[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 15 (Monday, January 30, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H723-H729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: VOTER SUPPRESSION AND MUSLIM BAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Veasey) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.


                             General Leave

  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to 
include extraneous material on the subject of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, this was a sad week for our country. We saw 
anger, despair, and chaos at American airports when people from all 
different types of backgrounds from the Middle East were banned from 
coming into the United States. We had individuals who were green card 
holders who were denied entry into the United States. We had 
individuals who were interpreters for our United States military, who 
kept them safe in the Middle East, who were denied the right to come 
into the country. It was a sad day in our country's history.
  This past weekend, I took my son to an exhibit at one of the 
synagogues in Fort Worth, Texas, where I live. It was an exhibit on 
Jews in baseball. There was a picture of Hank Greenberg and Joe 
DiMaggio. Joe DiMaggio, an American lexicon, is about as American as 
you get; but, in looking at the exhibit and at the caption that was 
next to it, it read, while Joe DiMaggio was fighting for our country in 
World War II, the United States Government listed his parents as 
``enemy aliens.'' In revisiting that sort of sad chapter in our 
history, when individuals were treated that way in our country, I think 
it is very sad, Mr. Speaker.
  We have a lot of Members who would like to express their discontent 
at what happened. I yield to our chair, Mr. Cedric Richmond, from the 
State of Louisiana, to come and address us because what we have to talk 
about tonight is very serious.
  Mr. RICHMOND. I thank Congressman Veasey for the work that he does in 
representing Fort Worth, Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege and an honor to be the chairman of the 
Congressional Black Caucus in that we represent almost 80 million 
Americans, 17 million of whom are African American; but the real reason 
is that it is a talented group of 49 people, and we are going to need 
each and every one of them to keep track of this rapid, schizophrenic 
style of governing that we are dealing with. I will just talk about the 
two most egregious things from this past week, which are the 
allegations of voter fraud and his nomination of a person to run the 
Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and his 
unconstitutional ban on Muslims.
  Since 2010, 20 States have restricted voting rights by enacting 
discriminatory voter ID and proof of citizenship laws, illegally 
purging thousands of proper voters from the rolls, cutting back early 
voting, limiting voter registration, and engaging in other suppressive 
tactics. These laws were put in place to combat the notion of voter 
fraud despite the fact that there is no evidence of widespread voter 
fraud in the United States.
  More than a dozen recent investigations and studies all show voter 
fraud to be virtually nonexistent. A 2014 Washington Post investigation 
found 31 incidents of voter fraud in the more than 1 billion ballots 
that were cast in elections at all levels of government from 2000 to 
2014. Of the more than 137 million ballots cast in the 2016 election, 
election and law enforcement officials in all 50 States have yet to 
report any indications of widespread voter fraud.
  But, if there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, what reason 
could anyone have, including the President, for this claim? The truth 
is that Republicans have used the voter fraud lie to restrict voting 
rights for years. Voter ID laws have been sponsored by Republicans and 
have been passed overwhelmingly by Republican legislatures.
  Richard Posner, a conservative U.S. circuit court judge appointed by 
President Reagan, has called the concerns about voter fraud a mere fig 
leaf that is intended to justify laws that appear to be aimed at 
limiting voting by minorities, especially Blacks. In July 2016, a U.S. 
circuit court struck down North Carolina's law, calling it the most 
restrictive voting law North Carolina has seen since the era of Jim 
Crow. The judges charged that Republican lawmakers had targeted African 
Americans with almost surgical precision.
  Let me just turn very briefly to the President's ill-advised, 
unconstitutional executive order that purportedly promotes national 
security. Keeping America safe is a top priority for all of us, but 
this order is wrong. It is wrong because it makes us less safe, and it 
is wrong because it goes against our American values. This is the 
latest in President Trump's series of actions that shows that his 
number one priority is short-term shows of intolerance instead of the 
long-term security of the American people.
  Actions by the Oval Office directly affect people's lives. When the 
President is making policy up on the fly, it has real harmful 
consequences in the lives of everyday Americans. The fact that the 
Secretary of Homeland Security--a committee in Congress on which I 
serve--was not included in discussions about implementing the executive 
order, even though this Department is in charge of its implementation, 
is clear evidence of a broken system. Shutting out the mothers, 
children, fathers, and families who are fleeing the same violence that 
we fight against is exactly what ISIS and similar groups want us to do, 
and it only strengthens their hands. This haphazard order does nothing 
to keep Americans safe. In fact, it hurts our efforts to fight against 
terrorism.
  Let me just say, Mr. Speaker, to my colleague from Texas that the 
President of the United States, when addressing Liberty University, 
cited ``2 Corinthians,'' while most church-going people in the country 
would say ``Second Corinthians.'' He cited 2 Corinthians 2:17, 
which reads, wherever the Lord is, there is liberty and freedom, but 
there can't be liberty and freedom without meaningful access to the 
voting polls. He didn't need to get to chapter 3. He really could have 
just stopped at the first few paragraphs of the Second Corinthians, 
which read: ``Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . 
. . who comforts us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort 
those who are in any trouble.''

