ACLU Applauds House Defeat of Amendment to Defund the Voting Rights Act, Calls for Swift Passage of Clean Reauthorization Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Media@dcacluorg

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded the House of Representatives for rejecting attempts to block enforcement of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. On a vote of 254 to 167, the House voted against an amendment offered by Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) to the appropriations bill for the Justice Department that would have cut off funding for the language-assistance provisions of that historic civil rights law.

The following can be attributed to Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:

“We applaud the House for defeating this attempt to defund a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The amendment, which would have blocked enforcement of Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, was an attack on the fundamental right to vote for million of citizens across the country. Clearly, a bipartisan majority of the House feels that the historic civil rights law must not be weakened. We urge the congressional leadership to schedule a clean reauthorization bill for a vote immediately, and call on lawmakers to reject any other attempts to weaken or dilute the law.”

To read more about the ACLU’s campaign to renew the Voting Rights Act, go to: www.aclu.org/voting-rights