Washington, D.C. – Congressman Steve Chabot (R-Cincinnati) today joined with House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Rep. Mel Watt (D-NY), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to announce the introduction of legislation to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act. Chabot serves as Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, which has jurisdiction over the Voting Rights Act.

     "The Right to vote is one of the most fundamental and essential rights we have as citizens and it is one of the most important issues I have addressed while the Chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee," said Chabot. "Since October of 2005, the Subcommittee on the Constitution has held 10 hearings and heard from 40 witnesses to review the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that are set to expire next year. Today we join in a bipartisan manner to introduce this legislation that will protect the right to vote of millions of Americans."

     The Voting Rights Act, originally passed in 1965, has been renewed and amended in 1970, 1975, and 1982. Six temporary provisions of the law – Section 203, Section 4(a) and (b), Section 5, Section 6 and Section 8 – are set to expire in 2007. The general prohibition against discriminatory voting practices in contained in Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which is already permanent law and is not subject to reauthorization. 

Read the text of H.R. 9, the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006.    

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