into law the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-246). On May 2, 2006, the House of Representatives introduced H.R. 9. The Senate bill, S.2703, mirroring the language in the House legislation was introduced on May 3, 2006. Both bills reauthorize the temporary provisions of the VRA (Section 5, Sections 6 - 9, and Section 203) for 25 years. The legislations do not reauthorize the examiner provision. They do contain fixes that restore the original congressional intent for Section 5 that had been undermined by the Supreme Court in Reno v. Bossier Parish II and Georgia v. Ashcroft. The Bossier fix restores the ability of the Attorney General to prevent voting changes motivated by discrimination. The Georgia fix clarifies that Section 5 is intended to protect the ability of minority citizens to elect their candidates of choice. The legislation also gives expert witness fees to the prevailing party in Section 2 cases. On May 16, the House Judiciary Committee voted out the bill (33 - 1) after rejecting two significant amendments; one to repeal section 203 and one to remove some California jurisdictions from section 5 coverage. It did accept an amendment by Darrell Issa (R-49-CA) to study the efficacy of the implementation of Section 203. A floor vote was later scheduled for June 21. However, the scheduled vote was postponed after a group of Republican Congressmen voiced their displeasure with the number of amendments that would be considered on the floor. Surprised, leaders pulled the bill from the calendar, hours before the vote. However, House leadership maintained their support for the legislation. The House finally rescheduled a floor vote for July 13. On the day of the vote, President Bush issued a statement expressing his support for the legislation. The floor vote of 390 - 33 vote was the largest win the history of VRA reauthorization. It came after the defeat of 4 significant amendments. The Amendment by Charles Norwood, (R-9-GA) would have updated the Section 5 trigger to include the 1996, 2000, and 2004 elections. The effect of this would have been to sharply reduce the number of covered jurisdictions. This was defeated by a vote of 96-318. The Amendment by Louie Gohmert (R-1-TX) would have limited the length of reauthorization to 10 years. This was defeated by 134 - 288. The Amendment by Lynn Westmoreland (R-8-GA) would have required the Department of Justice to review which jurisdictions were eligible for bailout of section 5 coverage and alert them of this fact and consent to the bailout. This amendment was defeated 118-302. Finally, an amendment by Steve King (R-5-IA) would have repealed section 203, the minority language provisions. This was defeated by a vote of 185 - 238. After the vote, the House bill was placed on the desk of the Senate rather than being directly sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. On July 19, the Senate Judiciary committee reported out S.2703 with a vote of 18-0. It rejected an amendment by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would have changed the definition of Limited English Proficiency under Section 203. It accepted an amendment by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to add Cesar Chavez's name to the title of the bill. The following day, after a full day of debate, the Senate voted 98 - 0 to approve H.R. 9 with no amendments. The Role of the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act The National Commission's report was a significant part of the Congressional record on the continued discrimination in voting that was used to support reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Several Commissioners testified before Congress. First, in October 2005, Commissioner Joe Rogers was invited to testify about the work of the National Commission. In March 2006, after the release of the Commission's report, Chair Bill Lee and Joe Rogers were invited to testify on its findings. Also, the House Judiciary Committee requested the entire Commission record, which includes thousands of pages of transcripts and appendices. This submission was made a part of the House record. Moreover, the House Judiciary Committee's report on VRARA references the Commission's work many times and contains several of its maps. The House Record was adopted by the Senate.   Southern Regional Hearing Montgomery, Alabama March 11, 2005 Southwest Regional Hearing Phoenix, AZ April 7, 2005 Northeast Regional Hearing New York, New York June 14, 2005 Midwest Regional Hearing Minneapolis, Minnesota July 22, 2005 South Georgia Hearing Americus, Georgia August 2, 2005 Florida Hearing Orlando, Florida 80th National Convention of the National Bar Association August 4, 2005 South Dakota Hearing Rapid City, South Dakota September 9, 2005 Western Regional Hearing Los Angeles, California September 27, 2005 Mid-Atlantic Regional Hearing Washington, DC October 14, 2005 Mississippi Hearing Jackson, Mississippi October 29, 2005