[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 91 (Thursday, May 14, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2442-S2443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                       UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to urge the 
Senate to immediately take action to address the issue of elections and 
specifically to address technical changes to the $400 million in 
election security funding passed in the CARES Act and to talk about the 
coronavirus threat to our democracy itself.
  Sixteen States have already postponed their Presidential primaries or 
transitioned their primaries to almost entirely voting by mail. We have 
seen Republican and Democratic Governors across the country, from 
States like West Virginia, Indiana--the Presiding Officer's State--New 
York, and Kentucky, issue waivers allowing all voters to cast their 
ballots by mail during the pandemic. This includes States that used to 
have requirements that you have to give a reason to even get a mail-in 
ballot to vote from home. Both Democratic and Republican Governors have 
waived it--not in every State but in a number of States.
  While it is important that individual States are taking action to 
protect voters during this pandemic, it is the responsibility of us, of 
Congress, to ensure that States have the funds they need to make our 
elections more resilient and to make sure voters don't have to risk 
their health to cast their ballots. We must do this because, as we have 
seen over the last several weeks, not all States are doing everything 
they can to protect voters. That is sad, but it is true.
  What is coming before us in the fall is a national election. Just 
yesterday, we learned that the attorney general of Texas has asked the 
Texas Supreme Court to stop county election officials from letting 
voters who are afraid of getting the coronavirus to vote by mail. He 
basically went to court and said that the counties that are giving out 
these ballots should stop. He tried, he tried, and he is continuing to 
try to stop them from simply sending out ballots to voters who are 
afraid to vote in person. Some of them have preexisting conditions. 
Some of them are veterans who served our country. Some of them are 
seniors.
  Basically, in this one State--by the way, there are other things 
going on in other States--the attorney general is trying to stop them 
from actually voting from home. Under Texas law, you have to have an 
excuse in order to vote by mail.
  This pandemic, as we know, has killed more than 85,000 Americans. 
Local officials in Texas have told the voters that the coronavirus--
they have looked at the law and said that it is a valid excuse to 
request a mail-in ballot. I guess it is. I would think it is. But the 
Texas attorney general disagrees and has asked the Texas Supreme Court 
to stop these local election officials from sending voters a mail-in 
ballot.
  That is a disgrace. We shouldn't be playing politics with people's 
lives. Even the most cynical Americans believe that. They know people 
play politics all the time, but they don't think you should play it 
with their lives.
  We know from what happened in Wisconsin that people who show up to 
vote during this crisis are, in fact, risking their health if 
precautions are not taken. A little over a month ago, both Democratic 
and Republican voters and Independent voters in Wisconsin stood for 
hours in the cold and the rain, wearing garbage bags and homemade 
masks, in order to cast their votes. There were just 5 polling 
locations open in Milwaukee instead of the usual 180 and 2 in Green Bay 
instead of the usual 30, and two-thirds of Wisconsin's African-American 
voters live in Milwaukee.
  There is no question that this vast reduction in polling places, 
without there being the adequate time to transition to mail-in voting, 
ended up disenfranchising voters, particularly in the case of African-
American voters. At the same time, we saw people trying to vote in 
whatever way they could. They tried to mail in their ballots even when 
it was at the last minute.
  Now health officials say that more than 67 people in Wisconsin may 
have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of that election. 
This is unacceptable. No one should have to choose between exercising 
the right to vote and protecting the health of themselves and their 
loved ones. What happened in Wisconsin will be forever etched in the 
memory of our Nation. We can't allow this to happen again.
  In the face of this, yesterday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court actually 
struck down the Governor's stay-at-home order.
  We should actually be taking steps forward now instead of backward. 
Public health experts have warned of the possibility of another, more 
serious outbreak of this virus in the fall. Congress must act now to 
give States the funding they need. We know the States are strapped--
that every single State in this country is strapped.
