[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 109 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4707-S4708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FOR THE PEOPLE ACT OF 2021

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, yesterday, the Senate was given an 
opportunity to begin debate on a subject that by all rights should be 
beyond debate: protecting the right to vote.
  As we all know, Republican legislatures across the country are 
passing some of the most draconian restrictions on the right to vote in 
decades--a throwback to Jim Crow.
  Every single Democrat yesterday voted to begin debate on legislation 
to fight back against this assault--and that is what it is, an assault 
on our democracy--every single one. It was the first time in this 
Congress that we have united all 50 Democrats on moving forward with 
strong and comprehensive voting rights legislation.
  Senate Republicans, to the very last Member, voted against allowing 
the Senate to even have a debate on voting rights. Not a single 
Republican voted to move forward with a simple debate. In fact, the 
Republican leader went so far as to say that ``regardless of what may 
be happening in some states''--voter suppression laws, phony audits, or 
the partisan takeover of election boards--he believes the Federal 
Government should not intervene. Who said that? Southern Senators from 
the Civil War all the way through said States' rights--used as a tool 
to prevent particularly people of color from voting. And to invoke that 
in 2020? The majority leader is way off--way off base. It is 
disgraceful that he would even invoke that.
  Yesterday's vote was another piece of evidence that voter suppression 
is now part of the official platform of the Republican Party. But I 
want to be clear about one thing. As I said last night, the fight to 
protect voting rights is far, very far from over. Yesterday's vote was 
the starting gun, not the finish line.
  As the Senate majority leader, I reserve the right to bring up this 
issue for debate again. Yesterday was the first time we tried to 
consider major voting rights legislation, but it won't be the last. 
Democrats will explore every option available to us for reconsidering 
legislation on this topic. We will leave no stone unturned. Voting 
rights are too important. The fight against modern-day voter 
suppression is just beginning.
  One other point. Some of them like to make this point: Oh, this is 
just a partisan fight. Bull. This is a fight for the soul of America, 
and it shouldn't be partisan, and it never was in the past. When 
legislatures try to prevent poor people, people of color, urban people, 
and young people from voting, that is not a political fight; that is 
what America is all about. So don't try to hide under that guise.
  It is Republican legislatures doing this. But in the past, when 
legislatures, usually in the South, tried to do these things--and in 
other places--both parties united to stop it. No more, sadly. Shame, 
shame, shame, shame on my Republican colleagues. This is a very bad day 
for them that history will recognize.

[[Page S4708]]

  

                          ____________________