[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5001-S5005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The bill clerk read as follows

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 100, H.R. 3684, a bill to authorize 
     funds for Federal-aid highways, highway safety programs, and 
     transit programs, and for other purposes.
         Charles E. Schumer, Alex Padilla, Jeff Merkley, Sheldon 
           Whitehouse, Jon Tester, Christopher A. Coons, Benjamin 
           L. Cardin, Jack Reed, Patrick J. Leahy, Tim Kaine, 
           Tammy Baldwin, John Hickenlooper, Angus S. King, Jr., 
           Tammy Duckworth, Patty Murray, Joe Manchin III, Mark 
           Kelly, Kyrsten Sinema.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
motion to proceed to H.R. 3684, a bill to authorize funds for Federal-
aid highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and for 
other purposes, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 49, nays 51, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 276 Ex.]

                                YEAS--49

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow

[[Page S5002]]


     Tester
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--51

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 
51.
  Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted 
in the affirmative, the motion is rejected.
  The majority leader.


                          Motion to Reconsider

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I enter a motion to reconsider the 
failed cloture vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion is entered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I just want to explain what happened on 
the floor very briefly.
  At the end of the vote, I changed my response to a no so that I may 
move to reconsider this vote at a future time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Vermont.


                        Remembering  John Lewis

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I rise on the floor today to honor the 
legacy of one of the country's most cherished heroes and a very dear 
and close friend of mine, John Lewis.
  This past Saturday marked 1 year since we said goodbye to Congressman 
Lewis. The pain of his loss is still very fresh for both my wife 
Marcelle and me, as it is for millions of Americans.
  He wasn't just a moral giant and a guiding light for the world, he 
was, as he always told me, my brother, and I still have such a sense of 
emotion when I think of the time he introduced me as his brother.
  For more than six decades, John Lewis served the United States with 
an unyielding belief that we could be better; that we have a 
responsibility to each other and the world to live up to our founding 
ideals.
  John didn't spend his life fighting for Democrats or Republicans; he 
fought for the rights of all Americans and the dignity of all human 
beings.
  John's principles were so much bigger than party and politics. When 
he saw suffering, he tried to end it; whenever he saw injustice, he 
tried to correct it; and wherever good trouble was needed, he delivered 
it.
  I knew John as more than just a generational leader; I knew him as a 
friend. And I can tell you that his dedication to justice was matched 
only by his fundamental decency as a person.
  John and I served in Congress for more than 30 years. In those years, 
I witnessed a tremendous humility and empathy that defined his lifetime 
of public service.
  Every day, John embodied the ideals he fought for through his 
unfailing generosity and dignity. So I consider John Lewis a brother, 
and it was an honor of a lifetime to have him consider me one too.
  It is--I think when we walked down the street in Vermont, I just felt 
suddenly so much a person because I was walking beside John Lewis.
  But people are seeing where he had walked. Many Americans know the 
stories of John's bravery in the face of brutality. He was beaten 
bloody, his bones broken, in the heroic efforts to bolster the ballot 
box for millions of Americans.
  John wasn't just on the frontlines of our Nation's great civil rights 
movement; he was the frontline. John was there when the Freedom Riders 
were dragged off their buses and beaten and arrested; John was there to 
