[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3187-S3197]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Climate Change
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, one of the things I have noticed
over the years that I have given these climate speeches is that
corporate engagement on climate change has been one-sided, let's just
say. It is clear who my adversaries have been--Big Oil, the coal lobby,
the Koch brothers, and some very powerful corporate trade
associations--the American Petroleum Institute, the National
Association of Manufacturers, and the most powerful of all, the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, so-called. In my view, it is more properly called
the U.S. Chamber of Carbon. These adversaries have managed a big-money
campaign, first, to sow doubt about or outright deny climate change
and, second, to block action in Congress and Federal agencies to limit
carbon pollution.
The International Monetary Fund just estimated fossil fuel subsidies
in the United States at $650 billion for 2015. Yes, that is ``billion''
with a ``b.'' When you are defending that kind of subsidy, you spare no
expense, which explains the millions of dollars spent by the fossil
fuel industry and its trade group cronies in opposing climate bills, in
supporting phony climate denial front groups, and in funding election
attacks against candidates who might try to limit carbon pollution.
While the fossil fuel industry has been running roughshod around
Washington, the rest of corporate America has sat on its hands. Even
companies with gauzy website offerings on climate and strong
sustainability policies within the company have done virtually nothing
to support climate action in Congress. I could name names, but that
would make it a very long speech because, basically, everybody in
corporate America has been absent here.
There are, at long last, signs that corporate America is waking up to
the climate fight it has been losing in Washington. When and if
corporate America finally engages in the serious support of climate
action, Congress will, once again, spring to life. After a 10-year
drought, we could again see bipartisan legislation to reduce carbon
pollution.
Why this new spurt of corporate engagement on climate change?
Look at the avalanche of warnings about the financial risks climate
change poses to the global economy. In just the last few months, here
are some of the warnings: 34 central banks, including Canada's,
France's, and England's; a group of major reinsurers; the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco; the investment giant BlackRock; EPA
economists and scientists; the Urban Land Institute; the investment
advisory firm Mercer; the European Central Bank; and the investment
advisory firm Sarasin & Partners. All have separately warned about
climate change's tanking the economy.
There are agricultural as well as financial warnings. In April, the
big food companies--Danone, Mars, Nestle, and Unilever--announced that
they would begin advocating for Federal action on climate change. They
see the risk climate change poses to the world's agricultural and water
supplies.
Their preferred solution? A price on carbon:
Establish an ambitious carbon pricing system that sends a
clear signal to the marketplace to reduce economy-wide
greenhouse gas emissions aligned with the Paris Agreement
goal to keep global temperature increase well below 2-degrees
centigrade. An appropriate carbon pricing structure should be
transparent in how prices are set, equitable in how revenue
is appropriated to mitigate costs on the most vulnerable
communities, and built to ensure our global competitiveness.
I fully agree.
Following on those food companies' heels, Microsoft announced that
it, too, would begin advocating in Congress for Federal climate action.
It joined the Climate Leadership Council--a group of economists,
policymakers, businesses, and environmental groups--formed in 2017, to
advance a price on carbon. Like the food companies, Microsoft sees a
Federal price on carbon as the best policy to tackle climate change.
Then, in May, 13 more companies announced the CEO Climate Dialogue to
advocate for climate action. Once again, these companies declared that
they supported a price on carbon:
An economy-wide price on carbon is the best way to use the
power of the market to achieve carbon reduction goals, in a
simple, coherent and efficient manner. We desire to do this
at the least cost to the economy and households. Markets will
also spur innovation, and create and preserve quality jobs in
a growing low-carbon economy.
Note that last sentence: ``Markets will also spur innovation, and
create and preserve quality jobs in a growing low-carbon economy.''
One of the weird things about all of the remorseless opposition to
climate action out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National
Association of Manufacturers is that there is a heck of a lot of
commerce and a heck of a lot of manufacturing in climate change
solutions. So why are they so against them? It is an anomaly but not
the only anomaly in climate denial.
Republican colleagues who wax poetic about the free market seem not
to notice this massive $650 billion subsidy for carbon pollution. That
is a big thing not to notice if you are serious about the free market.
The last gasp of climate obstruction here in Congress is to talk about
innovation as the magic climate solution. Here is the rub: Without a
clear market signal in the form of a price on carbon, there will be
little incentive to innovate. How do you innovate away a $650 billion
annual subsidy? How does the market work to reduce carbon pollution
when carbon pollution is free? Innovations like carbon capture and
storage aren't cheap. There is not much of a business case for these
innovations--it is hard to see the revenue proposition--unless we put a
price on carbon. Then innovation happens.
Am I wrong about market theory?
Let's go to Milton Friedman, the Nobel Prize-winning patron saint of
market theory. He was unambiguous about pricing pollution.
He was asked: Was there a case for the government to do something
about pollution?
He responded:
Yes, there's a case for the government to do something.
There's always a case for the government to do something
about it . . . when what two people do affects a third party
[ . . . ] But the question is, What's the best way to do it?
And the best way to do it is not to have bureaucrats in
Washington write rules and regulations. . . . The way to do
it is to impose a tax on the cost of the pollutants . . . and
make an incentive for . . . manufacturers and for consumers
to keep down the amount of pollution.
So, yes, putting a price on pollution to give an incentive to
innovation is core free market principle.
I happen to share that faith in the power of the market to drive
innovation when the market is working. But it is not going to happen
when the market is distorted by a $650 billion subsidy.
That is why I filed a carbon pricing bill to help correct that fossil
fuel subsidy and balance the market, so those principles can go to
work.
At the end of May, 75 companies came to Capitol Hill to advocate for
carbon pricing. Together, those companies operate in all 50 States,
have annual revenues over $2.5 trillion, and have a market value of
nearly $2.5 trillion.
These companies met with dozens of lawmakers, both Democrats and
Republicans, to make the case for a price on carbon--that it is the
commonsense policy to dramatically reduce carbon pollution, drive the
transition to a low carbon economy, and grow jobs and the economy.
There is enormous economic and scientific support for that argument.
There is little opposition to that argument or at least little
opposition that can't be traced back to the mischief of the fossil fuel
industry and its front groups. I hope my colleagues listened.
I also hope that other companies join in and help the American
business community make climate action a
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Washington, DC, priority. It can't just be talk. The fossil fuel
industry isn't going to just walk away from a $650 billion annual
subsidy. To offset the millions spent by the fossil fuel bandits
defending their license to pollute for free is going to require some
real effort on the part of corporate America.
It is also going to take corporate America getting control over the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.
The watchdog group InfluenceMap has analyzed business associations
around the world. They found that the Chamber and NAM--the National
Association of Manufacturers--are the worst--the worst--the most
obstructive when it comes to climate action. Here they are, rock
bottom: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of
Manufacturers--tail end of the worst.
Why? Why are the Chamber and NAM the worst? If the majority of large
companies in America support climate action, why do these two trade
associations remain so opposed? Why are they the worst?
I strongly recommend that if you are a corporate member of one of
these two organizations--if you are a corporate member of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, if you are a corporate member of the National
Association of Manufacturers--that you demand an audit--that you demand
an audit of these trade associations' funding because here is what I
expect you will find: You will find that while they had you out on the
front porch as a prop for the neighbors to see, they were in the back
room, secretly pocketing big money from fossil fuel interests to stop
climate legislation. My belief is that the fossil fuel industry has
given both the Chamber and NAM so much money that those two
organizations have chumped--chumped--their member organizations by
ignoring their views on climate in order to keep the money pouring in
secretly from the fossil fuel industry.
The members are in a position to find out. Ask. Demand an audit. Find
out if you have been chumped by the organizations you support.
This trade association obstruction by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
and the National Association of Manufacturers has to change, but it
will not until these trade associations' member companies demand a stop
to the obstruction and demand real support for carbon pricing.
Let me close with a word of warning. The alarms are ringing loudly.
As one scientist recently said: ``The ocean is screaming.'' Financial
crises loom. Our failure over the last three decades to address the
climate crisis is a black mark against both our democracy and our
system of free market capitalism. Creepy-crawly political subservience
to fossil fuel interests has degraded American democracy, and free
market capitalism is conspicuously failing to meet the climate
challenge. That can change, but it has to change fast.
