[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1692-S1697]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           For the People Act

  Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, today I am proud to join a number of my 
colleagues to highlight the importance of S. 1, the For the People Act.
  The ballot box is the pulsating heart of our government of, by, and 
for the people.
  President Lyndon B. Johnson said:

       The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by 
     man for breaking down injustice.

  Think about that--``the most powerful instrument ever devised for 
breaking down injustice.''
  It is Robert Kennedy who observed that ``each citizen's right to vote 
is fundamental to all the other rights of citizenship.''
  You know, the opportunity to cast a ballot is not just an 
opportunity. It is not simply a responsibility. But it is a right--the 
right--the right that embodies all it means to a republic in which the 
power flows from the people.
  Our Nation, however imperfect in the beginning, has worked toward 
this vision of citizens through the ballot box, driving the vision of 
our Nation, for over 200 years, overcoming barrier after barrier. We 
overcame some of the barriers of race with the 14th and 15th 
Amendments. We overcame the barriers of gender with the 19th Amendment. 
We overcame barriers that had denied Native Americans the right to vote 
with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. We overcame the barriers of 
Jim Crow with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But now, as we stand in 
this Chamber, the central right of each citizen's opportunity to 
participate in the election through the ballot box is again under 
attack.
  Right now as we speak, there are 253 bills in 43 States assaulting 
the right to vote. These efforts are designed to make it harder for 
students to vote, for low-income Americans to vote, for Native 
Americans to vote, for seniors to vote, and most insidiously, for Black 
and Brown Americans to vote. And I say ``most insidiously'' because 
blocking access to the ballot has been a massive form of systemic 
racism throughout our history for Black Americans.
  But all of us in this Chamber have taken an oath to the Constitution. 
All of us have a responsibility to defend the ballot box. It is our 
responsibility to knock down the barriers that others would put up to 
prevent citizens from having the opportunity to participate in our 
elections. That is exactly what S. 1, For the People, does in the face 
of the greatest attack on voting rights in this Nation since Jim Crow.
  This legislation puts the power back where it belongs--in the hands 
of the people.
  This bill said that if you believe in the vision of our democratic 
Republic, then you believe in voter empowerment, not voter 
intimidation, not voter obstruction, not voter suppression.
  This bill says that the people should choose their politicians, not 
the other way around. Gerrymandering attacks the very notion of equal 
representation that is so important in the social contract of the 
citizens with their government. So this bill says we will have an 
independent commission in each State to draw the boundaries of the 
districts so that we put an end to partisan gerrymandering.
  This bill says that government of, by, and for the people means you 
can't have a stadium sound system turned up to full volume, drowning 
out the voice of the people. And what is that stadium sound system? It 
is the dark money, hundreds of millions of dollars of unidentified 
funds racing and coursing through our elections across this country, 
doing attack ads, with citizens having no idea where that funding is 
coming from. That is simply wrong.
  This bill says that public servants should work in the public 
interest, not to line their own pockets, not to serve simply the 
wealthy or the powerful or the privileged.
  These points are straightforward. We have been fighting to improve 
and guarantee the vision of government of, by, and for th people over 
our entire history. Now, to protect our system of voting, the 
foundation of our Republic, we have to get this bill over the finish 
line. We have an extraordinary team working to make that happen, 
Senators with sturdy, clear ideals and excellent ideas and grit and 
determination coming together to save our Republic: Senator Klobuchar, 
who will be speaking next--author of several of the key provisions of 
this bill, including bipartisan provisions--who tomorrow will be 
chairing the first-ever Senate hearing on this landmark legislation; 
Senator Padilla, who knows exactly what it is like to be a secretary of 
state and has been an amazing champion for voter empowerment in his 
home State; Senator Van Hollen, who led the EMPOWER Act and the 
Restoring Integrity to America's Elections Act; Senator Whitehouse, who 
authored the DISCLOSE Act portion of the bill and is a tremendous 
leader on campaign finance reform.

