congressman sensenbrenner, thank you very much for being here. oh, i'm sorry. there they go. and then congressman clyburn comes in and says, you don't have the order. i've got the order. yes, leader, i do have the order. now, if they will follow the order, then we'll move ahead. >> chairman, a pleasure. >> how are you? >> wow. this is quite a turnout. it's not at all difficult to understand when you have the brand-new, newly minuted dean of the united states house of representatives -- [ applause ] -- having quite a day. first he gets to swear in the speaker of the house and then he gets a public hanging in the same day. but it's one that is well-deserved and i have long looked forward to as well. we've had former chairman brooks hanging up there for a long time. and i've been telling chairman conyers for a long time that it was about time that his portrait appear up above the dioce here in the judiciary committee because of his long service, 50 years on this committee -- 50 years on the house judiciary committee. that is a remarkable achievement. but it's also one that has i

pacheco. >> good morning, chairman sensenbrenner and members of the committee.nk you for the opportunity to appear today. my name is angela pacheco and the elected da for new mexico. i am here to talk to you about hope. as a prosecutor every day i make dozens of decisions that impact someone's life. i consider and tell you all the horrors associated with drug use. but as an elected official who is constantly being bombarded with the ills of society on a daily basis, wouldn't you rather hear about giving someone help? if you like some have experienced the ravages of heroin addiction for years. as a prosecutor i have personally prosecuted three generations of families addicted to heroin and associated crimes. every day in the courtroom we see the same individuals addicted to opiates day in and day out, were released from custody and told to obey all laws and stake claim with little to no treatment. and, of course, in two weeks when the report to a probation officer they would be given a urine specimen cup, told to provide a urine sample, the sample test positive f

you mentioned sensenbrenner. he is pretty much alone. particularly in the senate.are very few republicans behind rewriting the vra and the reason why is because voting rights is is a partisan issue. essentially what you see now is in elections with higher turnout, more minorities and young people to vote, they tend to favor democrats versus the election turnout low eer that tends to favor republican and see voter i.d. law passed, restrictions on same-day registration and expand the amount of people who vote and republicans reluctant to sign on to those things and the voting rights act is very partisan and voting is now a partisan issue and what i think you will see over the next year is republicans supportive of criminal justice reform. the idea of getting rid of mandatory minimums and on the side of the democrats and seeing bipartisanship on criminal justice reform but not voting rights and i don't think the act moves this next year and the democrats are pushing it. >> good point, perry. john boen we are a green light to move on voting rights. it's remarkable in 2

bush had to sign this reauthorization, because you had republican members of congress like jim sensenbrenner of wisconsin who stood up and said this is a priority for us. so even though there have been republican efforts all throughout the years to try to gut this act, the congress historically has protected voting rights, and that's something that we'll talk about later which has really shifted to today. >> how, exactly, did these republican administrations and the officials they appointed try to subvert the act? what could they do? how did they try to do that? >> so -- >> maybe pick one administration -- >> yeah. i'll give you, i'll give you one example early on that kind of shows what happened. so after the vra was passed, court upheld its constitutionally very quickly. so just to give a little bit of background, pretty much weeks after the act was passed states like south carolina were already figuring out how they were going to challenge the constitutionality of it, and they appealed directly to the supreme court which is very rare. it almost never happens. and there was a two-day oral

the chapter here to understand james sensenbrenner of wisconsin when it comes to the act he said theor almost two and a half years and he only has 14 republicans who signed as co-authors. we have to be applying the pressure to them and going to them. where are you all? she voted for were loretta lynch, and then when they came in it was like 90 something-years-old so i don't know if he heard me or not i want you to understand i looked at his eyes and i said let it be clear you are not here with our black people because we will lose the tea party present unless a crossover and vote in the republican primary. so i expect you to vote for lynch and he was like i understand. i hear you. you know he voted for loretta lynch. but somebody's going to look at him and say i expect you to vote this way. but if we don't demand him to vote whatever way, he will do what he wants. i want to hear questions and be concise. i'm going to summarize your question. okay. five people here. nobody else can i get in line. i'm going to start here. go. >> my question is how do we bridge the gap for young people,