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.

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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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