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  Today, our Nation is at a crossroads. Are we going to be a nation for 
``we the people,'' or are we going to be a nation for ``we the 
powerful''?
  We must pass the For the People Act to save our democracy. As our 
leader said last week, ``Failure is not an option.'' So let's get it 
done, and let's ensure, as Abraham Lincoln declared, that ``government 
of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the 
earth.''
  I yield to Senator Klobuchar.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor today to join my 
colleague, Senator Merkley, and so many others in speaking in support 
of the critical democracy reforms in the For the People Act--
legislation that I am honored to lead with Senator Merkley and Majority 
Leader Schumer, Representative Sarbanes, in the House, which passed 
this bill very recently through their entire Chamber.
  This bill will, in short, make it easier to vote, not harder to vote, 
as, sadly, some of our colleagues have proposed over the years. But it 
will make it easier to vote, end the dominance of big money in politics 
and ensure that public officials work for the public interest. And it 
includes provisions, as Senator Merkley noted, from 15 bills that I 
lead to strengthen our democracy.
  I appreciate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have 
contributed to the ideas in this bill. It represents the combined work 
of so many people in this Chamber who are dedicated to improving our 
democracy.
  Nine bipartisan bills are part of the For the People Act--bills like 
the Honest Ads Act, which I originally introduced with Senator McCain, 
of the great State of Arizona, the Presiding Officer's home State, and 
now lead with Senator Graham and Senator Warner.
  What does that bill do? Well, it improves disclosure requirements for 
online ads, disclosure requirements that aren't in law. It is not 
right. And that is why this is just one of the many provisions with 
bipartisan support, the election security reforms that so many of us 
worked on, including Senator Lankford and Senator Burr. Those are in 
this bill.
  These are reforms that have broad support among the American people. 
According to a Pew Research Center poll, 65 percent of respondents said 
the option to vote early, in this bill, or absentee, in this bill, 
should be available to any voter. And a poll from the Campaign Legal 
Center found that 83 percent of likely voters support public disclosure 
of contributions to organizations involved in elections. Of course, 
they do. People want to know who is paying for these ads they see on 
TV. They want to know where the money is from, and then they can follow 
the money.

  Many of the provisions in the bill have already been adopted across 
the country in red, blue, and purple States. And Republican and 
Democratic election officials and Governors have supported them.
  As the chair of the Senate Rules Committee, the committee with 
jurisdiction over Federal elections and campaign finance law and the 
committee to which this bill has been referred, I believe we must get 
this done. Tomorrow, as noted by Senator Merkley, we will be holding a 
hearing on the bill. I am pleased that every single Democratic Member 
of this committee is a cosponsor of the bill. I intend to move quickly 
to a markup to send the bill to the Senate floor for a vote.
  The For the People Act is critically important. It is important 
because it would improve our democracy by protecting voting rights, 
getting dark money out of our elections, and putting in place anti-
corruption reforms. It is important because every one of the things 
that we want to get done, from rebuilding our economy to fixing our 
immigration system, to investing in infrastructure, to tackling the 
climate crisis, to reforming our criminal justice system, they all 
depend on a democracy that works for the people.
  Last November, in the middle of an unprecedented pandemic, nearly 160 
million Americans voted, more people than ever before in the history of 
America. Think about that--in the middle of a pandemic. And we know we 
saw the pictures on TV. We saw the people at the very beginning before 
we knew what safety protocols should be in place, when things were 
getting messed around--those people in Wisconsin in garbage bags, in 
garbage bags in the rain, standing in line to vote.
  Why did so many people vote in the middle of a pandemic, both sides 
of the aisle--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--why did they vote? 
Well, they were interested in the election; we know that. But it was 
more than that. In part, they voted because they had more access to 
voting because of the changes that were made in the States. Vote-by-
mail was available and easier for so many more people to do than ever 
before.
  We think about those people who suddenly had new means to vote in 
States where they suddenly didn't have to get a notary public or two 
signatures or this or that just to exercise their right to vote. They 
voted, and they voted in droves.
  Even though the overwhelming majority of Americans have made it clear 
they want to see policies that continue to make it easier to vote, 
sadly, there are those on the other side of the aisle who have been 
doubling down to find ways to make it harder to vote. As Senator 
Merkley noted, over 250 bills were introduced in States across the 
country, including my home State of Minnesota, that had the highest 
voter turnout once again in the country. People are trying to make it 
harder to vote, including in Arizona where they had such a record 
turnout, including in Georgia. Why? As Senator Warnock said so 
beautifully and succinctly in his maiden Senate floor speech just last 
week: ``Some people don't want some people to vote.'' Well, that is not 
how this country was founded. That is not what our Constitution says.
  We cannot just sit back and let our democracy be undermined. As I 
said from the inaugural stage on that beautiful blue-sky day at the 
very place where you could still see the spray paint at the bottom of 
the columns and makeshift windows that we had in place after the 
January 6 attack:

