Andrew Friedman

King vs. the Voting Rights Act?

Peter King, Republican Congressional Representative from Long Island, that is.

Representative King is leading the charge against reauthorizing the bilingual ballots requirements of the Voting Rights Act. Recently, he co-wrote a letter to the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee James Sensenbrenner on behalf of 48 colleagues urging him to eliminate the language access requirements of the Voting Rights Act.

Rep. King has a long history of opposing language access and civil rights for immigrants. As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee he introduced new official English legislation, HR 4408 that would also repeal the bilingual ballot requirements of the Voting Rights Act. King is also leading the charge to revoke Executive Order 13166, which requires federal agencies and recipients of federal funds to provide translations and interpreters for non-English speakers.

King, though, is significantly to the right of President Bush on these issues. Bush is supporting the renewal of the bilingual ballot provision of the Voting Rights Act, and he is a supporter of Executive Order 13166.

There will be a forum on this and many other important issues relating to the re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act on Wed, March 22 from 4 to 9PM at SEIU Local 32BJ at 101 Ave of the Americans. The event is being organized by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, People for the American Way and many others.

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Posted at 8:52 AM, Mar 27, 2006 in Language Access
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