  Even if we were to do nothing here, we would know there are going to 
be States that are going to get humongous requests for mail-in ballots 
that they have never gotten before. We know that in the State of 
Wisconsin, Senator Johnson's State. It is traditionally a State in 
which about 6 percent of the people vote by mail. Next-door, in my home 
State of Minnesota, it is 25 percent. Yes, it is more, but we know it 
is probably going to at least double--and more--no matter what party 
you are in.
  This is why the Republican Governors are asking for money. They may 
not agree with everything in my bill, but so many of them are asking 
for funding to be able to help them send out those ballots and send out 
the postage so as to keep their polling places open, say, for 1 week, 2 
weeks, or, we think, 20 days in advance so that people could actually 
vote and not congregate in one location. That is why this is happening 
right now.
  Nearly 2 months ago, I introduced legislation, the Natural Disaster 
and Emergency Ballot Act, with Senator Wyden, along with 35 of my 
colleagues. The bill would simply ensure that every voter could cast a 
ballot by mail, that those who need it could have expanded access to 
early in-person voting, and that States could have the funding and 
resources that are necessary to safely administer elections.
  This week, the House introduced the COVID 4 bill, the fourth COVID 
relief package, the HEROES Act. It contains the election reforms found 
in my legislation as well as $3.6 billion to help States protect our 
elections from COVID-19. That is because mailing mail-in ballots all 
over the country is going to cost some change. We know that. Yet what 
is the alternative? Is it telling veterans who served on the 
battlefield in World War II, like the one I heard about yesterday, that 
they can't vote or that they have to stand in line? What is the 
alternative--telling seniors they have to stand in line? No, that is 
not a good alternative. The alternative is to make sure we expand mail-
in ballots.
  I know negotiations will occur over the coming days regarding the 
next relief package. I look forward to working with my Democratic and 
Republican colleagues.
  I see the chairman of the Committee on Rules and Administration is 
here, Senator Blunt. I look forward to working with him just as we have 
recently done on remote committee hearings, which have actually, by all 
accounts, gone pretty well in the Senate over the last few weeks.
  I am here today to push for a change that we know needs to be done, 
and that is to make some changes to make sure the first grouping of 
money we got--the $400 million of emergency funding in the first bill--
can get out to the States, because of some changes that were made to 
the original proposal that have made it hard for some of our States to 
be able to get that money out. There is a matching requirement, and we 
see it already playing out. Utah and Oklahoma have indicated they will 
only be able to access a portion of the funding they have been provided 
because they can't come up with the full matching requirement. Florida 
has not yet accessed the funds at all because it is working to see if 
its legislature can accommodate the matched funding.
  These are all things we have to work on for this forthcoming 
legislation, as well as to look at what we did in the first package. 
There are also issues with the reporting requirements in the bill, but 
the last thing we want to do is to put an undue burden on the States.
  What I really want to focus on now, at the end of my remarks, is the 
need to pass the legislation in front of us--and I know it will be 
negotiated--to make sure that we fund and help our

[[Page S2443]]

States fund our elections. Let's dispel the notion that voting at home 
is somehow a partisan issue. One of the States with the highest number 
of mail-in ballots is the State of Utah. It is not exactly a bright-
blue State. Another State that has a very high number of people voting 
from home is the State of Colorado. This is a State that tends to be a 
purple State. Then we have blue States, like Oregon and Washington. 
Then we have a State like Arizona that, again, has a high number of 
people voting by mail. On the other end are States that don't have as 
many people voting by mail, but we have a mixture of States too. New 
York is at like 5 percent right now. Then we have a number of States, 
like Alabama, that don't have a lot of people voting by mail.
  We don't think--at least I don't think--that every single person is 
going to vote by mail in the election this November. The key is to give 
them options and to be able to work with our States so that, if we do 
provide funding--and I am so hopeful that we will be able to come to 
some kind of agreement here--they can use that money to expand their 
votes by mail, because we know their citizens are going to request it, 
and also to make sure voting on election day will be safe. There are 
ways to do that by encouraging more people, if they don't want to vote 
by mail, to vote early so fewer people will be there on the same day.