More than three decades ago, Representative Claudine Schneider and
Senator John Chafee, both Republicans from Rhode Island, introduced
comprehensive legislation to address climate change--from Republicans,
three decades ago. Since then, the fossil fuel industry's campaign to
obstruct climate progress has succeeded, but at a terrible price. Every
day that we fail to address our climate crisis is a day that we
mortgage our children's and our grandchildren's futures.
Through these long decades, the good guys in corporate America have
been conspicuously absent. This recent activity makes me optimistic--
optimistic that the business community seems to be finally stepping up
and optimistic that bipartisanship can be restored.
Eyes are beginning to flutter open around here. Now it is time not
just to wake up but to get to work.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection.
100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment
Ms. COLLINS. As the senior Republican woman in the Senate today, I am
pleased to begin a series of speeches, along with my good friend from
California, the senior Democratic woman Senator, Mrs. Dianne Feinstein,
to commemorate a significant milestone in our Nation's history. One
hundred years ago today, the Senate finally passed the 19th Amendment,
which affirmed the right of women to vote in elections.
All of us recall that in 1775, as the Second Continental Congress was
forging a new Nation conceived in liberty, Abigail Adams admonished her
husband John to ``remember the ladies.'' Despite Abigail Adam's advice,
it took nearly a century and a half for women to achieve their rightful
place as full U.S. citizens.
On June 4, 1919, the U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment to our
Constitution. The courage and determination exhibited by generations of
women and men were rewarded in just two sentences:
The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
That is it. Those are the words of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing
women the right to vote.
It is an honor today to join my 24 women Senate colleagues in
cosponsoring a resolution commemorating this centennial. The yellow
roses that we are wearing are a historic and enduring symbol of the
victory that we celebrate today.
It has often been said, as Emerson put it, that ``there is properly
no history; only biography.'' The story of women's suffrage is an
anthology of remarkable biographies.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott led the Seneca Falls
Convention of 1848. This marked the first time that American women
formally demanded the vote. The convention produced the landmark
Declaration of Sentiments. Using the Declaration of Independence as a
template, it states: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident: That
all men and women are created equal.''
The early women's rights movement was closely linked to the abolition
of slavery. Lucretia Mott made her position clear. She said:
``I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice
inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with
all the moral powers with which I am endowed.''
Among the most vigorous advocates of women's suffrage were those who
knew too well the lash of oppression, the escaped slaves Frederick
Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
Another very important incident in the march of history occurred in
1872. Susan B. Anthony and 14 other women in Rochester, New York,
illegally voted in that year's Presidential election. They were
promptly arrested. Susan B. Anthony was put on trial, convicted, and
ordered to pay a fine of $100 or face imprisonment. Imagine--for
voting.
She bravely refused, saying that she would never submit to this
``high-handed outrage upon my citizen's rights.'' The authorities
wisely chose not to pursue collecting the fine.
Suffrage leaders realized that nothing short of a constitutional
amendment would do--one modelled after the 15th Amendment, which
granted the vote to all men regardless of race.
With new leaders--such as Carrie Chapman Catt and, later, Alice
Paul--stepping forward, a strategy was developed to use every peaceful
instrument to change the hearts and minds of political leaders and the
public. In addition to marches, rallies, and petitions, they enlisted
the power of the pulpit and the press in their just cause.
It took more than four decades for this strategy to succeed, and
strong Maine women played key roles. Katherine Reed Balentine, the
daughter of the legendary Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Thomas Brackett Reed, led the Maine Woman Suffrage Association. Author
and activist Florence Brooks Whitehouse became a nationally known
suffrage organizer and offered these words to opponents of this cause:
``This you must know; the world is mine, as yours.''
I am proud to report that when the 19th Amendment came to the Senate
floor on that historic day, exactly 100 years ago, both of Maine's
Senators, Republicans Bert Fernald and Frederick Hale, were among the
56 voting in favor. Following Senate passage, all
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that remained was for 36 of the 48 States to vote for ratification.
Maine became the 19th State to ratify the 19th Amendment, but it
wasn't easy. An earlier popular referendum on women's suffrage in Maine
got clobbered at the polls by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. Of course,
women were not allowed to vote on their own future, which obviously
skewed the results.
Recognizing the inherent unfairness of the situation, Maine's
Republican Governor, Carl Milliken, called an emergency session of the
State legislature and ushered the measure through by a vote of 72 to
68.
By the summer of 1920, only one more State was needed to reach the
magic number of 36. The Nation's eyes were on the State of Tennessee,
where the amendment was before the legislature. The outlook was
discouraging. After two rollcall votes, suffrage opponents, who wore
red roses on their lapels, were in a dead heat with the yellow rose
supporters. If the measure failed to pass in Tennessee, the 19th
Amendment would not be ratified.
At the last possible moment, the youngest Tennessee lawmaker, Harry
Burn, despite the red rose that he wore--which indicated you were in
opposition--cast his vote in favor of ratification.
After evading an angry mob by climbing out of a third floor window in
the Maine Capitol Building and hiding in the attic, Representative Burn
explained that he changed his mind after he received a letter from his
mother, telling him: ``Don't forget to be a good boy'' and to do the
right thing.
I am sure the Presiding Officer is very familiar with this story.
One of my inspirations in public service, Maine Senator Margaret
Chase Smith, once addressed the question of what is a woman's proper
place. Her famous short answer was this: ``Everywhere.''
The rest of her answer describes the importance of the struggle and
the success that we celebrate today. She said: ``If there is any proper
place for women today, it is that of alert and responsible citizens in
the fullest sense of the word.''
It is a great pleasure to join my colleagues--particularly the senior
Democratic woman Senator, Dianne Feinstein of California--in saluting
those great, courageous, and persistent women who, over many long
decades and through much difficulty, guided our Nation to that proper
place by giving women the long, overdue right to be full citizens in
this country--the right to vote.
Madam President, it is now my great pleasure to yield to my friend
and distinguished colleague, Senator Feinstein.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I want to thank my distinguished colleague from the
great State of Maine. Thank you so much, Susan. Thank you for your work
here, for your care, for your concern, and for your vigilance on all
issues that affect women. Thank you so much.
Madam President, I am very proud to join Susan Collins and all of my
colleagues on the floor today to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
Congress's passing the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Before the 19th Amendment, women were actually denied the same basic
civil rights as men. We were not allowed to attend a college. We could
not become doctors, lawyers, or politicians. Married women had no right
to property, and even though women were required to follow the law,
they had no say in electing their lawmakers.
Simply put, women were second-class citizens. So it is against this
backdrop that the women's suffrage movement took shape decades ago to
fight to achieve equality for us, and the fight began at the polls.
In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson faced a tough reelection campaign.
At the time, 12 States allowed women to vote. The newly formed Women's
Party campaigned forcefully in most States against Wilson because of
his strong opposition to women's suffrage. As a result, women voted
against Wilson by notable margins, causing the first known gender gap
in a Presidential election.
Although Woodrow Wilson ultimately won a second term, the Women's
Party made clear that they were a force to be reckoned with. I could
not be more proud of the suffragists who fought for decades to secure
our right to vote and laid the groundwork for a woman's right to hold
office. It is because of fearless, hardworking women like Alice Paul,
Lucy Burns, and Dorothy Day that I stand here today on the floor of the
Senate representing the largest State in the Union, California.
In the first elections held after the 19th Amendment was ratified,
women won public office in 23 States. Today, women are represented in
all levels of government--Federal, State, and local.
In 1992, the first year I was elected to the Senate, a historic
number of women won elected office. Twenty-four new women were elected
to the U.S. House of Representatives that year, and four women--
Senators Murray, Boxer, Mosley-Braun, and I--were elected to the
Senate. Last year, nearly a century after Congress passed the 19th
Amendment, women set another record with 102 women serving in Congress
and 3 more holding seats on the U.S. Supreme Court. So women are still
shattering the glass ceilings.
