Explore the votes of America's longest-serving Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, who presided over key civil rights votes
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In 1949, U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey called for the abolition of the filibuster in order to advance civil rights bills; as Senate Majority Whip, he advanced civil rights bills; as a Senator in 1975, he voted to lower the threshold to break a filibuster from 67 votes to 60.
President Reagan's nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, found his nomination defeated in the Senate. His name subsequently became a verb, meaning 'to attack or defeat a nominee unfairly through an organized campaign of harsh public criticism or vilification'.
After almost a decade of ignoring or stigmatizing the victims of HIV/AIDS, Congress agrees to pass the Ryan White CARE Act, which funds the life-saving drug AZT for low-income or uninsured patients. Four senators including Sen. Jesse Helms vote against the act.