       This is the day our democracy picks itself up, brushes off 
     the dust, and does what America always does: goes forward as 
     a nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for 
     all.

  For decades, there have been those who have been trying to chip away 
at the fundamental right to vote. We can't just keep taking it. We have 
to ensure that right to vote.
  What is this about? One, making it easier to vote. That is exactly 
what For the People does. It includes provisions that I have championed 
and so many others have, like automatic voting registration, ending 
purges of voting rolls, ending redistricting commissions, requiring all 
States to allow same-day voting registration, and voting by mail.
  These are commonsense policies that were already in place in many 
States in the 2020 general election. Forty-five States didn't require 
an excuse to vote by mail. This will ensure that in every State, you 
don't need to make an excuse. Twenty-one States have same-day 
registration, including States like Idaho, Wyoming, and Iowa. Forty-
three States have early voting. Just last month, Kentucky's Republican 
secretary of state praised a State bill that would make early in-person 
voting permanent.
  Certainly, we need to ban purges of voting rolls. As my friend Stacey 
Abrams said: If you don't go to a meeting every year, you don't lose 
your right to assemble under the Constitution. If you don't go to 
church or synagogue or mosque or temple, you don't lose your right to 
worship. So if you haven't voted for a few elections and you decide you 
want to vote because you care about a candidate or an issue, you should 
not lose your right to vote. But in too many places, that is not the 
case.
  Twenty States already have automatic voter registration laws, 
including West Virginia, Alaska, and Georgia. This bill simply says 
they all should.
  The second major reform we need is to get the big money out of 
politics. The For the People Act helps bring transparency to campaign 
spending so that voters are informed about who is funding candidates 
and who is paying for the ads.
  It also tightens regulations on super PACs and restructures the 
Federal Election Commission to make it more

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effective and less prone to partisan gridlock.
  The third major reform in the For the People Act is restoring trust 
in ou government. Democracy isn't just about what happens on election 
day; it is also about making sure that our elected officials are 
accountable once they take office.

  The For the People Act ensures that Members of Congress and other 
Federal officials are truly working for the people. It expands conflict 
of interest laws, prohibits Members of Congress from serving on the 
boards of for-profit entities, and codifies ethics rules for the 
executive branch.
  Most importantly, why does the highest Court in the land not have any 
ethic rules for the Supreme Court when every other Federal court in the 
Nation does? This bill answers that question.
  Three simple ideas: Making voting easier, getting big money out of 
politics, and strengthening ethics rules.
  The year 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 
19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, and a century 
after that ratification, we elected our first African American, first 
Asian American, and first woman Vice President in Vice President Kamala 
Harris. As we celebrate these firsts, we are reminded that throughout 
our country's history, the right to vote has been hard-fought and hard-
won.
  As Congressman John Lewis, whom we sadly lost, once said:

       Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most 
     powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect 
     union.