  The question becomes: Why go to Liberty University and offer your 
Christian values?
  It always talks about the least of these in the Bible and what we are 
doing to help others and to do unto others as you would have them do 
unto you so that, as soon as mothers and children and families are 
fleeing persecution and certain death, we put a wall up around our 
country, shut down our airports, and say: We don't care what trouble 
you are in. You just can't come here.
  That goes against everything that this country was founded on. It 
goes against my Christian values, and it

[[Page H724]]

goes against any purported Christian values of anyone's in these United 
States of America.
  Mr. VEASEY. I thank the chairman for his comments.
  Mr. Speaker, I did not mention that we are also talking about voting 
rights, which is very important on the eve of the President making the 
selection for the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States.
  I know, with Representative Plaskett's representing the Virgin 
Islands and understanding the importance of voting rights, that that is 
very significant. I yield to the gentlewoman and thank her for being a 
voice in terms of refugees, immigration rights, and on the very 
important issue of voting rights.
  Ms. PLASKETT. I thank Mr. Veasey.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, my 
friend and colleague, the Honorable Cedric Richmond, for his continued 
leadership of this caucus and of his leadership on the issues impacting 
Black America and other minority communities across this great Nation.
  Indeed, this evening, we are discussing not only minorities in this 
country, but those who are downtrodden and other individuals around the 
world who look to America for refuge, strength, and democracy.

                              {time}  1930

  I also thank my colleague, the Honorable Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, 
Texas, for joining me in chairing this evening's Special Order hour, 
and also my Congressional Black Caucus colleagues who are joining us 
this evening to speak on these important issues.
  Mr. Speaker, we are here tonight to speak to those two very important 
issues that go to the fabric of our founding: our ability to grow, 
diversify as a Nation, by bringing in the tired and the poor, the 
innovators, the ones who bring new changes to this country, and 
continue its dynamic growth, as well as voting rights.
  Last week, President Trump--among a number of other things--expressed 
unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 
Presidential election. The remarks that we heard would appear to be 
inaccurate, reckless, and dangerous to our democracy in some of our 
opinions.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I are here this evening to highlight 
the real voter fraud in this country, and that is the continued 
attempts to suppress minority voting rights across many States as well 
as the outright denial of the right to vote for millions of Americans 
living in the territories.
  I want to underscore that the fight for equal voting rights for 
minorities in this country did not end with the passage of the Voting 
Rights Act.
  In fact, today, more than 50 years after our esteemed colleague John 
Lewis and others courageously marched on Selma, we have seen the United 
States Supreme Court strike down one of its most important protections.
  Within hours of that decision, States were already moving forward 
with restrictive voter ID laws, which had already been rejected as 
discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act.
  Six of the 16 States that passed voter ID laws since 2010 have a 
documented history of discriminating against minority voters.
  The State of Alabama, in 2014, began enforcing a controversial voter 
ID law that required voters to show a State-issued ID in order to vote, 
and then announced plans to close 31 driver's license offices--most of 
them, ironically, in rural, impoverished, majority Black counties--
making it even harder for residents to get the most common form of ID 
used to vote.
  In addition to the Supreme Court's action, a Federal Court in a 2015 
ruling used a racist, century-old opinion of the Supreme Court to 
uphold the denial of voting rights to American citizens in my home 
district of the United States Virgin Islands, and the citizens and 
residents of America's island territories.
  They are called the insular cases, and the opinion was authored, 
ironically, by the same justice who wrote Plessy v. Ferguson.
  March marks 100 years that my district has been a part of this 
country, but our service dates back to its very founding through the 
Virgin Islander and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. He would be, I 
think, very upset to find out that people from the island in which he 
came could not vote for their President and Commander in Chief, even 
though the Virgin Islands and the territories have the highest rates of 
military service in the United States and have exponentially higher 
rates of casualties per capita in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We 
believe we have earned the right to take part in this democracy.
  In another example, last year, a Federal appeals court decisively 
struck down a North Carolina voter identification law and noted its 
provisions deliberately ``target African Americans with almost surgical 
precision.'' That is a quote of the court in an effort to depress Black 
turnout at the polls. That, to me, sounds like voter fraud and voter 
suppression.
  Mr. Speaker, these are just a few examples of the real voter fraud 
happening across this country.
  The members of this caucus continue to work to ensure that all 
American citizens, regardless of their race, income or location, can 
participate in this great democracy; and we implore the President to 
direct his efforts to investigate voter fraud at these and other 
issues.
  We want to, as the Congressional Black Caucus, address another issue, 
because we don't just represent African Americans or minorities here in 
this country. We want to address an issue that is of great concern to 
me and members of this caucus--and as demonstrated by massive protests 
this weekend and right across the street here this evening at the 
Supreme Court--the concern of a large majority of America, and that is 
the President's executive order to ban refugees entering into this 
country.
  Banning entry to people fleeing persecution is perhaps as 
diametrically opposed to the foundational fabric of this country as you 
can get.
  Mr. Speaker, not only is the President's refugee ban mean-spirited 
and misguided, it undermines our democracy, undermines our efforts to 
thwart terrorism, and is an affront to all who have sacrificed to 
defend it.
  Viewing all refugees fleeing as suspects shows an extremely myopic 
understanding of the real threats and plays to extremist propaganda.
  The refugee ban will not make us safe. It would have done nothing to 
prevent the 9/11 terrorist attacks, nor the others that followed. The 
terrorists of those attacks were American citizens, some of whom were 
even on the terrorist watch list and still allowed to legally purchase 
deadly weapons used to carry out their terrorist plot.
  If this President and Congress want to protect the American people 
from terrorism, they should pass the no fly, no buy legislation that 
House Democrats stood to support.
  Mr. Speaker, there are many of my colleagues here this evening who 
would love to speak on this issue.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from the Garden 
State of New Jersey, Mrs. Bonnie Watson Coleman, who will speak to this 
House on the issues that the Congressional Black Caucus is taking up 
this evening.
  Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  In his first full week as President, Donald Trump continued to make a 
mockery of the ideas upon which our Nation was founded. In addition, 
his de facto Muslim ban is contrary to the national security interests 
of the United States. His actions are not only discriminatory and 
bigoted, but also reckless, dangerous, and counterproductive to any 
authentic effort to defeat terrorism.
  As a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, I am concerned 
this will only serve to stoke anti-American sentiment across the globe, 
including our international partners committed to eradicating global 
terror threats.
  My colleagues have outlined the ways in which men and women they 
represent have been impacted at this present moment, and highlight the 
uncertainty that those constituents feel about the future. But we 
cannot forget those who have come to this country in pursuit of the 
future that the American Dream has promised.
  Close to 17,000 students from the seven affected countries attend 
U.S. colleges and universities. The 12th District of New Jersey 
represents these

