Hayworth chimes in on an amendment to the VRA

And while what he said was spoken to everyone listening, his target audience was thousands of miles away.

During the debate on an amendment to the Voting Rights Act proposed by Steve King (R - IA) , JD Hayworth engaged in a colloquy (his word) with Rep. King. He asked if the proposed amendment to strip from the act the requirement that state and local governments provide multilingual ballots and interpreters in precincts that show a need for them would prevent tribal governments from, on their own, providing multilingual ballots and other assistance to the voters on their reservations.

Rep. King replied that no, tribal and other local governments would not be restricted.

It was obviously contrived theater, staged to mollify his contributors from various tribes. On the other hand, while it was contrived, at least he has learned from the Kyl debacle and made sure the exchange actually took place on the floor of the House.

In the end, Congressman Hayworth announced that he supported the amendment, claiming that it is "fiscally responsible." The amendment failed on a voice vote, with the sponsor then requesting a recorded vote. The amendment failed in the recorded vote, too.

On the subject of the entire issue (renewing the VRA), I find it discouraging that in the many years since the passage of the original act in 1965, not much has changed. The opponents of the renewal cite "states' rights" "unnecessary intrusion" and "unfunded mandate" much as the opponents of the original Act did. Of course, they also get to add some nativist rhetoric to the mix, conveniently ignoring the fact that most of the people that need the language assistance are native-born citizens.

More later....

Edited to update:

The House passed the VRA renewal 390 - 33, with 9 not voting. Even with the bilingual ballot requirements, JD was smart enough to vote for it. Too many of those 'durn minority types in his district' (yes, even in Scottsdale! :) ).

AZ Congressmen Franks and Shadegg voted against it; Hayworth, Grijalva, Pastor, Renzi, Kolbe, and Flake voted for it.