  When we reflect on the sacrifices and strides that have been made for 
the right to vote, one thing is very clear: The fight isn't over. The 
best way we can honor the countless Americans who have risked and, in 
some cases, given their lives--given their lives to protect our 
freedoms overseas, given their lives to protect our democracy here at 
home--the best way is to make sure that democracy continues unfettered 
and that everyone has the right to vote because we know, as Senator 
Warnock reminded us, that there are some people who are trying to make 
it hard for some people to vote. That is not how America works.
  The For the People Act is all about making sure America works for 
everyone.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  I see we are joined by two Senators who are going to be speaking, 
Senator Padilla--three Senators--from California, as well as Senator 
Whitehouse from Rhode Island and Senator Van Hollen from Maryland.
  Thank you.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise to speak today on the For the 
People Act.
  But before I do, I want to take a moment to honor the lives of those 
tragically lost in Colorado yesterday by yet another senseless mass 
shooting in our country. My heart breaks for their families, but the 
sobering and harsh reality is that in many parts of the United States, 
it is easier to buy a gun than it is to cast a ballot. In 25 States, 
voters must be registered and have specific forms of identification in 
order to cast a ballot, but those same States allow people to buy 
rifles without permits and require no bond checks for some sales. Think 
about that. It seems to me that we have our priorities entirely 
backward when it comes to making it easier to buy a weapon than we do 
to cast a ballot.
  As we work to rebuild our economy for all people, we must acknowledge 
that to build an inclusive economy, we need an inclusive democracy. 
Just as the pandemic has put a spotlight on the inequities in our 
economy and our healthcare systems, so, too, has the pandemic put a 
spotlight on the inequities in access to the ballot. The 2020 election, 
held in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated once again 
that we have made it easier for some citizens to vote than others. This 
is not an accident.
  Depending on where a voter lives, they may or may not have the 
ability to register to vote online; they may or may not be able to 
participate in same-day registration; they may or may not be able to 
vote early or vote by mail. All this varies State by State. This 
patchwork has a direct and dramatic effect on whose voices are heard in 
our democracy, and, too often, it is working-class communities, 
communities of color, young people whose voices are silenced.
  For voters whose work schedule does not allow them to wait in line to 
vote, the denial of vote-by-mail or early voting denies the opportunity 
to vote altogether.
  For voters who do not have that specified form of State 
identification, even though they are American citizens of voting age 
and otherwise eligible to vote, lack of an ID can mean that they will 
not be given a ballot, even if they can verify their identity some 
other way.
  For voters who want to vote by mail and may have access to some form 
of vote-by-mail, unreasonable ballot receipt deadlines, a scarcity of 
ballot return locations, and/or slow or unreliable Postal Service 
delivery can mean that their ballots won't be counted.
  For young voters and for those who move frequently, antiquated 
registration systems and unreasonably early registration deadlines can 
leave them unable to register to vote or to update their registration 
record in time to exercise their fundamental right to vote.
  All of these voting restrictions have a disproportionate impact on 
communities of color. Just like the poll taxes and literacy tests of 
the Jim Crow era, the truth is plain for all to see: Voter suppression 
laws are rooted in White supremacy.
  The For the People Act presents an opportunity for us to establish a 
baseline of voting rights and ballot access for all voters. I know that 
the For the People Act will improve voting rights in America because, 
as California's secretary of state, I helped adopt and implement these 
best practices. These include automatic and same-day voter 
registration; online voter registration; expanded access to vote-by-
mail; extended early voting periods--in-person early voting periods; 
and widespread, convenient access to secure, official ballot drop-off 
locations. Together, these policies help to ensure equitable access to 
the ballot and, in so doing, strengthen our democracy.

