This video shows the last few minutes of the filibuster held by Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat who represents Texas District 10. On June 25, 2013, Davis held an eleven-hour filibuster to block the passage of Senate Bill 5, which would restrict the abortion law. Davis attempted to hold the floor until midnight, when the Senate session ended; the bill ultimately passed in a second special session.

State Senator Dan Patrick, who is running for lieutenant governor, disagrees with how Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst handled the June 25, 2013 filibuster of State Senator Wendy Davis. This filibuster prevented a vote from being taken on Senate Bill 5, which would create stricter abortion laws in the state. Patrick also shares how he would have handled the situation.

Texas Governor Rick Perry provides his reaction to the filibuster of Senator Wendy Davis on June 25, 2013, where she prevented a vote from being taken on Senate Bill 5, which would restrict abortion access in the state. Perry points out that Davis was born to a single mother and was herself a teen mother and suggests that she learn from her own example that every life matters.

Wendy Davis discusses her filibuster of Senate Bill 5. On June 25, 2013, Senator Wendy Davis of District 10 in Texas held a filibuster that forced Governor Rick Perry to need to call a special session to continue the debate of a budget bill that cut $4 billion from public education in the state. Davis says that she was the only Senator who was willing to hold the filibuster – and that this was the first time she’d worn flat shoes to a Senate meeting.

This video from the Texas Tribute shows clips from Senator Wendy Davis’s eleven-hour filibuster on June 25, 2013 to prevent a vote from being taken on Senate Bill 5, which would significantly restrict the abortion laws of the state. Other senators share their opinions about the proceedings, which were disrupted by citizens in the crowd.

"Mr. John F. Kennedy

The White House

Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

I take the liberty of writing you as a fellow classmate of Harvard 1940, and as the man I voted for last November.

I am a musician, a singer of folk songs, facing trial for contempt of Congress on March 13th, because I declined to testify fully before the HUAC in August 1955, in New York. Since I did not use the 5th amendment, I was later cited for contempt and indicted.

At that time I stated under oath "…in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature…" I refused, however, to state whether or not I had ever sung specifically for the Communist Party, or joined it, saying "I have sung for Americans of Every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refused to sing to an audience no matter what their religion or color of their skin, or situation of life…. I have never refused to sing for anybody because I disagreed with their political opinion."

Here is another sample of their questioning:

Mr. Tavenner: Did you sing this song, to which we have referred. "Now Is The Time," at Wingdale Lodge on the weekend of July 11th?

Mr. Seeger: I don't know any song by that name; I know a song with a similar name. It is called "Wasn't That A Time." Is that the song?

Chairman Walter: Did you sing that song?

Mr. Seeger: I can sing it; I don't know how well I can do it without my banjo…

Chairman Walter: I direct you to answer the question. Did you sing this particular song on the 11th of July at Wingdale Lodge in New York?

For not answering questions like this I am liable for a sentence of one year in jail on each of three counts. I enclose a copy of the song under discussion.

I would not take up your valuable time with my personal problem, except that I feel it is a very fundamental one which concerns all America these days. Do I, or does any citizen, have the right to hold unorthodox opinions, whether they be purely right or horribly wrong, and do I have the right to join with others who think similarly?- Without being blacklisted or persecuted as a 'subversive'.

My uncle, Alan Seeger, the poet, Harvard '10, the second American to die in World War I, in his poem 'Message to America,' issued this call:

'You have the grit and the guts, I know

You are ready to answer blow for blow

You are virile, combative, stubborn, hard

But your honor ends with your own backyard;

Each man intent on his private goal,

You have no feelings for the whole;

What singly none would tolerate

You let unpunished hit the state,

Unmindful that each man must share

The stain he lets his country wear,

And (what no traveller ignores)

That her good name is often yours.'

Should we not heed it now?

Sincerely,

Peter Seeger"

Submitted by: From the White House Central Name File, Box 2513, JFK Library

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

Thank you for allowing me to delay my address until this evening. We paused together to mourn and honor the valor of our seven challenger heroes. And I hope we are now ready to do what they would want us to do– go forward America, reach for the stars. We will never forget those brave seven, but we shall go forward.

I have come to review with you the progress of our nation, to speak of unfinished work, and to set our sights on the future. I am pleased to report the state of our Union is stronger than a year ago, and growing stronger each day. Tonight, we look out on a Rising America– firm of heart, united in spirit, powerful in pride and patriotism– American is on the move!

But, it wasn't long ago that we looked out on a different land– locked factory gates and long gasoline lines, intolerable prices and interest rates turning the greatest country on Earth into a land of broken dreams. Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom.

What brought America back? The American people brought us back– with quiet courage and common sense; with undying faith that in this nation under God the future will be ours, for the future belongs to the free.

Tonight the American people deserve our thanks– for 37 straight months of economic growth; for sunrise firms and modernized industries creating 9 million new jobs in 3 years; interest rates cut in half and inflation falling from over 12 percent in 1980 to under 4 today; and a mighty river of good works, a record $74 billion in voluntary giving last year alone.

Despite the pressures of our modern world, family and community remain the moral core of our society, guardians of our values and hopes for the future. Family and community are the…

Source: Congress Archives

Irving Swanson, a reading clerk in the House of Representatives during 1941, talks about his first-person account of Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin of Montana's vote against the U.S. declaration of war against Japan on December 9, 1941. She was the only member of Congress to vote against the war.