lead the march from--for freedom from Selma to Montgomery, AL; and John 
was there when millions of Americans gathered in Washington to proclaim 
to the country that the time for justice and equality was now. John 
Lewis put his body and soul on the line for the mighty movement that 
changed the world.
  What fewer Americans may know is that John was beloved and respected 
by Members of both parties. It is because he believed in his heart that 
our Nation's greatest challenges must be faced together, regardless of 
party. When he stood there beside Lyndon Johnson as he signed the 
landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965, he was flanked by Democrats and 
Republicans. In that moment, he absorbed the lessons that reaching 
across the aisle wasn't just a political necessity, it is the way to 
change--everlastingly change society.
  And throughout his career in Congress, John embraced bipartisanship. 
He built friendships with Members of both parties. For years, John led 
bipartisan groups of Members of Congress, including some of my 
Republican friends in this body, down to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 
Selma, AL. He wanted to commemorate Bloody Sunday and the American 
struggle for equal rights.
  I will never forget the iconic photo of John. He is flanked on either 
side by Presidents Obama and George W. Bush; the three of them, heads 
bowed in silent reflection, arms and hands linked on the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge for Bloody Sunday's 50th anniversary.
  John Lewis didn't just cross bridges; he built bridges. By bringing 
people together, he helped us forge a more perfect Union.
  So it is in John's spirit today that I fervently urge my Republican 
friends to join me in restoring and reauthorizing the Voting Rights 
Act. I would remind everyone in this body that reauthorizing the VRA, 
the Voting Rights Act, on a bipartisan basis is the way we have always 
done it. I say always done--the core provisions of the VRA have been 
reauthorized five times, and every single time it was with overwhelming 
bipartisan support in Congress.
  Look at the Presidents who signed it: President Nixon, President 
Reagan, George W. Bush. They all signed the Voting Rights Act 
reauthorizations into law because they spoke of the profound importance 
of the landmark law for our democracy.
  I was here in 2006 for the most recent VRA reauthorization. Do you 
know what the vote was in this body in 2006? It was 98 to 0 in the 
Senate. In fact, many of the Republican Senators still serving today 
voted yes; 98 to 0. You can't do much better than that.
  So let's honor John Lewis's legacy the way he would want to be 
honored, with solid justified action. I am committed to working with my 
Republican friends to find a bipartisan compromise around my John Lewis 
Voting Rights Advancement Act, which I proudly renamed in his honor 
last Congress.
  For those who knew John Lewis and for those who did not, I can say 
John would want us to come together and find a path forward to 
addressing the many threats facing Americans' foundational right to 
vote. I will tell you what he wouldn't accept. He wouldn't accept 
inaction. So let's put in the hard work and let's try to live up to the 
memory of John Lewis, our hero and our colleague.
  Let's remember the person who took me by the arm and walked me on to 
the floor of the other body one day and said to everybody: I am here 
with my brother.
  Every one of us thought of John as our brother, and we were proud of 
that. Let us be proud of our brother. Let's be proud of his memory. 
Let's be proud of America. Let's be proud of our right to vote. Let's 
pass and reauthorize the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. PADILLA. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I rise today to join Senator Leahy and a 
number of our colleagues to remember our friend, John Lewis, and 
reflect on his legacy.
  It was a little over a year ago when John shared his final message to 
the American people. He wrote, ``Democracy is not a state. It is an 
act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called 
the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with 
itself.''
  John devoted his entire life to building that ``Beloved Community.'' 
And in

