that are birthdays, but they don t actually work with the sacrament and do the work to bring about the change. that can change, but it s a matter of participating in the political process. we got to find a way to get more people to vote than ever before in this upcoming election. congresswoman bass, as you listen to martin luther king iii talking about this, is there a mood in congress to deal with this? i know that congressman sensenbrenner and congressman john lewis have proposed a voters bill that would in many ways deal with the supreme court decision. and this is what martin and i hoped for last year, with the march that there be some bill in congress. but there is no guarantee that they would even bring it up to vote, let alone pass. you know, that s right, rev. but actually, i am encouraged. and i do think it s going to come up for a vote. i have to tell you they was very skeptical.
congressman sensenbrenner said the following: what s a reasonable voter i.d. law? i would say the most reasonable is one that doesn t exist. i would say one that allows people multiple ways to identify they are who they are, like a bill, a utility bill. it s better to go back to the system that says we acknowledge we have a pretty good registration system and a good criminal justice system that prosecute when is we have a problem. and because we have a system that prosecutes, we don t have a voter fraud problem. we have a problem, though, with parties and candidates. if we want to pass laws to deal with that, i think that s where our time should be better
there s powers that the president has to direct the agencies, which, of course, are executive agencies, then there s probably changes to laws which must be made. the original author of the patriot act, congressman sensenbrenner now has legislation that would significantly reduce the scope of the powers that were created by his original patriot act legislation. we re going to need to work with the president. by the way, that raises serious questions. congress hasn t exactly distinguished itself in the last couple of years in terms of functionality, but we re going to need to work with the president to find that balance. from my point of view, that involves taking some of these very pervasive surveillance programs and scaling them back. getting judges more involved, reducing the amount of information the government can keep on americans, but that s the president working with the congress. ronan, you wrote a piece for the guardian and talked about about several issues, one of them, by
eric holder filed lawsuits to challenge some of those restrictions. today s announcement is another move in the right direction. here is civil rights pioneer congressman john lewis. it is amazing to me, it is unbelievable, it is almost unreal that we were able to come together so quickly to craft a compromise that both democrats and republicans can find a way to support and move forward. almost unreal. how quickly the sides came together. and he was joined by one of those republicans, congressman jim sensenbrenner, who talked about the challenges the group faced. what we were facing and drafting a modernization of the vra was both a constitutional challenge given the court s decision, as well as a political challenge in figuring out how to get the votes to pass this
legislation in a divided and very fractured and partisan congress. i think we have threaded that needle. congressman sensenbrenner has worked hard and across the aisle on this issue, and i congratulate him for it. this bill is not perfect, and it s not yet clear when or if it will come to a vote. but it is progress. and it is time. past time for our representatives in washington to finally take action to write these wrong. the old dining tabe at 25th and hoffman. .and the little room above the strip mall off roble avenue. this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world s great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room 2713. this magic moment