VRA to Senate Floor with No Amendments?
As I've noted,
tomorrow is the day the Senate Judiciary Committee was supposed to
markup the VRA renewal provision. It was unclear, as of this morning,
whether or not some members of the committee (especially Sens. Cornyn,
Coburn, and Sessions) might offer some amendments or otherwise slow
down the bill. Yet according to today's CQ Mid-day report,
thing have changed dramatically. "... Specter, who was already planning
to begin a committee markup of the bill tomorrow, now plans to complete
work then so the full Senate can take up the bill Thursday with the
goal of passing it this week." If it is going to get done tomorrow, it
sounds like there won't be any serious amending of the bill.
What has happened? Has the Republican leadership convinced those
Senators who had raised concerns about aspects of the bill that it is
politically expedient to pass the bill now and get the issue behind
them? (Perhaps there has been some negative fallout from last week's
house debate). Perhaps not coincidentally, this
story
appeared in today's NY Times on GOP-African American relations
faltering, and the possibility that President Bush will speak, for the
first time as President, before the NAACP convention. He certainly will
get a warmer welcome if he can do that with VRA renewal passed or
assured.
Rick
JMWice@aol.com
wrote:
FROM "CQ MIDDAY REPORT"
Voting Rights Bill Could Hit Senate Floor This Week
Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said this morning
that Senate leaders want to launch floor action this week on
legislation to renew expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
Specter said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Minority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., were considering taking the bill straight to
the floor. But Specter, who was already planning to begin a committee
markup of the bill tomorrow, now plans to complete work then so the
full Senate can take up the bill Thursday with the goal of passing it
this week.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, testifying before the
Judiciary Committee during a
Justice Department oversight hearing, declined to say whether the Bush
administration supports the legislation in its current form.
The House last week passed a bill renewing expiring sections of the
law for 25 years by a vote of 390-33. First, lawmakers rejected four
Republican amendments that sought to eliminate or narrow existing
requirements of the landmark 1965 law
--
Rick Hasen
William H. Hannon Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
http://electionlawblog.org