  While California has led the way in making our elections more 
accessible to all voters, the policies we have implemented are not 
unique to our State. States like Maine and Alaska have also adopted 
automatic voter registration policies. States like Utah, Iowa, Idaho, 
and Wyoming also permit same-day voter registration. States like 
Florida and Ohio allow no-excuse vote-by-mail and provide voters with 
early voting options as well.
  The election reforms within the For the People Act are not partisan. 
These reforms are not Democrat or Republican. They are common sense and 
are proven to work. All voters deserve equal voting rights and equal 
access to the ballot.
  Colleagues, we are a stronger democracy and a better nation when we 
hear all voices from all corners of our Nation and when those voices 
are not just heard but counted. By passing the For the People Act, we 
can ensure that more voices are heard and more voices are, indeed, 
counted.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, first, I thank my colleagues who have 
gathered here on the floor to help pass and urge the passage of this 
very important piece of legislation, the For the People Act.
  Our Constitution begins with three words that ring in the minds of 
each and every American, ``We the People.''
  Seventy-six years after those words were written, President Lincoln 
resolved, in 1863, that those who had lost their lives on the 
battlefield at Gettysburg ``shall not have died in vain and that the 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not 
perish from the Earth.''
  One hundred two years after Gettysburg, our beloved former colleague, 
Congressman John Lewis--then a civil rights activist and leader--
together with nonviolent marchers, was beaten bloody by Alabama State 
Troopers in 1965 as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge while 
demanding voting rights. Later that year in 1965, Congress acted and 
did pass the Voting Rights Act, and it was reauthorized regularly 
thereafter, most recently in 2006 by a vote of 90 to 0 here in the U.S. 
Senate