[[Page H725]]

men and women, both young and old, at a multitude of 2-year, 4-year, 
and technical institutions.
  The President of Princeton University--one of the most revered 
institutions in the world, housed in the heart of my district--released 
a statement concerned that the success of Princeton and many other 
institutions of higher education across this Nation depend on America's 
ability to attract and engage with talented people from around the 
world.
  Rutgers University, the flagship public university in my State, has 
students, researchers, and professors from all seven countries on 
Trump's barred entry list who are currently traveling outside of this 
country. The impact on university personnel was felt most immediately 
after the executive order went into effect.
  Two Iranian nationals who are associate professors at the University 
of Massachusetts at Dartmouth were detained Saturday upon arrival at 
Boston Logan International Airport. Today I talked with university 
officials in my district who have faculty members that need to return 
home in order to renew visas, but are afraid to leave. At another 
college, one-fourth of their applicants come from the countries that 
are impacted by this ban.
  A constituent in East Brunswick, who is a non-Syrian political 
refugee, sits in limbo as only one of her four minor children passed 
through our already thorough and extensive processing and was approved 
for a visa. USCIS put a hold on the process of the remaining three due 
to lack of communication and direction and understanding from this 
travel ban.
  By feeding off of fear, hatred, and bigotry, this administration's 
incendiary Muslim ban has created confusion, disruption, and chaos that 
is rippling around the world.
  As our Federal agencies and international partners seek to understand 
and combat this meritless policy, I call on the House Oversight and 
Government Reform Committee, on which I sit, to hold an immediate 
hearing with leadership at the Department of Homeland Security to 
review concerning reports about the crafting and execution of this 
President's order.
  I also requested that the House Homeland Security Committee, which I 
also serve on, to move up its February 7 hearing on this issue so that 
we may urgently address the national security implications of this 
administration's actions.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, this is the United States of America. We 
respect diversity because this is a nation founded and made great 
because of immigrants. We are not going to stand by and allow President 
Trump, with his un-American ideals, to push forward on American 
policies. Understand that we will resist at every turn.
  Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentlewoman from New Jersey for her comments.
  Now I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from the State of 
Illinois (Ms. Kelly). I thank Ms. Kelly for all of her work on so many 
issues that are important. I know that voting rights is particularly 
important to her with her representing the Chicago suburbs and the city 
of Chicago itself.
  Ms. KELLY of Illinois. I thank Congressman Veasey and Congresswoman 
Plaskett for holding tonight's CBC Special Order hour.
  With so much going on in our Nation right now, it is important that 
all Americans take seriously our responsibility to be guardians of our 
democracy. We owe it to those who came before us and those who will be 
here long after us to keep this democracy and its values moving 
forward, and reject the rhetoric and policies that take us backwards.
  I was reminded of this just a week ago when over 3 million Americans 
of all ages, races, and religions, marched for women's rights, justice, 
and equal rights. Three million, a powerful resistance to concerning 
policies that we are seeing come out of the White House.
  Just last night I was with scores of activists and families at 
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, protesting President Trump's 
executive action barring refugees from entering the United States.
  I wish that things hadn't come to this. It is a tragedy that these 
United States, the shining beacon of democracy around the world, the 
land that welcomes the tired, the poor, and the huddled masses has 
witnessed a President in his first week in office attempt to strip away 
our values as an inclusive democracy with an unconstitutional executive 
order and Muslim ban.
  Our Constitution, our laws, our democracy is what we must hold dear 
as Americans. We must be wholly intolerant of those who seek to pervert 
our Constitution. We must not tread on our democratic values.
  As part of tonight's conversation is protecting voter rights, I am 
reminded that the past Presidential election brought with it evidence 
of election hacking and cries of illegal voting.
  For the first time in the history of this Nation, we are seeing a 
President who is intolerably obsessed with his failure to receive the 
popular vote.
  Many of the families that I hear from find this obsession unbefitting 
of a student council president in Kankakee, where I represent, let 
alone the President of the United States.
  Without evidence, President Trump continues to claim that 3 million 
illegal votes in California and New York cost him the popular vote. 
Three million people, the number by which Hillary Clinton won the 
popular vote. I hardly find that to be a coincidence.
  Mr. Speaker, the election is over. The bunting and ribbons have been 
cleaned up. It is time to govern. A continued relitigation of the 
election based on unfounded and divisive claims of further fraud 
divides our Nation further.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Illinois.
  I am now going to call someone who also has a really good 
understanding of civil rights, voting rights in the State of Virginia, 
but then also the plight of immigrants and has a deep level of empathy 
because the other part of his State is very much a diverse State with 
people made up from various parts of the world.
  I yield to the gentleman representing the Fourth Congressional 
District of Virginia, Representative Donald McEachin.
  Mr. McEACHIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I 
thank the gentleman as well as the gentlewoman for leading tonight's 
conversation about so many issues that are important to the American 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, the President's baseless executive order on immigration 
has hurt this country. It has hurt this country to the extent that it 
has made us less safe, and it has hurt this country to the extent that 
it goes against our values as a nation. Our Constitution says that we 
will not favor any religion over another, yet the President has 
instituted a religious test for entry in this country just 1 week after 
his inauguration.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a travesty. This rule has inconvenienced travel 
back to America over the weekend for any number of permanent residents 
and those of all backgrounds who serve our country. I know this because 
it has actually impacted citizens of the Fourth Congressional District.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. Speaker, I have a constituent who has been a permanent resident 
for 20 years. He had visited his family in Cairo and was on his way 
back to Virginia when he was turned around. He was actually sent to 
Qatar, Mr. Speaker, where he has no connections, where he has no 
business. He was just sent there because he was denied entry back home.
  Mr. Speaker, my congressional staff worked around the clock, along 
with his employer, to get him back home and, thanks be to God, he is, 
indeed, home. But, Mr. Speaker, this is unacceptable, and it cannot go 
on.
  I can't help but think of Leviticus chapter 19, verse 34, where we 
are reminded, Mr. Speaker, to treat the foreigner in our midst as if he 
was one of our own.
  Mr. Speaker, the President's order does not do this. It is an offense 
to all Americans. It is an offense to the Judeo-Christian ethic. Mr. 
Speaker, it cannot be allowed to stand, and I will work every day, 
along with my colleagues in the CBC and other like-minded individuals 
in this Congress, to reverse this order.
  Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentleman for sharing that story about his 
constituent. Again, it is such a terrible and shameful time for our 
country, for the world to have seen that.

