[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 122 (Tuesday, July 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4835-S4836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             VOTING RIGHTS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, in a democracy, no right is more sacred 
than the right to vote. And yet, across the country, Republican-
controlled State legislatures are conducting the most sweeping and 
coordinated attack on voting rights in generations, fueled by Donald 
Trump's insidious Big Lie that the election was stolen.
  In several States, limits have been placed on voting hours, polling 
locations, and methods of voting. Barriers have been raised to make 
voting by mail, absentee voting, afterhours voting, and early voting 
harder.
  Republican legislatures are not only making it harder to vote, they 
are making it easier to steal an election. They actually believe that. 
Donald Trump does the Big Lie, everyone knows it is a lie, and now 
Republican legislatures are acting on that Big Lie and saying we could 
steal an election. What is happening to our democracy? Stripping 
independent election officials of power, giving partisan election 
bodies more control, even firing members of county election boards, 
this is what Republican legislatures are doing, not for fairness, not 
for bipartisanship but to jaundice elections.
  And if the consequence is Americans of all parties feel that the 
elections are not fair, what is going to happen to this sacred and 
wonderful democracy? Republicans are actively dismantling all the 
barriers that prevented Donald Trump from subverting our elections in 
2020. Imagine if they hadn't been in effect. Imagine.
  All of these efforts have an Orwellian logic. Under the guise of 
``election integrity,'' Republican legislatures are sowing more doubt 
about our elections through phony audits and fact-free claims of voter 
fraud, lying claims of voter fraud. They are lying. I just saw on TV 
this morning how the Trump lawyers are being lambasted in court. And 
even Rudy Giuliani has lost his license to practice because they lied 
about the election, that they perpetrated the Big Lie in legal 
documents. The same thing is happening everywhere. What is happening to 
this Republican Party? What is happening? When Donald Trump, the 
biggest liar we have ever had as President, sets the tone and they 
follow in those lies, repeat those lies, sometimes even embellish on 
those lies, what is happening to that party, the party of Abraham 
Lincoln?
  Falsely claiming that the election was ``stolen,'' Republican 
legislatures are making elections easier to overturn, even under the 
falsest and biggest

[[Page S4836]]

of lies. And what happens here? Our Republican friends here in 
Washington have chosen a path of supine compliance, refusing to stand 
up to the Big Lie, bowing down before it, bowing down before Donald 
Trump, the biggest liar that we have ever had as an American President, 
except when the Capitol Building is literally under siege.
  And, by the way, just parenthetically, I commend to my colleagues and 
to all Americans--the New York Times did a video of the siege. They 
even had some--they showed the siege; they showed the violence; and 
they had some Republican Congressmen saying it was like tourists. It 
was incredible. I recommend everyone should watch this. And I hope--
Republican colleagues, just watch it. You were there. Just watch it. I 
commend the New York Times. They did a great job on it.
  Anyway, the effort to fight this wave of voter suppression and 
Republican election rigging is strong and growing. I want to be very 
clear about that.
  In Texas, where the Republican Governor has called a special session 
to reconsider one of the most restrictive voting laws in the Nation, 
Democrats are doing all they can to block the dangerous partisan bill. 
They are brave. They are bold. They are courageous, and history will 
show them on the side of right and the Republican Governor--I saw him 
on TV this morning--on the side of deep, dark, ugly wrong. Many of 
these lawmakers from Texas have come to Washington. I will be meeting 
with a group of them today to plot out strategy and to praise them for 
what they are doing.
  President Biden will also address the issue of voting rights in a 
major national address in Philadelphia, using the bully pulpit to draw 
the Nation's attention and announce ways in which his administration 
can defend Americans' fundamental rights.
  And next week, Senator Klobuchar--always on the ball on these 
issues--will lead the Senate Rules Committee to the State of Georgia--
your State, I say to the Presiding Officer--for their first field 
hearing in 20 years. It will be an opportunity to shine a spotlight on 
the consequences of the Big Lie and show the American people just how 
far Republicans have gone in order to make it harder--harder--for 
people to vote in the 2020 election.
  The bottom line is this: Democrats will not stop fighting to protect 
voting rights and defend our democracy. As I said, the vote in June was 
the opening gun, not the finish line.
  Last month, all 50 Senate Democrats united for the first time this 
Congress to move forward on a strong voting rights bill. Shamefully, 
shamefully, Republicans refused to even allow debate on voting rights 
legislation, hiding behind some of the exact same States' rights 
arguments, and very similar arguments, that southern Senators used in 
the 1960s to oppose the Voting Rights Act. How do you feel about that, 
Republicans and Republican leadership? How do you feel about using the 
same arguments that were used by some of the arch segregationists to 
stop voting rights in the Senate in the 1960s?
  Last month, as I said, the vote represented the starting gun, not the 
finish line, in the fight to protect voting rights. As majority leader, 
I reserve the right to bring back voting rights and democracy reform 
for another vote on the Senate floor

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