Congress Daily
Thursday, November 15, 2001

Government Operations
House Administration Panel Approves Election Reform
by Mark Wegner and Kirk Victor

The House Administration Committee voted 8-0 this afternoon to approve an election reform bill that would establish minimum state standards and authorize $2.65 billion over three years to help local and state jurisdictions improve their election systems. After months of discussions, House Administration Chairman Ney and ranking member Steny Hoyer, D-Md., produced a bipartisan bill with about 75 cosponsors, although some within the civil rights and disability groups have sided with a proposal marked up by Senate Rules Chairman Dodd. The House panel today unanimously accepted an amendment offered by Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., that would permit polling on military installations, but on a 4-3 party line vote turned back a Hoyer amendment that would have strengthened poll access provisions for disabled voters.

A Hoyer spokeswoman noted that civil rights and disability groups have an opportunity for stronger language in a conference, saying the Ney-Hoyer bill "is a bill that can move out of the House. This is a bill that can move, and time is of the essence." House Speaker Hastert today declined to commit himself to a floor vote this year, but voiced strong support for the bill and indicated money might still be available in FY02 spending bills.

A coalition of more than a half-dozen civil rights groups strongly endorsed the efforts of Dodd and others in the Senate even as they criticized the Ney-Hoyer proposal. "We need election reform, not election deform," charged Lloyd Leonard, legislative director of the League of Women's Voters, at a news conference. He added that the House bill is a "prescription for continued confusion" and an approach that "contains more loopholes than safeguards." Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said that the Ney-Hoyer measure "heads in the wrong direction" because it "fails to address the grave problems so many Americans faced in the 2000 elections and continue to face this year." When pressed on whether voter fraud should also be addressed as part of election reform - an issue stressed by Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo. - Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said the emphasis on voter fraud "has been overstated," especially given the magnitude of the problem of disenfranchisement of minority voters.

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