[[Page H726]]

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Columbus, Ohio (Mrs. 
Beatty).
  Mrs. BEATTY. I thank the gentleman, my classmate and colleague, 
Congressman Veasey. And to my colleague, Congresswoman Stacy Plaskett, 
thank you for convening tonight's Special Order for the Congressional 
Black Caucus.
  Mr. Speaker, we are here for two topics tonight, and you will see 
many of us come and talk about these topics.
  So to my colleagues, let me just cut my message short and say that we 
are here because we all witnessed, over the weekend, President Trump's 
latest executive order barring immigrants, refugees, and legal 
permanent residents from seven Muslim-majority countries. This has set 
off a protest across the Nation.
  I was so proud that I was able to stand in my Third Congressional 
District with families and individuals protesting his unilateral move 
that is not making us safe. It flies in the face of the values and the 
freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here because we had individuals in my district who 
were held in the New York airport, while many others weren't freed like 
they were. That is why I will continue to stand up to President Trump 
and stand with my people.
  We are also here tonight to respond to another unsubstantiated but 
extremely dangerous claim made by President Trump. We know that last 
week he doubled down on his assertion that he would have `` . . . won 
the popular vote,'' Mr. Speaker, ``if you deduct the millions of people 
who voted illegally.''
  Obviously not satisfied with winning the Electoral College, Trump 
continues to focus on defending his national popular vote loss of 
almost 3 million votes. He now believes, without any evidence to 
support his claim, that 3 to 5 million people voted fraudulently in the 
2016 election.
  While this was par for the course for the Trump campaign, but now 
that he is in the White House, Mr. Speaker, he intends to make this 
voter fraud untruth the subject of an actual government investigation 
mandated by a soon-to-be executive order, wasting untold amounts of 
taxpayer dollars.
  Well, when the Congressional Black Caucus hears people using terms 
like ``voter fraud,'' ``illegally voted,'' and ``strengthening up 
voting procedures,'' we read between the lines; and that is why we are 
here tonight to stand up against voter fraud that he is saying, because 
we know it is voter suppression.
  Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentlewoman from Ohio, a State that knows a 
lot about voter suppression, also a very international State.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass) 
representing Los Angeles, one of our most international cities in the 
world that I am sure was impacted very greatly by what happened at 
airports this weekend.
  Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his leadership 
tonight, and also Representative Plaskett.
  Let me share with you, especially Representative Plaskett, that on my 
first day here 7 years ago, one of the first things that happened was a 
motion on the floor to further deny the right to vote for 
Representatives from the territories. And I have to tell you that I 
think, for myself, as well as the majority of people in our country, we 
don't realize that you only have democracy 50 percent. So I am glad 
that you raised it tonight, and I think it is very important that we 
continue to fight so that people from the territories will have the 
full representation of their country.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the travesty that is taking 
place in our country, a travesty that has resulted in innocent people, 
students, grandparents, mothers, fathers, and children being unable to 
travel and enter the United States.
  People are caught in a web of suspicion and hatred as a result of the 
recent executive order which is nothing less than a religious ban. So 
today, I speak for the Africans that are caught in that ban.
  Let me give you an example of who has been caught up by the Muslim 
ban--a brilliant Stanford student, Ms. Nisrin Omer, studying 
anthropology. She is a graduate of Harvard who is from Sudan and has 
lived in this country since 1993.
  She has a green card and is a legal resident who was returning to the 
U.S. from research in Sudan. She was detained for 5 hours and 
handcuffed, simply because she is from Sudan, the very same country 
that President Obama worked long and hard to improve relations and to 
move the country and the region forward.
  Another example, a Somali woman and her two children detained at 
Dulles Airport for 18-plus hours as a result of the Muslim ban. 
According to reports, the children have U.S. passports, and their 
father was allowed to stay in the U.S., but his Somali wife would have 
been deported were it not for the emergency stay granted by the New 
York Federal judge.