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and 390 to 33 in the House, where I served at that time.
  Then, in 2013, in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme 
Court, in a notorious 5-to-4 decision, stripped away a key enforcement 
provision from the Voting Rights Act: the requirement that the 
Department of Justice approve changes to voting rights laws in States 
that had histories of discriminating against African-American voters 
and others in their past laws.
  Almost immediately, like within 24 hours, you saw States that had 
been covered by that act begin to move to erect barriers to the ballot 
box, making it more difficult for people of color to vote. Indeed, in 
the case of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP v. 
McCrory, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said that the 
voting provisions passed by the North Carolina legislature, in the 
aftermath of the rollback of the Voting Rights Act, were designed to 
``target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.''
  Now we come to 2021. On January 6, we witnessed a violent mob, 
incited by the former President of the United States, attack this 
Capitol in order to overturn the results of a democratic election. The 
mob came because of the big lie--the big lie told by Donald Trump and 
fueled by some of his allies here on Capitol Hill--that he had been 
cheated out of an election victory. It is a pernicious and insidious 
lie that has caused Republican State legislatures across the country to 
try to build up barriers to voting: limiting vote-by-mail, reducing the 
number of days for early voting, even making it illegal in Georgia for 
anyone to provide water to someone who is waiting in line to vote--a 
real provision that has already passed the Georgia House and that is on 
its way to the Senate. These are all measures designed to make it 
harder for American citizens to exercise their right to vote.
  We needed the For the People Act before January 6, but we need it 
more than ever now to establish some minimum national standards to 
ensure that every American's right to vote is secure.
  In addition to the barriers being erected around the country to 
voting, our democracy faces another real and present danger: the flood 
of cash from Big Money and special interests--invading the airwaves and 
invading the internet--that seeks to drown out the voices of everyday 
Americans.
  In 2010, in another notorious 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision, Citizens 
United, the Court opened the floodgates to unlimited amounts of 
corporate special interest money flowing into our elections. Over $14 
billion was spent in the 2020 election cycle, much of it secret. In 
fact, one of the consequences of that decision, coupled with already 
existing laws, was that more money flowed secretly into our elections--
the dark money, the dark money trying to hijack our democracy for the 
highest bidder.
  As my colleagues have said, the American people have a right to know 
who is spending all of this money to try to influence their votes. That 
is why, back in 2010, I authored and the House passed the DISCLOSE 
Act--to require that the information be available to voters and the 
American people. In fact, had that House bill become law, we wouldn't 
have secret money today. While it was overwhelmingly popular in the 
country and supported by an overwhelming majority of Senators at the 
time, because of fate and a quirk of history in the death of Ted 
Kennedy, the Senate was not able to secure the 60 votes necessary to 
overcome a filibuster. Ted Kennedy passed away, and his replacement was 
a Republican. This Senate voted with 59 votes--a big majority--to pass 
the DISCLOSE Act, but because of the filibuster rule, it couldn't get 
over that hurdle.
  The DISCLOSE Act is part of S. 1. Senator Whitehouse and all of the 
Senators here have been part of that effort. It is part of S. 1.
  We cannot afford to repeat the history of 2010. We cannot allow a 
minority of Senators who represent a minority of the public in this 
country and the people of this country to stop the For the People Act. 
We have a duty to every patriotic American who has worked hard--and the 
many who have spilled blood--for the right to vote. We have a duty to 
pass the For the People Act.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I pick up where Senator Van Hollen 
left off because, when he was fighting for the DISCLOSE Act in the 
House, I was the manager of that bill on the floor here in the Senate.
  It would do something very simple. If you are spending more than 
$10,000 in an election, we ought to know who you are. That is pretty 
easy. It is not going to rope in lots of small donors. It will get the 
big interests who are out there trying to control our democracy and 
hide who they are while they are doing it.
  As Senator Van Hollen said, this started with Citizens United--a 
wretched decision that unleashed unlimited money into our politics, but 
it said that the unlimited money was going to be transparent. That was 
its predicate: It is going to be transparent. You won't have corruption 
because everybody will be able to see. The ad will say: We are 
ExxonMobil, and we paid for this message.
  Well, of course, the dark money forces, in having achieved that 
victory at the Supreme Court, went right out and violated that 
predicate--right out. They have built an entire architecture of 
deception around their campaign finances since then. It is the 501(c) 
corporations that don't have to report their donors. It is the donor-
advised trusts that are money identity laundering devices for big 
donors. It is even as simple as phoney-baloney shell corporations. 
Sometimes they are stacked up, and the money goes to the phoney-baloney 
shell corporation. The shell corporation launders it through 
DonorsTrust, and DonorsTrust gives it to the 501(c), and it dumps it 
into the super PAC. They all know it is going on. This is orchestrated 
stuff.
  So we have a real battle on our hands. We passed the billion-dollar-
in-dark-money threshold a long time ago. When people are spending $1 
billion in dark money to influence what goes on in this country, you 
can bet they are winning. You can bet they are winning. They wouldn't 
keep spending money by the billions if they were not winning. So we 
have to put a stop to this.
  The American people are with us. The polling is unbelievable. It is 
in the nineties. Whether you are a Bernie Bro or a tea partier, you 
hate the idea that there is big dark money in politics calling the tune 
for Congress to dance to, but that is the fact. Look at the outcomes.
  Look at climate change. There is no dispute about the science. We all 
know what needs to be done, but one big special interest, the fossil 
fuel industry, has shut down one political party. My strong bet is, if 
you looked at all of the dark money funding the Republican Party in 
Congress, you would find that it is 80 percent the fossil fuel 
industry. They have become the political wing of the fossil fuel 
industry, and they specialize in fake climate denial for that reason, 
and it is going to cost us. The lost decade on climate is going to cost 
us.
  So dark money is not just a plague to the integrity of American 
democracy; it is a plague that harms our ability to deal with the other 
problems that are coming our way--wherever there is a big special 
interest that can play the game of hiding the money and moving it 
around.
  Let me say one last thing.
  Dark money? Not really. It is not dark to the candidate who is the 
beneficiary. When a big dark money donor sets up a shell corporation 
and gives it a couple of million dollars and then has that shell 
corporation launder the money through DonorsTrust and then has that 
money go into a super PAC to be spent for a particular candidate or 
against his opponent, do you think they don't find a way to let the 
candidate know what they did and why? The only people who are not in on 
the joke are the American people, and we have got to put an end to 
this.
  Democracy behind masks isn't democracy at all. Let's get rid of this 
stuff. The American public will be with us. It will provide health and 
hygiene to our democracy again, and we will start to see results for 
the American people in a way that the dark money has prevented.
  I thank Senator Merkley for leading us in this enterprise. This is a 
public service. This is why we came here. This