In 2014, Janet Yellen became the first woman to lead the Federal
Reserve. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be
nominated by a major political party for President of the United
States. And just this year, after being elected the first female
Speaker of the House in 2007, Nancy Pelosi became the first woman to be
reelected Speaker of the House.
Last Congress, I became the first woman to serve as the ranking
member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is especially
significant for me because I was inspired by Anita Hill's testimony
before the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee to run for this office.
Even though there are more women in leadership positions across
industries, there is still work to be done. According to the American
Association of University Women, in 2017 women earned between 77 cents
and 53 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Susan Collins, we still have a long way to go, it seems to me.
In addition, women continue to face discrimination and harassment at
school and in the office, as well as high rates of sexual violence.
Before I close, I would like to address an issue that has
unfortunately been in the news quite a bit lately; that is, the latest
attacks on women's health and reproductive rights. We should not forget
what Justice Ginsburg told the Senate Judiciary Committee during her
confirmation hearings in 1992. I was there, and here is what she said:
The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a
woman's life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision
she must make for herself. When Government controls that
decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully
adult human responsible for her own choices.
In the past month, six States have passed blatantly unconstitutional
laws that effectively ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
These new restrictions are especially concerning in light of the new
conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which has long signaled its
opposition to women's reproductive rights. Just last month, in a case
challenging abortion restrictions in Indiana, Justice Thomas authored
an opinion comparing contraceptives to eugenics and demonstrated a
clear hostility to Griswold and Roe. Between the Indiana case, the
various unconstitutional State laws, and other reproductive rights
cases on the Court's docket, many legal observers believe Roe today
remains in jeopardy.
As a U.S. Senator, I will continue fighting for equal rights for
women, and I will honor the legacy of women who blazed the trail. I am
honored to recognize those women and the progress we have made as we
commemorate the 100th anniversary of Congress passing the 19th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I thank the Senator from California for
her remarks and yield time now to the Senator from Illinois, Ms.
Duckworth.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Ms. DUCKWORTH. Madam President, I come to the floor today to honor
some of the Founders of our Nation who all too often don't get their
due--
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Founders whose gender or skin tone may not be represented on Mount
Rushmore but whose brilliance, whose resilience, helped ensure that the
democracy we have today is strong and true.
This democracy wasn't just built by George Washington or Thomas
Jefferson. It wasn't perfected in the 18th century when the ink dried
on the four original pages of the Constitution.
It was shaped by women like Abigail Adams, whom I named my first
daughter after. It was strengthened by suffragists like Sojourner
Truth, who worked tirelessly to better the country that had kept her in
chains, who used her emancipation to call for freedom and a voice for
all women--Black, White, you name it. It was formed by Illinoisans like
Ida B. Wells, who demanded that women of color have a place at the
forefront of the suffrage movement. It was forged by women like Mary
Livermore, who channeled her frustration over women's inequality into
action, spearheading Chicago's first-ever suffrage convention 150 years
ago and marking Illinois as a leader in the fight for women's rights.
Our democracy was sharpened by a group of Illinoisans who traveled to
Washington, DC, in 1913, joining thousands of other women in their
march down Pennsylvania Avenue--protesters who were vilified, berated,
jostled, tripped, and even jailed but who withstood it all to call for
a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.
This Union was made more perfect when the 19th Amendment finally
passed Congress 100 years ago today.
These women raised their voices on the picket lines so that we could
make ours heard at the polls. They risked safety and security,
withstood hypocrisy and overcame misogyny, refusing to stay silent so
that their daughters and their daughters' daughters would inherit the
democracy they deserved. For that, we are forever in their debt.
Of course, every American's right to vote wasn't truly secured that
day in 1919, nor was it secured later that week, when Illinois became
one of the first States to ratify the amendment, or in 1965, when
Lyndon B. Johnson picked up a pen and signed the Voting Rights Act into
law.
It still is not secure today--not when voter suppression tactics
still block so many people of color from the ballot, when voter roll
purges are still common and some in power are still fighting to install
modern-day poll taxes.
So we can't get complacent. What began at Seneca Falls continues with
us today, as it now falls to our generation to keep alive the work of
yesterday's suffragists, to keep pushing for bills like the Voting
Rights Advancement Act to ensure that bigoted State laws don't
disenfranchise any American. It falls on us to keep fighting for that
more perfect Union, to keep making our voices heard--whether that is
here on the Senate floor or anywhere else--so that finally, some day
soon, every American can make theirs heard at the ballot box.
I yield the floor.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I recognize the Senator from Alaska,
Ms. Murkowski.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska is recognized.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I rise today to join my colleagues as
we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the date Congress sent to the
States this question: the ratification of a constitutional amendment
granting women the right to vote.
Our ancestors have long sought the promise of a better life for
themselves and their children. Many of our forebearers came to this
country seeking religious liberty, economic security, or personal
freedom.
Since 1788, they were drawn to the promise of these words: ``We the
People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.''
Today, most in this body and across the country would agree that a
woman's full participation in the life of her community and Nation are
crucial if the promise laid out in our Constitution's preamble is ever
to be fully realized.
But in 1788 and for many years thereafter, women could not own
property, could not open a bank account on their own, or even control
the money that they earned through their own work. They could not
control their destiny or, indeed, their own bodies. Justice,
tranquility, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty were,
for women, what men said they were.
That all began to change on June 4, 1919, the date when finally,
after so many years of struggle and failure, the required number of
Senators voted aye for House Joint Resolution 1, ``proposing an
amendment to the Constitution extending the right of suffrage to
women.'' It was very simple yet intensely powerful, a resolution with
just one article that read:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
That remarkable moment, we know, did not come easily. For decades,
women across America sought the promise of our Nation for themselves
and their daughters. They were subjected to insults and ridicule and,
sometimes, even imprisonment and violence.
In 1906, an editorial in the New York Times defined the word
``suffragette'' as a ``demanding screecher'' and ``a woman who ought to
have more sense.'' Walking in parades in support of the right to vote,
women had insults and worse hurled at them. Suffragists were physically
attacked.
Beginning in June of 1917, it got much worse. Here in Washington, DC,
police began arresting women who were picketing the White House in
support of suffrage for ``obstructing sidewalk traffic.'' Throughout
the summer and into the fall, women who refused to pay the fine were
sent to the Women's Workhouse in Lorton, VA, or the district jail,
where conditions were deplorable. Rats ran free in the prison. The food
was infested with maggots. Alice Paul, a leader of the National Woman's
Party, and about 71 other women began a hunger strike while in jail and
for months suffered force-feeding of raw eggs in milk through nasal
gastric tubes. In November, 33 of the imprisoned suffragists were
beaten by guards by order of the prison superintendent. One woman's
hands were handcuffed high above her head on the prison door for an
entire night. Some were left unconscious.
Sojourner Truth, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Ida B. Wells, Mary
Church Terrell, Alice Paul, and others are widely known as suffragist
leaders. There were millions of others across the country doing what
they could in their own families, in their own communities and States,
to advance women's rights. They marched, protested, sewed flags and
banners, and spoke up at home and in their hometowns.
In the following 100 years since the Senate sent the women's right to
vote to the States for ratification, the right to vote gave women the
power to change their lives and to impact our Nation in so many
positive and profound ways. As a result, our Nation has made incredible
strides.
Today, in 2019, it may be difficult for some to imagine an America
without women leaders in every conceivable endeavor. Amazing women have
contributed to our Nation in countless ways, both large and small. We
have moved from the horse and buggy era to putting a man on the moon,
but man would not have gotten there and back without women
mathematicians and engineers.
While few colleges admitted women a century ago, by 1980 more women
than men earned bachelor's degrees. Since 1919, women are able to enter
any profession for which they are qualified, keep their own wages,
start and run corporations, lead scientific and medical advances, and
fly into space. Women have the right to be heard in
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the Halls of Congress and in their children's schools. We are allowed
to determine the guilt or innocence of an accused and volunteer as poll
workers. We can inherit property, run the Iditarod, and become mayors
and Governors. And we can not only run for office, but we can vote for
ourselves.
