Tag Archives: State Senator Rodney Ellis

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48th Anniversary of Voting Rights Act Passage

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ARTICLE WRITTEN BY: STATE SENATOR RODNEY ELLIS
Dear Friend,

This month marks the 48th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act, landmark federal legislation aimed at preventing discrimination in voting. The Voting Rights Act was passed in response to an era in which many states, particularly in the south, mandated literacy tests, poll taxes, and other devices to institutionalize the disenfranchisement of African Americans.

One of the key tools of the Act is Section 5, which requires states with a history of discrimination at the ballot box – Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia – to receive special preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice or a federal court prior to changing election and voting laws. For nearly five decades, the Department of Justice and our court system has blocked racially discriminatory voting measures from going into effect in communities across the country.

Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson , Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks at the Voting Rights Act signing
Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson , Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks at the Voting Rights Act signing

Friends, do not let the Court’s decision reverse decades of progress we have made to protect our voting rights. The United States Congress must immediately revamp the Voting Rights Act to create a formula which takes into account current and historical discrimination and bias while meeting the requirements the Supreme Court has set out. I urge you to let Congress know that it must act now to protect the voting rights of millions of Texans.

However, this past June, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted this essential protection when it ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. Section 4 outlines which states are subject to the extra protections provided by the preclearance requirements of Section 5. So while Section 5 survives, it remains unenforceable until Congress updates the formula for which states and jurisdictions are subject to the preclearance requirements.

Writing for the majority of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problems speaks to current conditions.” I don’t know what America the justices are living in to pretend deliberate and blatant attempts to disenfranchise people of color at the ballot box do not exist. I believe this decision is outrageous and nonsensical, and the fight to protect our right to vote goes on to this day.

Instead of poll taxes and literacy tests of yesteryear, states now use controversial voter ID laws and gerrymandered districts to suppress the vote. The Texas voter ID law, approved in 2011, will make it significantly more difficult for approximately one million eligible Texans to exercise their right to vote. A federal court has already ruled that the law will have a discriminatory impact on minorities and impose “strict, unforgiving burdens on the poor.” When it comes to redistricting, Texas is now 55 percent minority – and still increasing – yet only one-third of Texas legislative seats provide minorities the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice. Shamefully, Texas was the only state in the country which adopted redistricting plans following the 2010 Census that have been ruled to be deliberately discriminatory against African American and Latino voters.

Both the voter ID law and the discriminatory redistricting maps were stopped because of the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Due to the Supreme Court’s decision, however, these types of voting changes will be much more difficult to prevent from taking effect. The legislature has since passed new redistricting maps, and ongoing litigation continues to sort out the future of the voter ID law. In fact, today the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it would be filing a new lawsuit against Texas over the law.

The fight to protect our right to vote continues, as there are pending lawsuits filed by citizens attempting to pull Texas back into a preclearance requirement based on a different section of the Voting Rights Act. However, unlike Section 5, this provision shifts the burden of proof to the challenger to prove a voting change is discriminatory rather than the state being required to prove it is not. Once again, it is up to the citizens to fight to preserve their voting rights.

Sincerely,

RE Signature

Rodney Ellis

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Deadline for low-income Texans to qualify for help on energy bills looming

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Via State Senator Rodney Ellis

(Austin, Texas) – Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) today joined Representative Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) and advocates urging low-income Texans to sign up for LITE-UP Texas energy bill assistance before the August 10, 2013 deadline.

The LITE-UP Texas program is designed to help qualified low-income individuals who live in areas where they can choose their own electricity provider to reduce their monthly cost of electric service. During this year’s regular session, the 83rd Texas Legislature made profound changes to this program, increasing the discount from 16.5 percent to 82 percent. The 82 percent discount will be effective for this September and also for May, June, July and August of 2014.

“Time is running out for low-income and elderly Texans to get the help they need to keep the power on in late summer,” said Ellis. “We are here to spread the word to make sure that Texans know there is help on the way.”