  Then there are refugees, mostly Somali, stuck in Kenya following the 
cancellation of their flight as a result of the executive order. These 
stranded travelers had been waiting, according to the U.N. High 
Commissioner for Refugees, 10 to 15 years to resettle.
  And I speak of seven people who are reportedly being detained at the 
airport in my city, Los Angeles airport. All of these situations are a 
result of the President's executive order which, despite the 
protestations from the administration, is nothing less than a Muslim 
ban.
  I also speak of persons fleeing for their lives from Libya, who are 
now stigmatized worldwide because of this ban.
  Day 10 of the Trump Presidency. Heaven help us.
  Mr. VEASEY. I thank Representative Bass for her commentary 
representing the very international city of Los Angeles, again, a city 
with many immigrants, with many people who have contributed to the 
greatness and vibrancy of that city that we know as Los Angeles. I just 
really do appreciate all of her input on that.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to call up to come and speak Mr. Dwight 
Evans. Mr. Evans, hailing from Pennsylvania's Second Congressional 
District, a State that also is very international, I am sure that your 
State was heavily impacted by the travel ban that was implemented by 
the Trump administration, and I believe the world needs to hear your 
remarks tonight, so thank you for being here tonight to speak.
  I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans).
  Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I too want to join and thank Representative 
Veasey and Representative Plaskett for this opportunity.
  Tonight, I stand with my colleagues urging support of policy 
solutions that will ensure our communities have unfettered access to 
the ballot box and to call for solutions to Republican-led attempts to 
suppress minority voting rights across the country.
  Additionally, I must state my view of the recent action taken by 
President Trump which I assert has reduced the national trust in our 
democracy.
  In the short time since President Trump has taken office, he has set 
forth a national security plan that would require broad spending 
increases. He has set forth an executive order to repeal the Affordable 
Care Act without a replacement in place. He has seemingly put us 
directly at odds with Mexico, our bordering country, due to a wall that 
he has set forth as one of his key proposals, and then expected and 
even demanded that they actually pay for it.
  He has ignored the facts and has declared that 3 to 5 million people 
allegedly voted fraudulently in the election.
  And last, but certainly not least, he has set forth an executive 
order banning travel from Muslim countries and suspended the refugee 
program, an action that makes our Nation less safe.
  Over the weekend, I joined with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, 
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, Representative Robert Brady, and 
Representative Brendan Boyle and spoke directly with those who were 
immediately impacted by this executive action.
  We joined with the protesters in voicing extreme discontent over the 
executive order and vowed to do our part to remedy what we can only 
refer to as a ``forced error'' of global proportions. We must work 
collectively to tear down the ban and to be the open democracy that our 
Constitution allows us to be.

[[Page H727]]

  Just today, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates told attorneys in the 
Justice Department not to make legal arguments defending President 
Trump's order on immigration and refugees.
  The actions taken by President Trump are not in the best interest of 
our Nation, our national security, nor are they in the best interest of 
our communities; that is why we must continue to move forward policy 
proposals that have been introduced by my colleagues to ensure equal 
access to the ballot box to ensure we protect the voting rights of 
those in our communities so that they know that their voices are being 
heard.
  For instance, my House colleague, Representative Sewell, introduced 
the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would set forth a geographical 
coverage formula that is based on the current conditions that include 
13 States.
  The bill will establish a rolling nationwide trigger that 
continuously moves so that only States that have a recent record of 
racial discrimination in voting would be covered. The Voting Rights 
Advancement Act would set forth greater transparency in Federal 
elections to ensure that voters are made aware of the late-breaking 
changes in voter procedures and would deter discrimination from 
occurring and protect voters from discrimination.
  Let us continue to ensure the voices of our communities are heard. My 
colleagues and I stand united and ready to combat these actions that 
run counter to the best interest of those we are elected to represent.

  Mr. VEASEY. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania. And just like 
the city of Philadelphia, just like the city of Los Angeles, when we 
heard from Congresswoman Bass earlier, oftentimes the State of Texas is 
portrayed through popular culture as not being a very international 
place, but we are a very international place.
  Everyone has heard of the stories how every State Legislative 
Session, which one has just begun a couple of weeks ago, how Black and 
Hispanic voters, in particular, in the State of Texas, are targeted so 
our voting participation numbers will decrease.
  Well, someone who has been in that fight to help protect Black and 
Latino voters in the State of Texas to expand voting rights in the 
State of Texas; and not just that, again, in pop culture, our State has 
oftentimes been portrayed as one way, but a lot of people forget that 
the city of Houston is the fourth largest city in the country and one 
of the most international cities in the entire world, one of the 
largest ballots in the entire country, printed in--I forgot exactly how 
many languages. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee can tell you that 
later.
  So not only are voting rights being impacted in her district, but 
also I am sure that she felt the plight of many of the people who she 
represents who were stuck at airports, including the Houston 
International Airport, by the Muslim ban that was implemented by the 
Trump administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. Veasey) and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) 
for their continuing leadership on a very important and needed response 
to the actions of many, in particular, this new administration.
  My time is short, so I want to thank Mr. Veasey for his leadership on 
the challenge to the voter ID law and, as well, his continuing 
leadership on the empowerment of voters, as well to Ms. Plaskett for 
ensuring and fighting for the right to vote for the Virgin Islands.

