To ensure the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are protected in the debt limit negotiations.

In the coming days, raising the Nation’s debt limit will take center stage. The President has indicated that a clean bill raising the debt limit is non-negotiable. At the same time a number of negotiable issues, such as the sequester and other negotiable items remain. Faced with impending crisis the tendency may exist to reach some global bargain. Should such a bargain not firmly and finally remove the debt limit from play, the precedent will be set for a minority of the congress to use potential debt default as a vehicle to extort concessions. Any deal must insure that any future crisis will not include demands for the repeal of Civil Rights legislation.