In 1999 the legislature created the System Benefit Fund to help low-income Texans pay summer energy bills when Texas deregulated electric utility companies. The Fund’s goal was to assist the least fortunate Texans in braving the summer heat, and as temperatures across the state soar to increasingly high levels, that mission is more critical than ever. Unfortunately, this session, the legislature ended the surcharge on customers’ electricity bills but took steps to provide a discount on customers’ September electricity bills for 2013 and May through August bills for 2014. According to the Public Utility Commission, about 500,000 Texans received aid from the System Benefit Fund to help pay their summer bills.

Since the creation of the System Benefit Fund, the legislature has often neglected to use the full balance to help Texans pay their summer electric bills, instead redirecting the balance to shore up budget shortfalls. For instance, in 2011 $650 million was left in the Fund instead of distributed to senior and needy Texans.

“I opposed the reverse Robin Hood plan to take from the poor,” said Ellis. “The System Benefit Fund was created for the explicit purpose of helping low-income Texans pay rising energy bills after electric deregulation. That’s where the money should be going and where Texans want it to go. Unfortunately, our side did not prevail, but at least there is the silver lining that Texans will receive a bigger discount this summer and in 2014, so Texans need to take advantage of it while they can.”

Community, Education

State Senator Rodney Ellis stands by Texas women

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State Senator Rodney Ellis shoing support during filibuster.
State Senator Rodney Ellis shoing support during filibuster.

Dear Friend,

Over my strenuous objections, the Texas Senate just passed House Bill 2, an unprecedented, unreasonable, and unconscionable attack on women’s health that will eliminate reproductive health care services in all but four of Texas’ 254 counties.

Tonight was an extremely disappointing moment in the struggle for women’s rights and the movement to ensure all Texas families have access to affordable and quality health care.

On the heels of a major assault on our voting rights by a right wing Supreme Court, tonight is another reminder of the need for all of us who truly care about advancing the cause of democracy that the fight continues. We must push forward and stand together to protect the rights of Texas families from attempts to reverse our nation’s proud history of evolving towards greater equality and justice for all.

Instead of talking about how we can improve education, expand access to quality health care, or protect voting rights, the debate again centered on eroding access to care for Texas women. According to recent polling, 80 percent of Texans wanted lawmakers to focus on those issues–like education, jobs, and the economy–in special session, not bring up divisive issues like reproductive rights.

House Bill 2 is not based on indisputable medical evidence or even best medical practices. Supporters of this legislation claim it will protect women’s health, but if this were true then why did the Texas Medical Association, Texas Hospital Association, and Texas Chapter of American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists object to its passage?

The sad truth is that Texas is failing our mothers, failing our children, and failing to focus on solutions that help all Texans. Texas women and families deserve better.

After all, there is a health care crisis facing Texas families. Approximately 30 percent of Texas women and 16 percent Texas children lack health insurance. Twenty-five percent of Texas children live in poverty. In Houston, 28 percent of children live in poverty. We know that by improving access to health insurance for these women and children, improving quality prenatal and postnatal medical care, expanding childhood nutrition programs, and providing early childhood education, we can truly improve the health and safety of women and children – both born and unborn.

If we are sincere about expanding the quality of care for women and children, we should implement policies that truly improve the lives of Texans, and not those that endanger women’s health.

Last week, my Senate Democratic colleagues and I filed an alternative package of bills that would provide better prenatal and early-childhood health care to mothers and babies who need but often can’t afford it. The bills would protect women in Texas and ensure that they have access to the health care they need to make the best decisions about their lives and their bodies:

• SB 24 gives teen moms 15 years old or younger the legal ability to consent to receiving contraception. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Texas leads the nation in repeat teen pregnancies.
• SB 25 requires that sex education programs be based on actual research-based, scientifically-verified evidence.
• SB 26 requires that sex education be both evidence-based and comprehensive so that young adults know all they need to know about preventing pregnancy and avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.
• SB 27 requires that parents be notified of the sex education curriculum that their children are being taught so that parents can be part of the process.
• SB 28 ensures that women can pursue equal pay for equal work under state law. It’s identical to the Texas Lilly Ledbetter Act, which was passed by the legislature in the regular session but vetoed by the Governor last month.
• SB 29 ensures more Texas women and families have the health coverage they need by expanding Medicaid as called for under the Affordable Care Act.
• SB 30 extends Children’s Health Insurance Program perinatal coverage from 60 days to 6 months after an infant is born.
Rather than focus on divisive policies like HB 2, the Senate would have been wise to pass common-sense measures like those above, which will actually help women and children across the state. For hours we offered amendments that would actually reduce the need for abortions, provide quality health care to more women and children, and give women better opportunities to provide for their families; however each one was shot down and rejected.

Though we took a step backwards in the Senate today, we will continue to stand up for the rights of Texas women and push forward in the fight to improve access to quality and affordable health care for all Texas families. Thank you for your support and dedication these past few weeks.

Sincerely,

Rodney Ellis

Editorial, Lifestyle, News

Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis: Why I stood with Wendy

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Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, right, vote against a motion to call for a rules violation during Davis' filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Ellis with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, left, and Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, right, vote against a motion to call for a rules violation during Davis’ filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Austin, Texas. Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help from Ellis with a back brace. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

State Senator Rodney Ellis

On Tuesday, I joined my friend and colleague Senator Wendy Davis as she engaged in a heroic and historic filibuster to protect women’s health in Texas. I could not be more proud of her and my fellow Senators as we helped defeat some of the most onerous women’s health restrictions in the nation. It was an incredible, awe-inspiring moment of passionate citizen action meeting incredible personal will and strength.

Senate Bill 5 was an unprecedented, unreasonable and unconscionable attack on women’s health. It would have eliminated access to reproductive services in all but 4 of Texas’ 254 counties in Texas and all but eradicated Texas women’s ability to receive constitutionally-protected health care services. Opponents of reproductive freedom want to make it virtually impossible for Texas women to seek safe, legal health care without facing the political consequences of trying to ban all abortions. It is a cynical, destructive but, sadly, effective strategy.

Rather than taking up issues that hard-working Texans want us to address, we are instead continuing the war on women by decreasing Texas women’s access to health care. Senate Bill 5 would enact some of the most restrictive limitations on reproductive freedom in the nation. They bring Big Government into what should be a very personal and private matter between a woman, her doctor and her faith, all under the Orwellian talking point of ‘protecting women’s health.’

Texas women deserve better.

During the original Senate debate on this bill, members in favor of harsh restrictions spoke eloquently about caring for the unborn, noting that these measures will increase the quality and standard of care. They, somewhat incredulously, argued that this anti-choice legislation has nothing to do with restricting a Texas woman’s right to control her own body. But let’s suspend disbelief for a moment and give proponents of further erosion of reproductive rights the benefit of the doubt and say they truly are concerned about women’s health. If that is sincerely the case, then the answer is shockingly simple: expand access to health insurance under Obamacare.

Yet they refused to accept all amendments or changes, including an amendment I offered which would truly improve the quality of life and health of Texas women and families.

This amendment would have made these anti-choice bills effective only if Texas expands Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. With approximately one in four Texans lacking insurance and about 16 percent of Texas children uninsured, this amendment could have provided health insurance to approximately 1.5 million additional Texans, including resources to improve access to quality care for women, infants and children.

Lack of adequate health insurance coverage makes it hard for Texas families to get the health care they need, and if and when they do it leaves them with large medical bills. In fact, study after study has shown that one of the best ways to protect and improve the health of women and babies – born and unborn – is by expanding access to quality health insurance. Having health insurance contributes to healthier mothers, healthier children, and significantly reduces infant mortality. In fact, women who lack insurance are more likely to have inadequate care, receive a significantly lower standard of care and are more likely to postpone or skip entirely needed care because they lack the money to pay for it. This has a serious impact on all Texans, especially our children.

The sad truth is that Texas is failing our mothers, failing our children and failing to focus on solutions that help all Texans, rather than narrow partisan interests. Texas women and families deserve better.