Women can do anything we put our minds to, but if it had not been for
the right to vote--the basic, legal right to be recognized--would we be
where we are today? Would we have women like Sandra Day O'Connor,
Condoleezza Rice, Christiane Amanpour, or Sally Ride? Would we have the
benefit of the voices of countless American women who share their views
with Congress because they know that their opinions--backed up by their
votes--matter on issues as varied as childcare, climate change, and
national security? Would the young women of today have the faith that
they really can do anything they set their minds to? Maybe not.
I rise today to call on all Americans to commemorate this day, to
remember all those who made it possible, and to honor them by
recognizing that the right to vote, to be heard, and to be valued is a
precious right. It has not always been implemented fairly, and it must
be guarded and defended.
As we look to honor the past, we must also acknowledge that, like our
ancestors, we have more progress to make. Gaining the right to vote was
the first step toward full equality. Despite the passage of the Civil
Rights Act, which makes discrimination on the basis of sex illegal, and
despite the Equal Pay Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, our
Constitution gives us the right to vote but does not protect us from
discrimination.
So in the spirit of women who fought for the rights of women who
would come after them, I hope the Senate will pass S.J. Res. 6 to
remove the deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
That will be something we will bring up at another point in time. But
today, I am able to stand with my friends and my colleagues here in the
Senate as we recognize and honor those who paved the way and have
allowed for this right to vote, that right and value to be heard.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Alaska for her
eloquent comments.
I now yield to Senator Murray.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, 150 years ago, in Washington State, a
suffragette named Mary Olney Brown went to vote, and like so many
others at the time, her vote was rejected. Why? Because she was a
woman. She said: ``The idea of a woman voting was regarded as an
absurdity.''
Fifty years later, thanks to the tireless efforts of women like Mary
Olney Brown, that longstanding injustice finally began to change when
this Chamber passed the 19th Amendment to guarantee women's right to
vote.
Today, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of that important
milestone in the march for equality, it is inspiring to see how far
women have come over the last century. When we passed the 19th
Amendment, there was only one woman in Congress--Jeannette Rankin.
Before I ran for the Senate in 1992, there were two women Senators. I
was very proud to join the Senate in 1993 and to join with Senator
Barbara Mikulski, who is here today, and we became six women in the
Senate. Today, there are 25 women serving in the Senate and 102 in the
House of Representatives. Today, women are Governors, Fortune 500 CEOs,
Nobel Prize-winning researchers, and candidates for President.
It is clear we have come a long way, but we still have more work to
do. Women may have more representation, but we still make up less than
a quarter of Congress. Women of color are still particularly
underrepresented. And we still have some ceilings left to crack. Women
are still paid less than men for the same work, and the same gap is
even wider for women of color. Women still bear most of the burden of
being a working parent, especially when so many lack access to
affordable childcare and paid family leave. Nearly 50 years after Roe
v. Wade was decided, women are still fighting to defend their right to
make their own decisions about their own bodies.
These injustices even extend to voting rights. Even after the 19th
Amendment was ratified, many women of color were still denied the right
to vote by discriminatory barriers designed to keep them from the
ballot box. Today, there are still far too many States that have put
into effect voter-suppression efforts that disproportionately hurt
communities of color, like harsh voter ID laws, limits on early voting,
polling machines, voting locations, and ``exact match'' requirements
that make it easy to purge someone from the voter rolls due to a typo.
After all the years women spent fighting for their right to vote, it
is unacceptable that these kinds of efforts would strip that right away
from anyone, which is why we need to pass legislation to restore the
Voting Rights Act to its full power to protect the rights of voters
across our country.
While there is still a lot of work ahead to make good on the promise
of the 19th Amendment and make sure that everyone in our country who is
entitled to vote is actually able to vote and that every woman is able
to exercise all of her rights under our Constitution, I am confident we
can get there, and I want to say why.
After 2016, I watched as women across the country stood up, spoke
out, and fought back. I saw as much energy as I have seen in my
lifetime as women joined together against countless different efforts
to roll back the clock on their rights. I saw millions of women turn
out to march for their rights, and then I saw millions of women turn
out to exercise those rights last November. And what happened? They
broke records and barriers across the country, and afterwards, several
States started breaking down some of the barriers that were put up to
block people from voting. I believe that momentum is going to continue
to build, especially as women continue to reach out to other women to
build a bigger and more inclusive coalition.
So today, as we celebrate the Senate vote to pass the 19th Amendment,
I want to not only remember how hard women fought to get that right to
vote but to promise that we are going to keep fighting just as hard to
protect it for everyone in this country, and then we are going to keep
using it to fight hard for the change we want to see in our
communities.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for her good remarks
today.
I am very pleased to yield time to the Senator from Tennessee, Mrs.
Blackburn.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Maine for her
leadership in today's activity as we commemorate the Senate's action in
passing the 19th Amendment and sending that to the States for
ratification.
It is amazing to think that it was 100 years ago today--today--that
women in this country still did not have the right to vote. When we
think about Nashville, TN, today, we are thinking about country music,
bachelorette parties, pro-sports; in the summer of 1920, Nashville, TN,
was the focus of individuals on both sides of the debate over women's
suffrage because that summer was the final push to get the 19th
Amendment ratified so that women would forever have the right to vote.
Suffragists from all across the country looked to Tennessee in that
last-ditch effort to pass an amendment before the 1920 Presidential
elections.
As it all came together and as everybody was coming into Nashville--
you had the red roses on one side and the yellow roses on the other
side--the battle was heating up. The Tennessee House of Representatives
had been called back into a special session so that they could debate
this issue: Would women receive the right to vote? Would Tennessee
agree to vote for ratification of the 19th Amendment?
The pro and anti suffragists flooded that city. Those who opposed
enfranchisement, wearing those red roses, went to extreme lengths to
prevent a vote. At one point, legislators actually fled the State to
prevent a quorum.
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They left the State so they would not have to say where they stood on
the issue of women having the right to vote. But let me tell you,
against those Tennessee women, against suffragists from across the
country, all wearing their yellow roses, those legislators never stood
a chance.
You have all heard of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
but let me introduce you to a few more of those fierce female fighters
from the summer of 1920. There was Anne Dallas Dudley from Nashville,
who was really quite an organizer; Abby Crawford Milton; Sue Shelton
White from West Tennessee; and, as has been mentioned, Ida B. Wells,
who was from Memphis. They are all Tennesseans who fought tirelessly on
behalf of suffrage and brought the State's house of representatives to
that fateful vote on August 18, 1920.
The Senator from Maine talked a moment earlier about a young
legislator, the youngest member of the House of Representatives in the
State of Tennessee. His name was Harry T. Burn. Harry was from Niota,
TN. He was a freshman house of representatives member. He switched his
vote from nay to yea, broke a tie, and made history. As the Senator
from Maine said, he did it because of a letter written to him by his
mother, who reminded him that he should be a good boy and help Ms.
Catt--Carrie Chapman Catt--put the ``rat'' in ``ratification.'' He did,
and so it was official: Tennessee had become the 36th and final State
needed for ratification of the 19th Amendment.
That journey from Seneca Falls, NY, to Nashville, TN, was hard-
fought. Sometimes we don't think about how long it took. It was a 72-
year journey--72 years--from the Seneca Falls Convention to that final
vote in Nashville, TN.
Think about this: The women who started this push for women's
suffrage were not alive to see it become the law of the land and become
a constitutionally guaranteed right. And the women who voted in that
1920 Presidential election, many--most of them were not even alive when
the fight began. But the women who started the fight did it because
they knew that women receiving the right to vote was a worthy fight.
Today, we owe them so much gratitude for the work they did 100 years
ago today in pushing this through the U.S. Senate.
My colleague, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, has joined me
in working to pass the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commemorative Coin
Act. We are doing that here in the Senate, and in the House, two of our
colleagues--Representative Elise Stefanik from New York and Brenda
Lawrence--have introduced a companion bill.
The legislation authorizes the Treasury to mint silver coins honoring
the work of women suffrage activists. The coins will be issued in 2020,
which also marks the centennial anniversary of the passage, the
ratification of the 19th Amendment. Proceeds from sales of the coin
will support the important work of the Smithsonian Institution's
American Women's History Initiative.
