[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1908-S1909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE FOR THE PEOPLE ACT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on a completely different matter, 
we know Democrats are desperate to create a national controversy over 
voting regulations, but the facts and the truth keep getting in the 
way.
  For more than a year, we have seen a coordinated campaign to call any

[[Page S1909]]

American institution that occasionally frustrates liberal activists an 
evil relic of Jim Crow. Let me say that again. For more than a year, we 
have seen a coordinated campaign to call any American institution that 
occasionally frustrates liberal activists an evil relic of Jim Crow.
  When these talking points came into circulation last summer, their 
focus was the legislative filibuster here in the Senate, except it was 
Senate Democrats who had just used the legislative filibuster to kill 
Senator Tim Scott's police reform, body camera, and anti-lynching 
legislation.
  Two days ago, our colleague the assistant Democratic leader suggested 
he now opposes the filibuster because it was used back in the 1920s to 
block an anti-lynching bill. To be clear, our colleague from Illinois 
was a loud and proud defender of the current Senate rules as recently 
at 2018. This isn't about the 1920s. It is not about the 1920s. It is 
about Democrats wanting different sets of rules, depending on whether 
or not they happen to be in the majority.
  Our colleague didn't need to go back nine decades to find instances 
of Democrats' filibustering a Republican anti-lynching bill. He only 
needed to go back 9 months. He didn't have to go back to the 1920s but 
just go back 9 months to find an example of Democrats filibustering an 
anti-lynching bill.
  Last summer, 44 Senate Democrats locked arms and filibustered Tim 
Scott's police reform, body camera, and anti-lynching legislation 
because it was not far left enough or anti-police enough. That is the 
irony here. If any recent Senate filibusters have been reminiscent of 
the 1920s, it was when Democrats killed a Republican anti-lynching bill 
just last summer.
  Here is the truth. Our colleagues can't defend any of the details of 
their radical policies. So they want to change the subject--change the 
subject--by any means necessary.
  Look at voting regulations. The recent bill passed in the State of 
Georgia mandates more days of early voting than plenty of Democratic-
run States allow. It continues no-excuse absentee voting, which some 
blue States do not allow. There is no factual standard by which its 
overall approach is radically more restrictive than the rules in place 
in many other States, blue or red.
  The Washington Post has given the White House its worst rating, 
four--four Pinocchios--for repeated lies about Georgia and the election 
law. But the President and his staff just keep on doubling down.
  One of our colleagues who represents Georgia put his name to a public 
statement--to a public statement--with inaccurate information about the 
bill.
  In the Rules Committee, the Democratic leader shouted angry attacks 
at things the Georgia law simply doesn't do.
  Why the fake narratives? Why the falsehoods? We all know why. For 
more than 2 years, Washington Democrats have been desperate to pass a 
sweeping partisan takeover of our democracy. It is packed--packed--with 
shameless provisions that have nothing to do with ballot access.
  They want to take the bipartisan Federal Election Commission, make it 
a partisan body, and give Democrats the majority. They want to send 
taxpayers' money to political campaigns. They want to expand 
Washington's policing of Americans' speech. They want to neuter voter 
ID and mandate ballot harvesting in all 50 States. Strangely enough, 
for multiple years now, this exact same power grab has been their 
answer to every changing circumstance. When they didn't like the 
outcome of the 2016 election, Democrats said our democracy was broken 
and only this takeover could fix it. Then, in 2020, they got the result 
they liked. Suddenly, this same bill became the way to simply preserve 
a system that functioned well.

  There seems to be no situation where this attempted power grab is not 
the Democrats' answer. I think we can learn tomorrow that an asteroid 
was hurtling toward Earth, and Democrats would say our only hope was to 
pass H.R. 1.
  This isn't about responding to recent State laws. It is not about 
justice or equity. Washington Democrats want to rewrite all 50 States' 
election laws. They want to take over the Federal Election Commission. 
And they have been trying out different justifications for multiple 
years straight to get what they want.
  Any Federal law addressing the ground rules of our democracy has a 
special obligation to be sober, to be factual, and to be bipartisan. 
The Senate has done just that in the past. We have passed reasonable 
laws by huge, bipartisan margins making it easier to vote but harder to 
cheat.
  So ask yourself: Why won't Democrats today deal in truth and facts? 
Why do they keep using the same smears to distract from their policies? 
Why are they hell-bent on a bill that passed the House with purely 
partisan support but bipartisan opposition? Talk about tipping your 
hand.

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