[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4661-S4662]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           For the People Act

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Act 77 was passed in 2019 by the 
Pennsylvania State legislature when Republicans held the majority in 
both houses. Among other voting reforms, the bill provided for no-
excuse absentee voting and extended registration deadlines.
  At the time, Republicans in the State legislature were operating 
under the assumption that mail-in voting would boost participation 
among seniors, who tend to lean Republican. Every single Republican 
State senator voted for the bill. In the State house, 105 Pennsylvania 
Republicans voted for the bill and 2 voted no. That was 2019.
  Fast forward to 1 year later. Donald Trump, fresh off a resounding 
loss from the 2020 Presidential election, cried foul and lied--lied--
that the election was stolen from him, like a petulant child. One of 
his favorite bugaboos, as we all know, was mail-in voting.

  So a little over a year after 132 Pennsylvania Republicans voted for 
Act 77 with only two against, they introduced a bill to, you guessed 
it, repeal Act 77, a law that Republicans passed while they were in the 
majority just a year before.
  There is a rot--a rot--at the center of the modern Republican Party. 
Donald Trump's Big Lie has spread like a cancer and threatens to 
envelope one of America's major political parties. Even worse, it has 
poisoned our democracy and eroded faith in our elections, which is so 
detrimental to the future faith people need to have in this democracy. 
And, of course, it became the match that lit a wildfire of Republican 
voter suppression laws sweeping across the country. Because of one 
man's lie, Republicans are now doing the dastardly act of taking away 
voting from millions of Americans--millions of Americans--and making it 
much harder for them to vote, and many, many, many will not.
  From Georgia to Montana, from Florida to Iowa, in 14 different 
States, through 22 different laws, Republican State legislatures are 
conducting the most coordinated voter suppression effort in 80 years. 
And as the example of Act 77 in Pennsylvania goes to show, there is no 
principle behind these laws: not fraud, not election integrity, not 
security, not better election administration. The only principle is 
blatant partisan electoral advantage aimed at

[[Page S4662]]

people of color, young people, urban people, and people who vote 
Democratic. It has nothing to do with fraud. They haven't pointed out 
that there is more fraud in those areas than in other areas. It is just 
blatant, blatant partisan advantage.
  Whatever voting changes Republicans think are good for them, they 
will make them, even if it means resorting to the awful and un-American 
act of voter suppression. So in State after State--State after State--
Republicans are reducing polling hours and locations and the number of 
drop boxes so that Americans of all parties, but particularly aimed at 
Democratic voters, people of color, young people, poor people, have a 
harder time finding the time, place, and manner to vote.
  They are limiting the kind of IDs you can use, like student IDs, 
while at the same time removing requirements of any form of licensing 
to own a firearm. Has any study shown that there is less fraud among 
firearm owners than students? There is probably very little among 
either, but they pick one group and not the other, and we know why.
  Republican legislatures are making it easier to own a gun than to 
vote. Republican legislatures are making it harder to vote early, 
harder to vote by mail, and harder to vote after work. They are making 
it a crime to give food or water to voters waiting in long lines. They 
are trying to make it harder for Black churchgoers to vote on Sunday. 
And they are actually making it easier for unelected judges and 
partisan election boards to overturn the results of an election, 
opening the door for some demagogue, a Trumpian-type demagogue--maybe 
he himself--to try and subvert our elections in the very same way that 
Trump tried to do it in 2020.
  Republicans say these laws are about ``election integrity.'' They 
claim they are only trying to ``secure the vote.'' Some of my friends 
here in Washington have resorted to the old refrain that election laws 
are best left to the States, ignoring the fact that for generations, 
we, in Congress, have passed Federal election laws and constitutional 
amendments to prevent exactly this kind of discrimination and voter 
suppression.
  We all know what these laws are about. I daresay my Republican 
colleagues know. They are not stupid. When the State of Texas proposes 
to limit voting hours on Sunday to only a few hours in the evening, do 
they really believe that is about preventing fraud? Do my Senate 
friends want to back up that kind of thing, prevent it from even being 
talked about here on the floor of the Senate? When Georgia Republicans 
say it is a crime to give a voter some water or food as they wait in 
line on a hot day, do they really think they are preventing voter fraud 
by denying them a snack? Give me a break. Give me a break.
  Republicans across the country are deliberately targeting all the 
ways that younger, poorer, non-White, and typically Democratic voters 
access the ballot. Republicans claim they are making it easier to vote 
and harder to cheat in an election. In reality, they are making it 
harder to vote and easier to cheat in an election, and we all know it.
  And all we want to do here is debate it in regular order--regular 
order--which colleagues on both sides of the aisle have asked for. That 
is what we are asking for here, just to debate these things, and they 
won't even do that because they are so afraid of what that debate will 
show: that this is not election integrity; that this is voter 
suppression and voter suppression directed at only one group of voters.
  Well, we are going to see what happens today. Later today, the entire 
country will see whether our Republican friends are willing to even 
debate this issue in broad daylight. This afternoon, the U.S. Senate 
will vote on a motion to proceed to voting rights legislation. We all 
know what a motion to proceed is around here, but let me explain it. 
All it says is let's go forward with debate. Let's debate something, 
and this is among the most important things we could ever debate, the 
right to vote--what our soldiers have died for and what peaceful 
marchers have been bloodied for, the right to vote.
  It takes 60 votes to start that debate. Everyone knows you still need 
60 votes to end the debate on a bill. So even if the Republicans don't 
like the legislation at the end of the process, let them vote against 
it then. But, no, they don't even want to debate it. They don't even 
want to debate it because they are afraid. They want to deny the right 
to vote, make it harder to vote for so many Americans, and then they 
don't want to talk about it, sweep it under the rug, and hope that 
Americans don't hear about it.
  But Americans will hear about it. We are going to make sure of that, 
and millions in the country who are rightly and correctly outraged by 
what is happening will let everyone know what has happened.
  Now, only by starting the process can Senators offer amendments, 
change the bill, forge compromise. Only then can Senators engage in a 
full-throated debate about what this Chamber should do about the 
assault on voting rights in this country. Obviously, there are 
arguments about what should be done to protect voting rights and 
safeguard our democracy. Obviously, there are arguments about which 
policies are the most effective. But shouldn't we at least agree to 
debate the issue?
  That is the only question for the U.S. Senate today. Do my Republican 
colleagues believe that voting rights, the most fundamental in a 
democracy, the right that generations of Americans have marched for and 
protested to achieve, that generations of American soldiers have fought 
and died to secure, is that worthy of debate? Of course it is.
  Should the U.S. Senate even debate how to protect the voting rights 
of our citizens? There is only one correct answer. We will see if our 
Republican colleagues choose it this afternoon.
  This is not simply a partisan issue, as partisan as the Republican 
side and the State legislatures and now here in the Senate seem to make 
it. It is about the fundamental values in this country. It is about 
what we are all about.
  When the Constitution was started in most States, you had to be a 
White male Protestant property owner to vote. There has been an 
inexorable march to expand that right to vote and allow more and more 
Americans to have that right to vote. This is a giant step backward. 
Obviously, it is a partisan issue to the Republicans, but it is a much 
deeper issue than that.
  Will our colleagues stand up for what generations of Americans have 
fought for, marched for, and died for or will they just slink away and 
say we are not even going to debate this?
  I yield the floor.