The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“EQUAL PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2001” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S2465 on April 10, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
EQUAL PROTECTION OF VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2001
Mr. REID. Mr. President, on behalf of the majority leader, under the authority granted to the majority leader on March 22, and with the concurrence of the Republican leader, I now ask unanimous consent the Senate resume consideration of Calendar No. 239, S. 565, the election reform bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the bill by title.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 565) to establish the Commission on Voting Rights and Procedures to study and make recommendations regarding election technology, voting, and election administration, to establish a grant program under which the Office of Justice Programs and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice shall provide assistance to States and localities in improving election technology and the administration of Federal elections, to require States to meet uniform and nondiscriminatory election technology and administration requirements for the 2004 Federal elections, and for other purposes.
Pending:
Clinton amendment No. 2906, to establish a residual ballot performance benchmark.
Dodd (for Schumer) modified amendment No. 2914, to permit the use of a signature or personal mark for the purpose of verifying the identity of voters who register by mail.
Dodd (for Kennedy) amendment No. 2916, to clarify the application of the safe harbor provisions.
Hatch amendment No. 2935, to establish the Advisor Committee on Electronic Voting and the Electoral Process, and to instruct the Attorney General to study the adequacy of existing electoral fraud statutes and penalties.
Hatch amendment No. 2936, to make the provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 permanent.
Smith of New Hampshire amendment No. 2933, to prohibit the broadcast of certain false and untimely information on Federal elections.
Mr. REID. I ask unanimous consent the previous agreement with respect to S. 565 be modified to provide that all amendments remaining in order to the bill, first and any second-degree, must be offered and debated during today's session; and that any votes ordered to occur with respect to these amendments be stacked to occur at a time to be determined by the two leaders, in the sequence in which the amendments were offered; that prior to each vote there be 2 minutes of closing debate with the time equally divided and controlled in the usual form without further intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. On behalf of the majority leader, let me say, while the minority leader is here, the two managers of this bill, Senator Dodd and Senator McConnell, are to be applauded. What they have done is extraordinary. They should know that. This is tremendous for the country. It has been done on a bipartisan basis. These two Senators are to be congratulated.
There will be no more rollcall votes tonight. I have been advised by the majority leader to announce that.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
Mr. LOTT. If the Senator from Nevada will yield, just for a comment--
and also to agree with him. I want to say to the Senator from Connecticut, Mr. Dodd, and Senator McConnell, they have been persistent. It would have been very easy to just let this reform effort slide off the end of the table, like so much else has, unfortunately, in the Senate. But they continued to work together. They continued to try to find substantive agreements and also a procedural process to get this done on sort of a second-track process. So I am pleased we have this unanimous consent agreement, and I commend them both. I think we are going to wind up with a product that the Senate can be proud to support.
Let me just ask Senator Reid if he will yield to clarify how we proceed. Under the agreement, there were a number of amendments that were identified with time limits. All those amendments will be considered tonight under this unanimous consent agreement, and then tomorrow, at a time we will agree to and announce later, all votes, if any--either on final passage or the amendments--would be stacked?
So that would occur in the morning and Senators need to know, if they are interested in these amendments, they will need to come to the Chamber in the next couple of hours to deal with them. Is that correct? Is that your understanding?
Mr. REID. That is right, I say to the leader.
Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, if I could be recognized before we begin, now, under leader time?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Republican leader.
____________________