It is my hope that because of this, more young women will look to
history for guidance and feel very proud of what they learn about the
women suffragists, that the little girl who is following her mom into
the voting booth will begin to understand and appreciate why so many
women are standing in line at the polls to cast their vote, and that
women who want to change things in their community or their State or
their country will stop waiting for someone else to take the lead and
will realize they are empowered to do this because of actions that were
taken over 100 years ago.
In 1916, famed suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt stood before the
National American Woman Suffrage Association, and she declared:
The time has come to shout aloud in every city, village,
and hamlet, and in tones so clear and jubilant that they will
reverberate from every mountain peak and echo from shore to
shore: The Woman's Hour has struck.
Indeed, the woman's hour did strike and shout, these ladies did.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Tennessee for
giving us such a great history lesson, and I appreciate her remarks.
Next on our list of speakers is Senator Ernst followed by Senator
Shaheen.
I yield to Senator Ernst of Iowa.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I thank Senator Collins and Senator
Feinstein for arranging this afternoon's visit on the floor of the U.S.
Senate. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to come to the floor
today to recognize the courageous and determined women behind the
women's suffrage movement.
These trailblazing women, and countless more like them, paved the way
for women in my home State of Iowa and across the Nation to have the
right to vote. They forged a path for women like me and all of my
absolutely remarkable female colleagues joining me on the Senate floor
today.
On this 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, it is
easy to think of these courageous women as institutions and visions of
strength and perseverance, and that is absolutely what those women are.
They were also once young girls and young women seeking to understand
the answer to simple questions like: Why can't my mother vote in an
election? Why can't I pursue my dreams?
All too often, the response back then to these questions was simply
to tell women that politics and government were too complicated or
important for our gender to have a role in it. ``Best leave it to the
men to figure out these tough matters.'' That is what they would say.
I think the 127 women in Congress this year would have something very
different to say about that. To be honest, I don't know if the
suffragettes completely understood the tremendous impact their efforts
would have now a century later.
They secured more than just the right to vote. The passage of the
19th Amendment has led to immeasurable progress in the right for
women's equality on all fronts. I see their spirit in the girls and
women, young and old, I meet each and every day in my job as a U.S.
Senator.
I was recently at a women's networking event where Gen. Jennifer
Walter, the first female Iowa Air Guard general in the Iowa National
Guard, talked about her career options when she graduated high school
over four decades ago. They were very limited, to say the least. She
could be a typist or work in a clerking job in the Air Force or she
could be a nurse. Those were the options that were open to her, but
General Walter is not one to be boxed in.
She decided to forge her own path forward. That led her to the Air
National Guard, first in Kansas and then in my home State of Iowa.
There were still plenty of obstacles, but she was unwavering. Walter
was going to prove she belonged and could reach her full potential.
Even in my own life, I have benefited from the hard work and the
commitment of these women trailblazers. That is especially clear when I
look back on my 23 years of service in the Army Reserve and the Iowa
Army National Guard.
When I joined the service after college, there were no opportunities
for women in combat. By 2003, I was a company commander leading supply
convoys in combat zones in Iraq. Like me, hundreds of women were
serving the cause of freedom, and some were even paying the ultimate
price for our Nation. Yet women could not even formally serve in combat
fields or occupations until 2013.
Now I look at my daughter, Libby, as she prepares to enter her second
year at West Point, and she also considers entering combat arms. She
has so many opportunities ahead of her because of the strong women that
came before her.
It is truly an honor to be in the company of so many remarkable women
on the Senate floor today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the
passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote, and it is
all the more fitting that we do so during a time when there are more
women serving in the U.S. Senate than any other time in history.
We come from every imaginable background and from every corner of our
great and beautiful country. I will continue to challenge every one of
our
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young women today who are contemplating serving our country in
government or in the armed services to say yes and to jump into that
arena. We are a better nation because of the contributions of women in
all walks of life and in all fields of service and in both Chambers of
Congress.
Again, I offer my great thanks to Senator Susan Collins and Senator
Dianne Feinstein of California for the opportunity to speak today.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, before I yield to my friend and neighbor
from New Hampshire, I recognize, in the back of the Chamber, a truly
extraordinary woman, an outstanding former U.S. Senator who served in
this Chamber from 1987 to 2017, some 30 years, Senator Barbara Mikulski
of Maryland. She has served on the Commission that has worked very hard
to make sure we commemorate this centennial of women's suffrage, and
she has been a mentor and friend to all of us who had the pleasure of
serving with her.
I welcome Senator Mikulski back to the U.S. Senate, which was her
home for so many years and where she still has so many friends and
admirers, of whom I count myself one.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair counts himself one as well.
Ms. COLLINS. The Chair is a very wise man.
Now I yield to Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I thank my neighbor and friend, Senator
Collins, and Senator Feinstein--the two of them for organizing this
afternoon's conversation on the floor in recognition of the 100th
anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment.
I also begin by recognizing Senator Mikulski, who was such a
trailblazer for so many women. I remember being a young woman involved
in politics in the late eighties in New Hampshire right after she was
elected to the Senate, and she came up and spoke to us. At the time, I
was not sure there was ever an opportunity for a woman in New Hampshire
to go anywhere, and listening to her made me realize there were
opportunities for women everywhere, and we need to take advantage of
them, so I thank Senator Mikulski.
Today we celebrate not only the passage of the 19th Amendment but the
countless women who fought for decades before 1919 so that women would
one day realize the full rights protected under the Constitution.
As so many of my colleagues have said, we remember women like
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, who organized the first
women's rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848; Susan B. Anthony,
who took up the fight following the first convention, and Harriet
Tubman, Ida Wells, and Sojourner Truth, who worked tirelessly for
women's rights all while battling the forces of slavery and racism.
These women and so many others faced extraordinary obstacles as they
protested, marched, lobbied, and, at times, sacrificed their own
freedom so women could one day secure the right to vote.
The leaders of the women's suffrage movement understood the
fundamental truth; that the rights protected under the Constitution are
merely privileges if they are not enjoyed by everyone in our society.
As Susan B. Anthony put it in 1873, ``It was we, the people; not we,
the white male citizens; not yet we, the male citizens; but we, the
whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the
blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves
. . . . but to the whole people--women as well as men.''
The suffrage movement was, of course, an effort to achieve political
equality for women, but it was also an effort to secure a more perfect
Union by giving life to the ideals laid out in our founding documents.
This pursuit for equality continues today, and it is in the spirit of
our trailblazers that women carry on the fight for full equality under
the law.
It is in that spirit that we are here this afternoon on the floor of
the Senate to talk about the importance of carrying on the tradition of
our Founding Mothers. These figures are an important part of our
history, and because of the generations of women they inspired, their
legacy lives on today. We must remember their stories and honor their
sacrifices. Those sacrifices have helped shape the identity of our
Nation, and it is why we celebrate these women in the same regard as we
have our Founding Fathers. It is why the issue, for me, of keeping a
promise to redesign the $20 bill with the likeness of Harriet Tubman is
so important.
The United States was not shaped exclusively by men, and our living
history, which our currency is a part of, should reflect that because
the symbols that we have for our country matter.
Leaders of the women's suffrage movement rose from communities across
this country, but today I would like to recognize one of the pioneers
of that movement from my own State of New Hampshire, Armenia S. White.
Armenia spent most of her life in Concord, NH, which is our capital.
She was active in the community, including supporting the abolitionist
and temperance movements, but the cause for which she was most
passionate was securing the vote for women.
Armenia was the first signer of the call for an equal suffrage
convention in New Hampshire, which was held in Concord in 1868. She was
also the first president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage
Association, a position that she held for nearly 50 years. When the
time came for New Hampshire to send a delegate to the American Woman
Suffrage Association, organized in Cleveland, Armenia was selected and
served in that position for decades.
Armenia's efforts in New Hampshire were largely responsible for the
decisions by the State legislature in 1871 and 1878 to make women
eligible to serve on school committees. I think it is interesting that
we were eligible to serve on school committees before we were eligible
to serve in the legislature. But, nevertheless, not only did she help
women become eligible to serve on school committees, but she secured
women a vote in local school district elections.
