Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott has represented Virginia’s third congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1993. Prior to his service in Congress, he served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1978 to 1983 and in the Senate of Virginia from 1983 to 1993.
During his tenure in the Virginia General Assembly, Congressman Scott successfully sponsored laws critical to Virginians in education, employment, health care, social services, economic development, crime prevention and consumer protection. His legislative successes in the state legislature included laws that increased Virginia’s minimum wage, created the Governor’s Employment and Training Council and improved health care benefits for women, infants and children.
Congressman Scott believes that voting is the very foundation of our democracy. To underscore his belief, he often quotes the Supreme Court's decision in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964), where the Court states:
No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live. Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.
Congressman Scott is an ardent supporter of the Voting Rights Act and was instrumental in the passage of the Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, César Chávez, Barbara C. Jordan, William C. Velásquez, and Dr. Hector P. Garcia Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 2006. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder, a ruling that significantly undermined the effectiveness of the Voting Rights Act, Congressman Scott joined a small group of his colleagues in Congress to delicately craft a bi-partisan legislative fix to appropriately address the Court's concerns in Shelby County and ensure that the core protections of the Voting Rights Act are restored.
Congressman Scott is working tirelessly to ensure that this legislation passes Congress so that no one's right to vote is infringed.