House Delays Renewal of Voting Rights Act

Posted on Jun 22, 2006

House Republicans canceled a vote to extend the historic act because some said it unfairly singled out Southern states. The “rebellion” was “a significant embarrassment for the party leadership,” according to the N.Y. Times.

N.Y. Times:

WASHINGTON, June 20 — House Republican leaders today abruptly canceled a planned vote to renew the Voting Rights Act after a rank-and-file rebellion by lawmakers who say the civil rights measure unfairly singles out Southern states and promotes multi-lingual ballots.

The reversal represented a significant embarrassment for the party leadership, which has promised a vote on the landmark anti-discrimination law and hailed its imminent approval in a rare bipartisan press event on the steps of the Capitol last month.

But lawmakers critical of the bill mutinied in a closed meeting of House Republicans this morning just hours before the vote was expected to occur and several said it was uncertain whether a majority of Republicans would back the legislation at this point.

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