                              {time}  2000

  I stand with both of them. But I come today to plead and also to 
enunciate what crisis we find ourselves in. The White House is in 
crisis. When the White House is in crisis, that means America is in 
crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not a frivolous statement that I make; it is a 
truthful statement because less than 72 hours ago, without the counsel 
of many experts, Members of Congress who are on the jurisdictional 
committees, without the notice and input of the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, an executive order was produced by one young staffer in the 
White House and another individual who has pushed an agenda of 
exclusiveness. That is not the way to run this country.
  So this executive order came out, and what we find is that 67,000 
refugees are stranded around the world who actually had documents, who 
were vetted, and, as some stories have told us, waited 10 and 12 to 13 
years to be able to get in line and to be vetted to come to the United 
States of America. The tragedy is that some of them were, in fact, our 
friends from Iraq who have stood by our military personnel who had, in 
fact, provided them the interpretation that they needed to save their 
lives. In one story we heard tonight on the steps of the United States 
Supreme Court was a woman who finally got here with her two children. 
Her husband was murdered, and her father was tortured.
  So, to Mr. Trump, today I think it is important as we have joined in 
to repeal and to rescind this unconstitutional order, it is clear that 
you need to read the writing on the wall. The Deputy Attorney General, 
duly appointed and confirmed, of the U.S. Department of Justice, the 
remaining individual who has power in that office, has made a very 
conscious decision that they cannot defend this order because it is 
unconstitutional. This is not a person who takes her task lightly. This 
is not someone who is not an officer who has not taken an oath of 
office. This is akin to what happened in the Nixon administration. They 
were willing to lose their position to stand for the Constitution.
  So the Congressional Black Caucus is on the floor today with our 
chairman, Mr. Richmond, to be able to inform America that this is 
patently unconstitutional. It does not provide for due process. It did 
not provide for equal protection of the law. As well, it is a blatant 
attack on freedom of religion.
  For those of you who need a better explanation, let me tell you what 
a ban on Muslims is. A ban on Muslims is one country, two countries, 
seven countries, and the idea of who cannot come in are Muslims--that 
is a ban on Muslims. It is not a ban on Christians. It is not a ban on 
any other faith. It is a ban on Muslims, and the White House needs to 
understand what an interpretation of that means.
  Further, let me say, as I come to a close, please do not try to cover 
yourself with the announcement that was made by President Obama. As a 
member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am well aware of that 
announcement that he had regarding a number of countries. It was not a 
ban. It was to take note that those countries were in conflict and that 
individuals who were coming from those countries specifically needed to 
have a higher level of scrutiny. It was not a ban. It is well 
documented that the tragedies that we have had from Boston to Orlando 
to San Bernardino were not individuals who came through as refugees or 
came from those particular countries.
  What are we doing here? We are blatantly violating the Constitution. 
When the President of the United States violates the Constitution, this 
body has to stand up and respond. So I would ask this body to direct 
the President to rescind. In the alternative, I would ask that the 
legislation that is being introduced call upon the President to repeal 
this.
  In all fairness, I would appreciate if the President took it up on 
his own to suspend this order that is impacting so many who are being 
left along the highway of despair, people who are able to--if you will, 
people and individuals who are able to seek refuge here are now being 
left.
  I believe that the Congressional Black Caucus--the conscience of the 
Congress--stands now, tonight, to seek to ban the Muslim ban, to seek 
to stop the suppression of voting, and to also say to the nominee for 
the Attorney General: Are you prepared to represent all of us and to be 
able to support the institution, or reinstitution, of section 5 of the 
Voting Rights Act?
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Sheila Jackson 
Lee for clearing up a lot of the misconceptions that are being 
purposely spread out there that this was something that was used by the 
Obama administration. It absolutely was not. It is being purposely 
spread on social media, and people are lying about the past and what 
happened. It is completely different, and I want to thank her for 
clearing that up.

[[Page H728]]

  I now yield to the gentleman from Newark, New Jersey (Mr. Payne), who 
is the gentleman representing the eastern coast of New Jersey.
  Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, first let me thank the gentleman from Fort 
Worth and the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands for heading these 
Special Order hours. It is an honor that I had prior to them, and I am 
sure that they see the importance of being able to spearhead topics 
that are important for today.
  Mr. Speaker, President Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud are 
unsubstantiated. Officials in both parties have said that there is no 
evidence of large-scale voter fraud. A comprehensive investigation 
found only 31 possible cases of impersonation fraud out of 1 billion 
votes cast in all elections between 2000 and 2014. President Trump lost 
the popular vote by 2.8 million, and it looks like he is looking for an 
excuse.
  What is worse is that President Trump's unfounded claims will 
encourage Republicans to double down on their assault on voting rights. 
There is no significant evidence of fraud, but President Trump's claims 
will be used as cover to suppress the vote. He is already talking about 
launching a major investigation into nonexistent voter fraud. The only 
thing that would come from such an investigation would be further 
restrictions on voting rights.