Sadly, Armenia never lived to see women secure the right to vote with
the passage of the 19th Amendment, but her efforts to improve equality
in New Hampshire and throughout the Nation left an enduring impact on
the movement. It is an impact that, as the first woman elected to be
Governor of New Hampshire and then elected to be Senator there, I have
benefited from. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Armenia and to so
many women who came before me for forging a path so that women could
one day serve in public office and so that one day we could vote.
Alice Paul, the leader of the women's suffrage movement, once
described women's suffrage saying:
I always feel the movement is a sort of mosaic. Each of us
puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at
the end.
As we recognize and celebrate the passage of the 19th Amendment, we
must remember that there is still so much work to do, and even the
smallest stones contribute to this great mosaic.
I thank the Presiding Officer and thank again my colleagues, Senator
Collins and Senator Feinstein, for leading this effort.
We still have a lot of work to do.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New Hampshire,
and it is now my pleasure to yield time to the Senator from Nebraska,
Mrs. Fischer.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I, too, would like to thank the senior
Senator from Maine and the senior Senator from California for
organizing the colloquy we are having on the floor today in recognition
of a very historic moment.
To have Senator Collins be a leader here in the U.S. Senate has been
just a wonderful experience for me and to share with her the last 7
years that I have been here. She is truly a leader, and she is a mentor
to both men and women here in the Senate. I always tell people, if you
want to see a true legislator, you need to watch Susan Collins.
Mr. President, I rise today with great honor and pride to join my
colleagues in recognizing the 100th anniversary of
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the Senate passage of the 19th Amendment, which did pave the way for
women's constitutional right to vote in this country. Today we
celebrate this historic milestone, and we honor the suffragists, women
of courage who were pioneers and leaders.
These women who fought for their God-given right to vote in the
greatest democracy the world has ever seen must be remembered. Nearly
100 years ago, with picket signs in hand, Alice Paul led hundreds of
brave suffragists to the White House to advocate for the essential role
of women's right to vote in this Republic.
Today, almost a century later, women make up half of the electorate.
According to the Pew Research Center, more women voted than men in the
2018 elections.
As I stand today in this Chamber alongside the women of the Senate, I
am so grateful for the strength of the women who came before us. On
this historic day, I would like to reflect on some of Nebraska's strong
and very influential women who have made a difference. Susette
LaFlesche Tibbles served as a translator for Chief Standing Bear during
his famous speech when he fought for Native Americans to keep their
land. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather is renowned for her
work chronicling life on the Great Plains. And biographer, historian,
and teacher Mari Sandoz invested in the next generation of creative
writers.
I also think of women in politics from my home State of Nebraska who
inspired me to serve my community, my State, and my country. I think of
Kay Orr, Nebraska's first female Governor and the first female
Republican Governor in the United States. I think of Virginia Smith, my
congressional Representative and the first woman from Nebraska to hold
a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Let's not forget the stories of the suffragists and all of the women
throughout our Nation's history whose courage and brilliance changed
the world. It is because of them that we stand today in the hallowed
Chamber of the U.S. Senate, with a record number of women serving in
Congress and record numbers of women exercising their constitutional
right to vote. We will never forget the path that brought us here today
and the pioneers who fought for the rights of millions of women to
participate in the core function of our Republic.
I encourage my Senate colleagues to swiftly pass the resolution
before us today, and I hope in doing so that it serves as encouragement
and inspiration for future generations of women who will continue to
write America's story.
Thank you again to Senators Collins and Feinstein and to all of my
colleagues for sharing their stories, their past, and their future
vision for this country.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I want to thank the Senator from Nebraska
for her very kind comments and her eloquent remarks, and I am now
pleased to yield time to the Senator from Wisconsin, Ms. Baldwin.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
Ms. BALDWIN. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Senator Collins.
I rise today proudly wearing a yellow rose in solidarity with 24
other women who serve in the U.S. Senate to recognize what is a very
historic milestone in our Nation's history. Almost 100 years ago, after
decades and decades of struggle by brave women and men, our Nation
finally extended to women the most fundamental right of our democracy--
the right to vote. The struggle for women's suffrage was fought in
every corner of our country, and communities all over the Nation are
planning to recognize their contributions over the next year.
Today marks precisely 100 years to the day that the Senate passed the
19th Amendment. I am proud to state that a week later, on June 10,
1919, Wisconsin became the first State in our Union to ratify the 19th
Amendment. I am always proud to say that my home State was the very
first to ratify women's right to vote, narrowly beating our neighbor to
the south, the State of Illinois, because of a paperwork error. You
know, we are still first. I am especially happy that I will forever
have bragging rights over my friend from Illinois, the co-chair of the
Senate caucus, Senator Tammy Duckworth, because Illinois wasn't quite
quick enough and Wisconsin did it first.
I am also proud today to wear a purple ribbon. This ribbon is in
recognition of the women of color who fought and marched alongside
their White colleagues in the suffrage movement but whose contributions
went largely unsung and many of whom were still denied the right to
vote after the 19th Amendment was ratified.
As we observe and celebrate this historic moment, we must be careful
not to mistake progress for victory. With just 131 women currently
serving in Congress, we are well short of equal representation in
government. Government works best when legislatures reflect the people
they work for--when they look like America. That is why it is important
to increase the number of women who serve in public office. Women are
half the population. We should be half of our Nation's government, too.
When I first entered public service, I had the opportunity to sit on
the Madison City Council. I remember well a meeting when I had one of
those light bulb moments of the difference that women make when we
serve.
The city council that day was debating whether to extend service and
add an additional bus route that went directly to the Madison Area
Technical College's new campus. I remember listening to my male
colleagues and their participation in the debate. There was a lot of
focus on funding and logistics and finger pointing at which body in
government should bear this responsibility. At first, they didn't seem
to think that the city council should take action to add another bus
route.
Then I began hearing the voices of my female colleagues. They began
speaking of and describing their experience traveling to campus. They
spoke about evening classes and having to walk a long distance down a
poorly lit road to get to the nearest bus stop. They spoke about the
dangers of walking home alone at night. Most women can identify with
the fear of walking or commuting home late at night. It seemed that the
men in the debate hadn't thought about it in the same way before that
moment. The whole debate changed as soon as women's voices were heard,
and the city council ultimately voted to fund a new route that went
right to the campus door.
Women bring their life experiences to the job. It helps inform our
debate, our votes, and the policies that we deliver. My experience with
the women of the U.S. Senate, past and present, is that they ran for
office and came to Washington to solve problems. I feel like we are
guided by the idea that our job is to work together and to get things
done. That is what we do, both Democrats and Republicans, as we work
together to deliver solutions.
I worked with my colleague Senator Susan Collins to pass legislation
to better support the more than 40 million family caregivers in this
country who contribute millions of dollars each year in uncompensated
care for their loved ones. I worked with my colleague Senator Joni
Ernst to pass legislation to provide our Nation's farmers and
agricultural workers with the mental health resources they need to deal
with the extreme economic stress that our farmers have faced in recent
years. I worked with my colleague Senator Lisa Murkowski to pass
legislation that will bring more obstetricians to rural areas and
expand access to maternity care to women so they no longer have to
drive hours to get the healthcare they need or to deliver their babies.
I appreciate these partnerships and the many others that I have been
able to experience, and I look forward to continuing to work together
on a bipartisan basis to deliver results for the American people. With
more women in public office, you will see more solutions to the
challenges and problems we face. Women get stuff done.
In 2017, I was proud to lead bipartisan legislation to establish the
Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission and ensure that we give this
important anniversary the recognition and celebration it deserves. I am
thrilled to say that the Commission is now hard at work in developing,
supporting, and
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lifting up commemorative efforts across this country. It is working
with private organizations and government at every level to encourage
and help facilitate their events.
I give a particularly heartfelt thank-you to my friend and former
Senator Barbara Mikulski, who helped to get the Commission started and
is now actually serving as a Commissioner.