  What do we see when we look at this? A recent poll shows that in some 
of the key States across the country, both Republican and Democratic 
voters--70 to 80 percent of them--want to be able to vote by mail. We 
have Governors in States like New Hampshire--Republican Governors--in 
Maryland, and in Ohio who want to vote by mail. That is the way they 
want to go. We have a secretary of state who is a Republican in the 
State of Washington who wants to vote by mail. Her entire State 
basically votes by mail right now, and they are good people who can 
talk about why this is working for them and how we can make it work but 
only if they have the funds. We are not going to be able to give them 
the funds in, say, October and then be able to make sure this has 
happened.
  In conclusion, 17 States still have Presidential primaries, and 
numerous others have primaries for other Federal offices, and, of 
course, we have the general election on November 3, which is less than 
6 months away. We cannot let more Americans experience what we have 
just seen happen in Wisconsin with the garbage bags, with the homemade 
masks, with the people getting off work at the hospitals and standing 
in line. Nobody should have to choose between one's health and one's 
right to vote.
  I am committed to securing additional funding in the upcoming relief 
package, but we have fixes that we must make to the original funding 
that we made in the first bill, in the first piece of legislation, and 
we need to get that money out to our election officials today
  For these reasons, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 
the immediate consideration of a bill at the desk to modify the 
provisions on funding for election security grants. I further ask that 
the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion 
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, there 
are many things that the Senator from Minnesota spoke to that I think 
most of us would agree with.
  This COVID crisis has created all kinds of issues that need to be 
thoroughly discussed and thoroughly debated. I think there are a number 
of us on this side of the aisle--I am just one standing up--who object 
to this unanimous consent request. The good news for the Senator from 
Minnesota is, in talking with those colleagues, they also agree there 
is a fair number of elements in this bill with which they could 
probably find agreement.
  I rise to certainly extend my hand in cooperation with the Senator 
from Minnesota. Let's work on these things together, although this is 
not a bill that comes through my committee's jurisdiction. I can say, 
in my committee, we work across the aisle. Staff does an awful lot of 
work, and we come to a conclusion. If it is not ready for a particular 
markup, we go back and get the work done. We frequently pass a piece of 
legislation by voice vote and then bring it to the floor when it has 
all been ironed out. There is no disagreement, and there is no 
objection, and we pass those bills by unanimous consent.
  I think the problem here is that this bill has never had any kind of 
committee markup or any committee work whatsoever. So I would just 
suggest that the Senator from Minnesota work with her committee and her 
committee chair. I see the committee chair is here in the Chamber. Work 
on this. Try to find those areas of agreement. Then maybe we could pass 
this and maybe potentially pass this by unanimous consent. This piece 
of legislation is not ready. It hasn't gone through that process. As a 
result, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's words in 
that he is willing to work with me on this bill.
  We know we need the immediate fixes to the first piece of 
legislation, but we also need to look forward to what we have in front 
of us. That is to make sure that we help our States to be able to 
conduct their elections in a safe way so that Democrats, Republicans, 
and Independents--anyone who wants to vote, whatever party one is in--
is able to safely vote.
  Let's remember that, while people were lining those streets to vote 
in Wisconsin, the President of the United States was able to request a 
mail-in ballot from Palm Beach, FL, and vote in the comfort of 1600 
Pennsylvania Avenue. That is an image--a split screen--that I don't 
think anyone wants to see. I think what we want to see is fairness for 
all Americans. You do that by getting them the funding ahead of time, 
by making sure we have rules in place that work for everyone, by 
acknowledging this has never been nor should it be a partisan issue, 
and by telling all Americans that we have worked this out, that we are 
getting the funding to the States, that we are working with all of 
their States, and that we have put in some fair rules so that no 
American will be denied the right to vote.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri

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