  If President Trump wants to investigate anything, he should 
investigate the real voter fraud talking place--the Republican-led 
attempts to suppress minority votes.
  The strategy of Republican legislatures in some States has been to 
suppress votes by instituting voter ID laws, reducing hours for early 
voting, and closing polling places. According to the Brennan Center for 
Justice, in 2016, 14 States had new voting restrictions in place for 
the first time in a Presidential election. This Presidential election 
was the first in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting 
Rights Act.
  As a country, we should make it as easy as possible for people to 
exercise the right to vote. Election officials should not erode our 
democratic principles. They should make sure that every American 
citizen has an equal voice in the democratic process.
  Protecting every person's right to vote is essential to a fully 
functioning democracy. The countless men and women who have risked 
their lives to defend that right knew our system of government only 
works when it is inclusive and fair, when it enables all voices to have 
a say in the future of our country.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey.
  I now yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), who 
represents a critical State, a State that some people think actually 
went a certain direction in the Presidential race because of voter 
suppression tactics. She represents the city of Milwaukee.
  Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Fort Worth 
for yielding this time to me.
  I could just tell you that it is deja vu all over again. When 
President George W. Bush lost the election in 2000, he engaged in a 
lengthy investigation over so-called voter fraud to deflect from the 
fact that he, in fact, lost the popular vote, as did President Donald 
Trump. These allegations of voter fraud do nothing but to continue to 
bankrupt the Treasury. When, as the gentleman from New Jersey just 
pointed out, Loyola Law School did an extensive study, they found 31 
cases of voter impersonation out of 1 billion votes cast in the last 14 
years. We don't have enough time for me to do the math on that, but it 
is de minimis.
  I can tell you that real voter fraud is voter suppression. 2016 was 
the very first Presidential election in 50 years, gentlewoman from the 
Virgin Islands, that we didn't have the full protection of voting 
rights in 14 States, and it showed, including in my own swing State of 
Wisconsin. Brand-new voting ID restrictions disproportionately 
suppressed African American, low-income citizens' votes.
  According to a Federal Court, nearly 300,000 registered voters in 
Wisconsin--in my State--could not obtain the voter ID required by the 
imposition of these new laws. Throughout the country, we saw 868 fewer 
polling places. We saw these voter ID laws, and we saw just a 
reinvention of these painful and unjust poll taxes and remnants of poll 
taxes and literacy tests imposed upon African Americans.
  I can tell you, if there is any voter suppression, it is voter denial 
in this country; and I would call for, instead of spending taxpayer 
dollars to find 5 million votes that President Trump claimed voted for 
Hillary Clinton, I would rather spend that money investigating the 
Russian hacks into our election.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from the 
State of Wisconsin.
  Now I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), who is my 
friend and colleague from another international part of the country, 
the Oakland Bay Area.
  Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, first let me thank Congressman Veasey for 
yielding and for his tireless work to defend rights and justice. Also 
to Congresswoman Plaskett, I thank the gentlewoman for continuing to 
speak out, to organize us, and for her stellar representation of her 
district.
  Mr. Speaker, in his first week as President, Donald Trump advanced 
dangerous conspiracy theories and enacted a Muslim ban that undermines 
our Nation's standing in the world. These actions show that President 
Trump will peddle his alternative facts no matter the consequences.

                              {time}  2015

  Now, let me be clear. This approach to governance threatens our 
democracy and our national security. We must resist it. For starters, 
we cannot allow President Trump to erode our right to vote. Access to 
the ballot box is the cornerstone of American democracy, yet he spent 
his first week in office peddling the baseless myth that 3 to 5 million 
voted illegally in our election.
  Mr. Speaker, nothing could be further from the truth. Both 
Republicans and Democrats have dismissed this myth as unsubstantiated, 
but the President continues to insist that millions of fraudulent 
voters cost him the popular vote.
  Let's call this what it is. This is a campaign by our highest elected 
official to fabricate reasons why he lost the majority of popular 
votes. He will use these blatant falsehoods to further undermine access 
to the voting booth.
  Mr. Speaker, this investigation that is being proposed really is a 
sham. The real attack on America's elections come from Republicans who 
make it harder for people of color, young people, and low-income people 
to vote.
  I include in the Record an editorial from The New York Times, ``The 
Voter Fraud Fantasy.''

                [From The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2017]

                        The Voter Fraud Fantasy

                            (By Lilli Carre)

       There are varying degrees of absurdity in the fallacies 
     President Trump peddled during his first week in the Oval 
     Office. Perhaps the most damaging was his insistence that 
     millions of Americans voted illegally in the election he 
     narrowly won.
       Mr. Trump first made that false claim in late November, 
     tweeting that he would have won the popular vote ``if you 
     deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.'' On 
     Wednesday, he announced that he intended to launch a ``major 
     investigation'' into voting fraud and suggested the outcome 
     may justify tightening voting rules.
       What once seemed like another harebrained claim by a 
     president with little regard for the truth must now be 
     recognized as a real threat to American democracy. Mr. Trump 
     is telegraphing his administration's intent to provide cover 
     for longstanding efforts by Republicans to suppress minority 
     voters by purging voting rolls, imposing onerous 
     identification requirements and curtailing early voting.
       ``This is another attempt to undermine our democracy,'' 
     said Representative Barbara Lee of California, one of the 
     states where Mr. Trump falsely claimed results were tainted 
     by large-scale fraud. ``It's about not honoring and 
     recognizing demographic change.''
       The apparent source of Mr. Trump's original claim of mass 
     voter fraud was Gregg Phillips, a Texas man with a penchant 
     for making wild allegations about voting fraud. Days before 
     Mr. Trump's tweet, Mr. Phillips claimed on Twitter that he 
     had ``verified more than three million votes cast by non-
     citizens.'' State election officials across the political 
     spectrum promptly rejected that assertion, noting that ballot 
     box fraud in the United States is exceedingly rare.
       On Friday, Mr. Trump tweeted that he was looking forward to 
     seeing the results of an analysis of illegal votes, as 
     promised by Mr. Phillips. Republican officials know the voter 
     fraud claim is an indefensible lie. But few are challenging 
     Mr. Trump or raising alarms about how severely this hurts our 
     election system.
       Voter suppression initiatives have grown increasingly 
     common since the Supreme

[[Page H729]]

