2005S1925-1  05/14/06


By:  Hinojosa, et al.                                           S.C.R. No. 11 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, On March 7, 1965, a group of civil rights marchers 
gathered at the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, and their 
efforts to advance equal voting rights brought a brutal and bloody 
response; eight days later President Lyndon Baines Johnson, a 
former Texas senator, called for a comprehensive and effective 
voting rights bill to guarantee to our citizens the rights 
contained in the 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States 
Constitution; subsequently a bipartisan congress approved landmark 
legislation, and on August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law; and
	WHEREAS, Considered one of the most successful pieces of 
civil rights legislation ever adopted, the Voting Rights Act bans 
literacy tests and poll taxes, outlaws intimidation during the 
electoral process, authorizes federal election monitors and 
observers, and creates various means for protecting and enforcing 
racial and language minority voting rights; the Voting Rights Act 
was amended in 1975 to facilitate equal political opportunity for 
language minority citizens and in 1982 to protect the rights of 
voters with disabilities; and
	WHEREAS, Despite noteworthy progress resulting from 40 years 
of enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, voter inequities, 
disparities, and obstacles still remain for many minority voters; 
and
	WHEREAS, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is scheduled to 
expire in 2007; Section 5 contains a special enforcement provision 
targeted at those areas of the country where congress believes the 
potential for discrimination to be high and prohibits any change 
affecting voters until the United States Attorney General has 
determined that the change will not worsen the ability of minority 
voters to vote; and
	WHEREAS, Sections 4(f) and 203 of the Voting Rights Act will 
also expire in 2007; Sections 4(f) and 203 require bilingual voting 
assistance for language minority communities in certain 
jurisdictions; the United States Census Bureau estimates that in 
Texas approximately 36 percent of the Spanish-speaking Hispanic 
population over the age of five speaks English less than "very well" 
or speaks an alternative language; it is estimated that 37 percent 
of all Asian Americans in Texas speak English less than "very well"; 
the language minority provisions apply to four language minority 
groups:  American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan natives, and 
persons of Spanish heritage; and
	WHEREAS, Texas is covered by Sections 5, 203, and 4(f) of the 
Voting Rights Act; these sections have opened up the political 
arena for Hispanics, African Americans,  Asian Americans, and 
American Indians in Texas and have protected their rightful 
participation in the political process of Texas; and
	WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act is a critical link in the 
struggle to enfranchise the politically marginalized; without 
reauthorization of these special provisions of the Voting Rights 
Act, America risks a resurgence of voter discrimination; now, 
therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas, 
3rd Called Session, hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the 
United States to reauthorize these critical provisions of the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965 by passing H.R. 9 or S. 2703; and, be it 
further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.


Memorializing Congress to reauthorize certain provisions of the 
Voting Rights Act of 1965.