Washington – House leaders cleared the way for a vote today on renewing the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act after granting conservatives a chance to loosen requirements for bilingual ballots and restrictions on Southern states.
The changes were not expected to be added to the legislation, which would renew for 25 years a law considered the centerpiece of the civil rights movement. The original legislation abolished racist voting practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests.
Forty-one years have passed, but a dozen House hearings in the last year uncovered evidence that congressional districts still are sometimes drawn to water down the influence of ethnic communities and that minority voters are disenfranchised in some places.
House leaders scheduled a vote last month but canceled it when a group of conservatives – mostly Southerners – said the bill singled out their states for Justice Department scrutiny without giving them credit for strides on civil rights.
Hours of negotiations in recent days yielded an agreement, approved 8-3 Wednesday by the Rules Committee, to allow votes on amendments proposing the changes pushed by the objectors.
Immigration and civil rights groups and lawmakers who support them are mobilized for a fight over what they see as the latest in a long history of attempts to undercut the growing political influence of racial minorities.
“I hope the House will see this for what it is and vote against these amendments,” said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement.