     Court invalidated a central provision of the Voting Rights 
     Act in 2013, making it easier for local authorities to tweak 
     election rules in a manner that disenfranchises particular 
     groups of people.
       Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department 
     aggressively fought these efforts. Lawsuits filed by civil 
     rights advocates and the Justice Department led a federal 
     appeals court in 2013 to strike down a North Carolina voter 
     ID law that justices concluded had been designed to target 
     African-American voters with ``surgical precision.'' 
     Litigation in a similar Texas case is now on hold, pending 
     guidance from the new attorney general.
       If Mr. Trump's attorney general nominee, Senator Jeff 
     Sessions, is confirmed, the Justice Department will be likely 
     to all but abandon enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. Mr. 
     Sessions once called it a ``piece of intrusive legislation.'' 
     That would allow state and national lawmakers to impose even 
     tighter voting requirements, harming minorities, the young 
     and the elderly, who tend to vote Democratic.
       Republicans may see these measures as a means of staying in 
     power in the face of demographic changes. They should be 
     ashamed of undermining the integrity of our system of 
     government by trying to strip away a right Americans have 
     fought for and died to secure.

  Ms. LEE. If the President were serious about protecting access to the 
ballot, he would join members of the Congressional Black Caucus in our 
call for the restoration of the Voting Rights Act.
  Since it was gutted in 2013, millions of minority voters have been 
prevented from casting their votes. Last year alone, hundreds of 
thousands of minority voters were disenfranchised before and on 
election day.
  Instead of lodging investigations based on alternative facts, 
President Trump should be investigating the widespread efforts to 
disenfranchise voters, including the use of outdated voting machines, 
the mishandling of provisional ballots, the improper purging of voting 
rolls, and the widely reporting incidents of intimidation and 
misinformation at the polls.
  These are the truth threats to our democracy. If these threats are 
not enough to occupy President Trump's attention, he should turn to the 
widespread evidence of Russian interference in our elections. The facts 
are available and in need of bipartisan investigation, but President 
Trump has no interest in evaluating facts. He would rather focus on 
falsehoods.
  But the President's attacks on our democracy aren't restricted to 
alternative facts. This weekend we witnessed the erosion of another 
American value: our proud tradition as a refuge for immigrants of every 
religion. The President issued an executive order banning immigrants 
and refugees from the United States on the basis of religion.
  This outrageous executive order to shut people out from several 
Muslim nations runs counter to our fundamental values that we cherish 
as Americans. It is morally reprehensible and will only make the United 
States less safe. The order has done nothing but create chaos and fear 
among refugees and immigrants who have been admitted or have been 
approved to come to the United States.
  This Nation is, has been, and always will be a nation of immigrants 
and refugees. This is who we are. We don't turn our back to those in 
need. And certainly, we do not do so on the basis of religion.
  This is a watershed moment for our country, a moment that brings into 
question our moral character. Thousands of Americans took to the 
streets to protest the Muslim ban. Really? This is what the resistance 
must look like.
  Tonight, many of us joined our colleagues on the steps of the Supreme 
Court to demand a reversal of this hateful policy. We will continue to 
fight every attempt to erode our values to appease ideology and radical 
special interests.
  Our new bill, Statue of Liberty Values Act, known as the SOLVE Act, 
will reverse President Trump's Muslim ban executive order and ensure 
that funds or fees shall not be used to implement the order. I hope 
everyone signs on to Congresswoman Lofgren's bill. The President's 
order harms our families, our economy, and our national security.
  Once again, this is not who we are as a nation. We are better than. 
We must wake up and fight because the future of our democracy is at 
stake.
  My district is a district of immigrants. People are very afraid. We 
are a sanctuary district. What is taking place now is totally un-
American.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rutherford). Members are reminded to 
refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, within just days of 
assuming office, President Donald Trump has made a number of alarmingly 
fictitious claims about anything from the alleged failures of the 
Affordable Care Act to the skyrocketing murder rate throughout the 
United States. President Trump has even felt it was necessary to 
misrepresent the number of attendees at his inauguration. However, 
among his most egregious ``alternative facts'' that he has presented to 
the American people is the idea that there is widespread voter fraud 
across the country, which is undermining the electoral process in the 
United States. This is unequivocally false.
  In fact, numerous reports, court findings, and official government 
investigations over, the years have pointed to the fact that voter 
fraud is, in reality, extremely rare. In 2016, the United States Court 
of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which ultimately found the Texas 
photo ID law to be racially discriminatory, noted in its findings that 
there were only two convictions for in-person voter impersonation fraud 
out of 20 million votes cast in Texas within the last decade. In a 
separate case ruled in 2014, a special investigations unit for the 
State of Texas was found to only have identified a single conviction 
and one guilty plea of in-person voter impersonation in any election in 
the State of Texas between 2002 and 2014. Nationally, countless 
Studies--including one conducted by the nonpartisan Government 
Accountability Office--have failed to identify any evidence of 
widespread voter fraud. The story is the same in states all across the 
country.
  Yet, somehow President Trump and Republicans in Congress have arrived 
at a separate conclusion and are using this false notion to promote 
regressive voter laws that seek to suppress minority voting rights all 
across the country. These laws are an example of your classic 
``solution in search of a problem,'' albeit with a more sinister 
objective to suppress liberal leaning voters and deny select groups of 
voters their fundamental right to vote.
  Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I have worked tirelessly throughout 
our careers to ensure that every American has equal access to the polls 
regardless of race, income, location, or background. We will not stop 
at making sure that every American preserves their right to vote, even 
in the face of a Republican-controlled Congress and Administration. The 
right to vote is a fundamental pillar of our democracy, and it is 
counter to our principles that our nation had defended for centuries to 
now try and erode that right for millions of Americans. I, and 
countless other Americans, unequivocally reject these efforts and will 
forever stand united against them.

                          ____________________