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is the democracy that needs defending, and, by God, we are going to 
defend it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am happy to join in this block of time 
in which Members are coming forward to talk about the For the People 
Act.
  I thank Senator Merkley for being our leader and inspiration in many 
aspects of this and Chair Amy Klobuchar from the Rules Committee, who 
will have the honor of bringing this matter before our committee for 
debate and discussion.
  Tomorrow is going to mark 11 weeks since we sat in this Chamber late 
into the night and debated the certification of the electoral college 
vote of the November 3 election. It was an experience none of us will 
ever forget.
  Hours before we were told to rush out of this Chamber as quickly as 
possible because the insurrectionist mob was just a few feet away, we 
had been told they were going to keep this place safe for us. We were 
to sit at our chairs and gather our staffs along the walls. You will be 
safe. You will be just fine. Ten minutes later, they said: Run as fast 
as you can. It was an experience that none of us ever expected in the 
U.S. Capitol Building and one we will certainly never forget.
  We had been rushed out of the Chamber as this mob attacked the 
Capitol in an effort to stop us from fulfilling our constitutional duty 
in recognizing Joe Biden as the President of the United States. If that 
were in a novel 20 years ago, I would have said: It is preposterous. It 
will never happen in America.
  But I saw it. I lived it. Many of us did.
  This mob had been fueled by weeks of lies, disinformation, and 
baseless allegations of fraudulent votes and a stolen election.
  I couldn't get over that, yesterday, a lawyer named Sidney Powell, 
who was the big defender of the big lie, said: Do you mean people 
actually believed me? How could they possibly believe me?
  Well, that is how far it has come. The preposterous statements being 
made by the pro-Trump forces about stealing the election now are so 
laughable that people are trying to escape legal liability by saying: 
Surely, you didn't take that seriously.
  Well, an awful lot of people did across America, and many of them 
marched on this Capitol.
  Despite this horrific attack on the Capitol and our democracy, some 
of our colleagues, to amplify these wild claims, they continue to 
object to the electoral vote count and claim that Congress needed to do 
more to assure voters that the 2020 election was legitimate.
  A few of those colleagues even proposed a sham Commission to audit 
the election. They were relying on an 1876 precedent that was 
responsible for the end of Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim 
Crow era, a precedent that established rank discrimination against 
African Americans for decades and invited brutal voter suppression 
efforts that sadly, amazingly, we are still fighting today.
  Here is the reality: If those colleagues were serious about 
protecting democracy, they would be standing on the floor with us right 
now. They would have stayed in their seats when the electoral college 
vote was certified. They wouldn't have spent weeks challenging and 
questioning the legitimate results of an election that their chosen 
candidate actually lost, and they would be on the floor with us, as I 
said, in support of the For the People Act.
  Anyone who truly believes that we need to strengthen the integrity of 
our elections and democratic process should be cosponsoring this bill.
  The For the People Act ensures that all eligible Americans can cast a 
ballot without burdensome barriers that suppress the vote.
  In 1890, there was established something called the Mississippi Plan. 
The Mississippi Plan was State legislation carefully crafted to make 
certain that African Americans didn't have the right to vote.
  Other States looked at it carefully and said: This is the answer. 
Literacy tests, poll taxes, every obstacle they could dream of became 
part of the Mississippi Plan, with the express purpose of 
disenfranchising African Americans recently emancipated.
  That plan, unfortunately, lived out its days for decades and 
performed as expected, suppressing the vote. Again, we face this kind 
of challenge.
  The bill that we are talking about here invests in election 
infrastructure and provides State and local officials with the 
resources they need for safe and secure elections.
  The bill reforms a broken campaign finance system that elevates the 
voices of wealthy donors today and special interests, and it 
strengthens and enhances ethics and transparency requirements.
  I am proud to be here today because this bill also includes the Fair 
Elections Now Act. I have introduced this every year since 2007. And 
occasionally, just occasionally, I would get a Republican cosponsor.
  The idea behind it is simple: public financing of campaigns, a 
voluntary, small-donor public financing system for Senate candidates 
who agree to raise small-dollar contributions, not big money.
  The fair elections public financing system would elevate the views 
and interests of a diverse spectrum of Americans rather than just the 
wealthy.
  I am lucky to have a House sponsor,   John Sarbanes. His father and I 
served in the Senate together, and he really has done a remarkable job 
promoting the bill in the House.
  We would pay for these campaigns, public financing, without spending 
a dime of taxpayers' dollars. It would be financed with assessments on 
wealthy bad actors and industry lawbreakers.
  Voluntary, small-donor public financing of congressional campaigns 
would mean more candidates with more ideas and a Congress that works 
for more than just the top 1 percent in America.
  I thank Senator Merkley for, once again, including this act in the 
bill, and, again, I thank Congressman Sarbanes for his leadership in 
the House.
  The Fair Elections Now Act is just one of the many critical reforms 
in this bill that will empower voters and combat corruption.
  After months of the former President and his allies undermining faith 
in our electoral system with their unjustified claims, we must take 
immediate, concrete steps to repair our battered democracy.
  I urge all my colleagues to join in this mission and support the For 
the People Act.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues who have come to 
the floor to speak so powerfully to the essential task of defending the 
ballot box, of stripping dark money out of our elections, of honoring 
the vision of equal representation by ending the practice of 
gerrymandering across this country.
  Senator Klobuchar, who chairs the Rules Committee and who will host 
and direct the committee hearing, the first ever for S. 1, For the 
People Act, made a powerful representation of how vote-by-mail gives 
every citizen a full opportunity to participate in elections without 
the manipulations that can occur on election day, when different people 
who do not want you to have access to a ballot can put all kinds of 
hurdles and obstacles in your way.
  Senator Van Hollen, who authored the DISCLOSE Act in the House, 
reminded us of John Lewis and his fellow protestors being beaten bloody 
on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to secure the right to vote, as so many 
other Americans have fought for the right to vote since our founding.
  Senator Padilla, who implemented so many reforms in California as 
Secretary of State, gave us a sense that this can be done anywhere in 
the country in time for next year's elections.
  Senator Whitehouse, who has championed the DISCLOSE Act in the 
Senate, noted that there is a scheme of 501(c)(3) corporations and 
donor advice trusts and phony-baloney shell corporations, as he put it, 
all working to corrupt our campaigns and that the amount of money that 
has been used to secure power to the powerful by manipulating the 
elections now exceeds $1 billion.
  And Senator Durbin, who has championed year after year after year the 
Fair Elections Now Act, presenting a powerful remedy for the role of 
Big Money donations in our campaigns through public financing--public 
financing, not with government funds