I look forward to seeing the great work of the Women's Suffrage
Centennial Commission as we get closer to the formal anniversary
celebration of when the 19th Amendment finally became part of our
Nation's charter.
I am grateful today for the brave women who came before us and fought
for the right of all American women to have a say in their own
government. Thanks to their struggle, their persistence, and their
determination to bring women the right to vote, I stand here today as
one of 25 women who serves in the U.S. Senate and represents the great
State of Wisconsin.
We have more work to do, but in 2018, more women ran for office and
won than ever before in our Nation's history. As a result, we have a
new Congress that is starting to look just a little bit more like the
people it aims to represent. Let's keep building on that progress, and
let's keep working together on solutions to the challenges we face
today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am now pleased to yield to the Senator
from Maryland, Mr. Cardin.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Collins for arranging for
us to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the passage of women's
suffrage here in the Senate.
I thank my colleague Senator Feinstein for working together so that
we all have a chance to reflect on the progress we made and the
commitment to make sure we continue to move forward.
It was June 4, 1919--100 years ago today--that the Senate passed the
women's suffrage constitutional amendment, but the campaign started
with the birth of our Nation. On March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams wrote a
letter to her husband, who was serving in the Continental Congress.
She wrote:
I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous
and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such an
unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. . . . If
particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we
are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold
ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or
representation.
I am sorry that our Founding Fathers did not listen to Abigail Adams.
Over 144 years later, the 19th Amendment was adopted to our
Constitution, providing for women's suffrage. It passed first in the
House of Representatives on May 21, 1919, and then in the Senate on
June 4, 1919.
The right to vote was the first step. Over the last 100 years, we
have seen tremendous progress. Legally, financially, and socially, more
women have entered the workforce than ever before. Women are filling
key leadership posts in increasing numbers, but we still have an
unfinished agenda for equality for women.
I think most people in this country would be surprised to learn that
there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States that
guarantees equal rights for women. As the late Justice Scalia said,
there is nothing in the Constitution that requires discrimination
against women, but there is nothing that protects women against
discrimination.
Senator Murkowski and I introduced S. Res. 6, which extends the date
for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1972, we passed
the Equal Rights Amendment here for ratification for the States and
extended it one time, and 10 years later, 35 States had ratified the
Equal Rights Amendment--3 short of the required 38. Nevada and Illinois
have since ratified the amendment, so it is one State short. However,
we need to pass the resolution to extend the time limit.
As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said--and this is interesting--
every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a
provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does
not. It is well past time that we passed the Equal Rights Amendment.
The 27th Amendment to the Constitution took over 200 years to ratify.
It deals with congressional pay increases.
We can pass and should pass in this Congress a fitting tribute to the
celebration of women's suffrage--the Equal Rights Amendment for women.
We need to do more for equal pay for equal work. I acknowledge the
extraordinary leadership that we had in Maryland and this Nation in
Senator Barbara Mikulski. She was a true champion in so many ways--as a
social worker, as a city councilperson, as a Member of the House of
Representatives, and as a U.S. Senator--in advancing rights for women,
particularly in the workplace. I remember, with pride, seeing her stand
next to President Obama as he signed his very first bill, the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which enforced rights for women in the
workplace. As Senator Mikulski would point out, we still have work to
do. We still have not passed equal pay for equal work in this country,
and this Congress should deal with that.
We have a wealth gap. There is no question that women do not have the
same wealth as men. In working with Senator Rubio on the committee on
which I serve as ranking member, the Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Committee, we must look at whether the tools of the
Small Business Administration's are providing help to women to develop
their own businesses. Wealth is usually accumulated through business
growth, and we need to do more to help women.
In the State of Maryland, I am proud that 39 percent of our small
businesses are owned by women, but women do not have equal access to
the tools with which to access capital. We can do better with the 7(a)
Program and with the Community Advantage Pilot Program, particularly in
making it permanent. So there are still steps we can take to help
advance equal rights and equal opportunity for women.
There is women's healthcare. The constitutional right of women to
make their own choices about their own health and well-being is again
being challenged by some of our States and here on Capitol Hill.
Whether it is abortion, preventive screening, or contraception, access
to reproductive healthcare provides women with greater economic
opportunity. Treating women as less than equal was wrong at the start
of our Nation, and it is wrong today.
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, let us do
several things. First, I urge all of our colleagues to support the
resolution that is pending, S. Res. 212, in regard to celebrating the
women's suffrage and, second, that we work for full equality for women
in our Constitution, in the workplace, in entrepreneurship, and in
healthcare.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to yield to the Senator from
Minnesota, Ms. Klobuchar.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague, Senator Capito
from West Virginia, who, in the spirit of today, has allowed me to take
her place, and she will go next.
I rise to join my colleagues to celebrate the centennial anniversary
of the 19th Amendment. I thank Senator Collins and Senator Feinstein
for taking the lead in bringing us together today.
Just think. One hundred years ago today, the Senate voted to
guarantee and protect a woman's constitutional right to vote, marking
an important milestone in our democracy. My home State of Minnesota was
the 15th State to ratify the 19th Amendment, and women like Dr. Mary
Jackman Colburn, Sarah Burger Stearns, Clara Ueland, and Sarah Tarleton
Colvin fought to make it happen.
By the way, on a historical note, when President Wilson refused at
first to support a constitutional amendment to grant women equal voting
rights, suffragists like Sarah Colvin of Minnesota chained themselves
to the fence of the White House and burned an effigy of the President.
After weeks of similar protest fires and intense pressure to support
equal rights, he announced his support of a constitutional amendment.
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We also must remember, in addition to people like Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony, the African-American
suffragists who were in the league--Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells,
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and Margaret Murray Washington.
The women's suffrage movement encountered strong opposition. It
doesn't feel like that would have happened now, but it did back then,
and those who opposed equality came up with creative reasons to keep
women from voting.
The National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage was a real
organization and published a pamphlet full of propaganda. The pamphlet
read that if women were granted the right to vote, some States would be
under ``petticoat rule.'' The pamphlet also provided a list of
household cleaning tips for women, such as not needing a ballot to
clean out your sink spout and that there is no method known by which a
mud-stained reputation may be cleaned after bitter political campaigns.
Posters were scattered across cities that depicted men at home taking
care of babies and cooking and cleaning because they had been abandoned
by their voting wives.
One hundred years later, I think we can safely say that none of the
dire warnings described in the propaganda came to pass and that the
United States of America did not perish under the ``petticoat rule.''
What did happen is, in 1920, in the first Federal election in which
women could vote, the total popular vote increased dramatically from
18.5 million to 26.8 million by 1920.
When I arrived in the Senate, there were only 16 women, led by the
dean of the women Senators, who is here with us today, Senator Barbara
Mikulski. As noted by my colleagues, we now have 25 women Senators.
That is an alltime high because, when you look at the history of the
Senate, there have been nearly 2,000 male Senators and only 56 women. I
was on the Trevor Noah show a few months ago, and he said that if a
nightclub had that kind of ratio, they would shut it down. Yet, in
fact, we are at an alltime high with 25 women Senators and with more to
come.
Someone once said that women should speak softly and carry a big
statistic. Well, I don't agree with the ``speak softly'' part, but
there is some merit to the big statistic. Maybe because it was harder
for them to get where they are, I have found women Senators to be
accountable, to say what they are going to do, and to get it done.
There was actually a study from Harvard--the University of Minnesota of
the East--that showed that it was, in fact, true.
My colleagues have mentioned the challenges ahead. We have to make
sure that more people can vote and that we don't suppress votes. We
need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. We need to make sure that we
have equal pay. There are many, many challenges ahead.
We celebrate today because we all stand on the shoulders of those
before us. In our case, we stand on the very broad shoulders of our
friend Barbara Mikulski, who once said--and I still remember this--when
we took up a woman's issue on the floor, to put on your suits, square
your shoulders, put on your lipstick, and get ready for a revolution. I
don't know what revolution she was talking about, but hers was the
voice of those before us. We all stand on their shoulders, and we are
happy to take up their torch.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I yield to the Senator from West
Virginia, Mrs. Capito.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I thank all of my colleagues,
particularly my colleague from Maine, Senator Collins, for her
leadership on this issue and many others.