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but with funds that come from corporate malfeasance.
  So I appreciate so much these colleagues who have been all involved 
in so many different ways in this battle to save our Republic.
  There is always a powerful force seeking to manipulate the election 
process to their favor, and it is one of many tools that that powerful 
group brings to bear. There are the dozens of lawyers who work night 
and day, being paid hundreds of dollars an hour, to secure power for 
the powerful. There are the public media campaigns that take tens of 
millions of dollars to frame issues to try to persuade Americans of 
their particular viewpoint or to drive a wedge between different groups 
of Americans. There is that dark money. There are those efforts in 
State legislatures to block the vote.
  I want to just close by reminding us all that the Constitution 
clearly states that elections for Senators and House Members, this 
body--Congress--has the ability to pass laws to make sure those 
elections are fair across this country because every American of any 
State has a clear stake in the legitimacy of the elections in other 
States because it is the collective voice here that makes decisions. So 
this is not only a responsibility provided to us, it is a 
responsibility that we must fulfill to defend the ballot box, to end 
gerrymandering violating equal representation, and clear that dark 
money, polluting and corrupting our campaigns, out of the system 
forevermore.
  Let's get this essential bill, this essential defense of the 
pulsating heart of our democracy, the ballot box--let's get this bill 
passed.
  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.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.