It is great to be here with our former colleague Senator Mikulski,
who taught me how to be tough on the Appropriations Committee--if I
could only be that tough.
I join my colleagues today to commemorate and celebrate the
centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment. We all know the history--
at least we should--and we have talked a lot about it today. We have
heard the names in documentaries and have read about them in history
books--Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and
so many others. These suffragists, these leaders paved the way for
women to exercise their right to vote, changing history and the fabric
of our Nation in the process. I think it goes without saying that this
was no small or easy feat. In fact, it was a pretty tough fight, and it
wasn't won overnight. It took a total of 9 years for the amendment to
reach the Senate floor.
In 1887, the vote for suffrage was actually defeated--hard for us to
imagine. I think experiencing legislative defeat is something we all
have experience with in this body. But that was not the end. It
certainly took too much time, and things started to really heat up
around 1916. That year, the people of Montana made the monumental move
of electing Jeannette Rankin to the House of Representatives.
Interestingly enough, with a woman finally serving in Congress, it
didn't seem so crazy that a woman should be able to have a say when it
comes to who serves.
Eventually, the Senate passed the resolution proposing the 19th
Amendment. The date was June 4, 1919, exactly 100 years ago. I am proud
to say that both of West Virginia's Senators at the time, Senator
Howard Sutherland and Senator Davis Elkins, voted in favor of the
resolution--I would expect nothing more from tough mountaineer men--and
that language was adopted and ratified to the Constitution on August
18, 1920, marking the moment that women were given the opportunity to
have their voices heard at the ballot box.
Finally, our country was acknowledging that women had a voice and
that their voice was needed to be a part of this democracy. Don't get
me wrong--women were not instantly made political equals of men
overnight, at least not in practice. Even today, despite making up more
than half of the population, women do not make up half of the Congress,
and that is something we are working hard on every day. Over the years,
thanks to the pioneering efforts of the suffragists and others who came
before them, we have made progress, yes, and we have celebrated many
victories, from the very small to the very significant.
Just think, when I first came to Congress in 2001--I saw my colleague
from Tennessee, but I don't believe she was here then--we had to work
to just get a woman's restroom put in off the floor of the House of
Representatives. Today, I am one of 127 women who have the honor of
serving our districts and our States and our country in Congress. That
is the most women to ever serve in the Congress. And across the Nation,
there are countless future leaders. That is why I think this day is so
important.
I am very proud of the history my home State of West Virginia has
already made when it comes to having women participate in our
democracy.
In 1951, Elizabeth Kee of Bluefield took the place of her husband,
the Honorable Congressman John Kee, to be the first woman to represent
West Virginia in the U.S. Congress.
I am also proud to say we have Carol Miller--another woman--on the
other side representing our State.
Elizabeth Kee had been her husband's longtime secretary--which, by
the way, is not allowed today--and actually stood up against party
leaders who said she should retain her position as secretary for the
incoming appointee. She didn't listen to that, thank goodness.
When the 26th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1971,
changing the voting age from 21 to 18, this was done at the dogged
insistence of my predecessor, Senator Jennings Randolph. But a proud
West Virginian, Ella Mae Thompson Haddix, was the first person in the
United States of America--a young woman from West Virginia--to register
to vote as an 18-year-old.
I am very honored to be the first woman to represent my State, and
many of us are that in our States. With that honor, I feel a special
obligation to help the next generation of young leaders. I started a
program called West Virginia Girls Rise Up, and with that program, I
travel and talk to fifth grade girls, encouraging them to set goals for
themselves and then work to achieve them. We talk about what it
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means to be a leader in whatever career or field they love or are
passionate about. My hope is that eventually these girls will grow into
engaged citizens and leaders--not only women who vote but women who
aren't afraid to run for office or run a boardroom or pursue a STEM
career or anything else they might desire.
The 19th Amendment--hard fought--brought women more than just the
right to vote; in many ways, it gave us women more courage to run, to
advocate, and to lead.
I thank my colleagues for taking time today to celebrate the 19th
Amendment, to celebrate civic-minded women, courageous women, and to
celebrate that our country is stronger now and will be stronger in the
future because women are voting and leading.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. McSALLY). The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, earlier, I recognized Senator Barbara
Mikulski, an outstanding leader and former colleague and member of the
Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission. I also want to acknowledge that
there are other members of the Commission who are here with us today.
We welcome them as they observe this debate, and we thank them for
their hard work to make sure this significant occasion is recognized.
It is now my great pleasure to yield time to the Senator from
Washington, Senator Cantwell.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Maine for
helping us coordinate this very important moment today, and I, too,
want to recognize the presence of our former colleague, who is playing
such a great role in helping us commemorate next year as such a very
important time for us to recognize the important role of women's voices
in American politics.
I join my colleagues today to commemorate the 100th anniversary of
the Senate's passing of the 19th Amendment and to honor all the women
who struggled hard and long to make sure our democracy included our
voices, the voices of all women, all those women who saw the promise of
the United States and fought for their place in it. Those women helped
craft a more perfect union. For nearly a century, these women fought to
be heard, and their efforts fundamentally transformed our democracy and
our country.
I am very proud to represent a State with a long tradition of women
activists and leaders. Today, I want to recognize two influential
suffragists from my State--Emma Smith DeVoe and May Hutton. Both women
were pioneers in the struggle to get the right to vote. In an era when
women were given few opportunities, these two women refused to be held
back. They instead paved a way for women to fully engage in the
political process.
Tacoma resident Emma Smith DeVoe built the Washington Equal Suffrage
Association and led the successful campaign to enshrine women's
suffrage in Washington's State Constitution a full 10 years ahead of
the ratification of the 19th Amendment. She helped win the right to
vote for women in Idaho in 1896 and led campaigns in other States,
speaking and organizing rallies and sit-ins, and she helped found the
National Council of Women Voters to continue the nationwide suffrage
movement and educate newly enfranchised women about politics across the
country. Her efforts got her the nickname ``the Mother of Woman's
Suffrage.''
May Hutton, the other activist from our State, overcame a very
difficult childhood. She and her husband became successful
entrepreneurs and devoted much of their self-made wealth to activism.
When they moved to Spokane from Idaho in 1906, May actually lost her
right to vote in the process. She quickly set out to work to change
that injustice and win the franchise for women in every State in the
territory.
She wrote:
Women should vote because they have the intelligence to
vote. They should vote because it gives them
responsibilities, and responsibilities better fit women for
all conditions of life. Equality before the law gives women a
fair chance with men in a question of wages for the same
work.
There you go--a century ago, someone standing up for women to have
the same wage in work, and that is the work we continue here today.
She continued:
In other words, the enfranchisement of women means a square
deal for all.
May stood tall for more than just women's rights; she proposed
extending the franchise to all adults, regardless of sex, race, or
color.
Washington's territorial legislature gave women the right to vote in
1883, but it was struck down by the courts. Because of the continuous
efforts of Ms. DeVoe, Ms. Hutton, and so many others, women finally
gained the franchise in Washington in 1910--a full decade before this
right was guaranteed nationally. Emma Smith DeVoe and May Hutton paved
the way for so many women. Washington State is proud of their work, and
we are proud of their accomplishments.
As we honor them today, we must also recognize that the struggle for
equal rights is still not over. We have more to do. We know that our
country is stronger, more representative, and more successful when we
include women at every table and in every boardroom and at every ballot
box and in every discussion in our families and in our communities, but
we need to be reminded of the example of Emma and May so that other
suffragists know that we remember their work and are grateful for it
and that we are going to continue the fight to get equal access and
equal representation in all issues in the United States.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I simply want to thank my colleagues
for their participation today in bringing to the attention of the
American people that this truly is a historic occasion, a date on which
we celebrate the Senate's passage of the 19th Amendment granting women
a long-overdue right to vote. I want to thank all of my colleagues who
participated in the speeches. The history they brought from their
individual States was fascinating indeed.
It is my understanding that we will now move to pass commemorative
coin legislation introduced by the Senator from Tennessee.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
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