[[Page S5003]]

his final moments, he called on all of us to carry that mission 
forward. He told us it is now ``your turn to let freedom ring.''
  We have an obligation to live up to John Lewis's legacy--and his call 
to action to protect our most fundamental freedom of all: the right to 
vote. And we can do that by restoring and revitalizing the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965.
  When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, it 
marked the beginning of a new era of American democracy. It ensured 
that our constitutional rights were not merely sketched onto a piece of 
paper, but enforced as well. It ensured that poll taxes, literacy 
tests, and other Jim Crow laws could no longer be used to deny Black, 
Brown, and indigenous voters access to the ballot box. In the words of 
John Lewis, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ``helped liberate not just a 
people but a nation.'' It brought America closer to our foundational 
ideals.
  But today, this monument to American freedom is under attack. At this 
very moment, Republican State officials are working to pass laws that 
make it harder for people, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, 
to vote.
  Nearly 400 of these bills have been introduced in 48 States. Some of 
these laws set new limits on voting by mail, others cut hours for 
polling locations, but the hundreds of restrictive voting provisions we 
have seen in recent years have achieved the same outcome: erecting new 
barriers to the ballot box.
  The proponents of these laws claim they are designed to help prevent 
so-called voter fraud. But the truth is, ``voter fraud'' is nothing 
more than a fabricated phenomenon. Nearly every investigation into the 
2020 election, for instance, has found no meaningful evidence of voter 
fraud. The Department of Homeland Security called last year's election 
``the most secure in American history.'' And more than 80 judges, 
including many conservative judges appointed by President Trump 
himself, have thrown out baseless challenges brought by the former 
President's lawyers.
  But even though the ``Big Lie'' of widespread voter fraud has been 
debunked, many Republican lawmakers are still standing by it. In fact, 
they are using the Big Lie to wage an assault on voting rights in 
America. You see, the laws I mentioned really aren't about securing our 
elections; they are about preventing eligible Americans from voting.
  Under section 5 of the original Voting Rights Act, many of these 
efforts to suppress voters would have been prohibited by the Department 
of Justice or Federal courts. But that authority has been greatly 
diminished. In 2013, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court 
essentially nullified section 5 of the Voting Rights Act with its 
decision in Shelby County v. Holder. And just this month, the Supreme 
Court weakened a remaining key section of the Voting Rights Act--
section 2--with its decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National 
Committee.
  This is the trend that has emerged over the past decade: State 
officials make it harder for Black, Brown, and indigenous Americans to 
vote, and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court upholds those 
laws by whittling away at the protections guaranteed under the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965.
  In her dissent to the Court's ruling in Brnovich, Supreme Court 
Justice Elena Kagan wrote ``in the last decade, this court has treated 
no statute worse'' than the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those are 
unequivocal words. The Supreme Court has severely hobbled the Voting 
Rights Act of 1965. And only Congress has the power--and the 
constitutional obligation--to restore it to its full potential.
  You know, it really wasn't that long ago that reauthorizing the 
Voting Rights Act was a unifying cause. Just a few years before the 
Supreme Court's Shelby decision, the minority leader, Senator 
McConnell, joined his Republican colleagues in supporting its 
reauthorization. In expressing his support he said, ``This is a piece 
of legislation which has worked.''
  To him, and to all of my Republican colleagues, I say: Let's make 
sure it can keep working. Let's honor John Lewis's legacy by joining 
together, on a bipartisan basis, to support a piece of legislation that 
will revitalize and strengthen the original Voting Rights Act: the John 
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
  I am proud to be working with Senator Leahy and our counterparts on 
the House Judiciary Committee to update and reintroduce this bill soon. 
Last Congress, it received bipartisan support, and we hope that we will 
be able to expand that support this year. What remains to be seen is 
whether the bill will receive the votes necessary to overcome a 
potential filibuster.
  For those of my Republican colleagues who have yet to decide where 
they stand on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, let's show 
the American people that we can stand together. This Senate has the 
power--and the responsibility--to protect our most fundamental right as 
Americans.
  Let's heed John Lewis's call and defend it together.
  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, 1 year ago this week, our Nation lost a 
giant, a man with a righteous purpose and a remarkable legacy, John 
Robert Lewis, who dedicated his life to the cause of justice.
  From Troy, AL, to a bridge in Selma, to the Halls of this very 
Congress, he put his body on the line for every American's sacred right 
to vote.
  John Lewis never stopped fighting because he understood that 
democracy is a commitment we have to make again and again and again. As 
he wrote in the last days of his life:

       The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you 
     have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is 
     not guaranteed. You can lose it.

  John Lewis understood the power and the fragility of our multiracial 
democracy, because he did so much to build it in his lifetime. At the 
age of 25, he led peaceful protesters on a march through Alabama to 
demand their right to vote. As the world witnessed, they were attacked, 
gassed, and beaten by police officers.
  They were attacked because the right to vote is power, and White 
supremacists feared the power of people of color exercising that right. 
But out of the pain and outrage over this Bloody Sunday came one of our 
country's greatest monuments to freedom, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  For nearly 50 years, the Voting Rights Act stood as a guardian of our 
multiracial democracy. It outlawed literacy tests. It prohibited voting 
procedures that would deny or abridge the right to vote on account of 
race or color. It gave the U.S. Department of Justice the power to 
review any new voting rules in places with a history of voter 
suppression and to block rules with discriminatory effects.
  Critically, the Voting Rights Act recognized the important role of 
the Federal Government in protecting the right to vote. It helped 
guarantee communities of color their rightful voice in our democracy.
  Over time, the Voting Rights Act was reauthorized four times, 
including most recently in 2006, when Representative Lewis and a nearly 
unanimous Congress voted to affirm the continued need for its 
protections. That's right. Passage of the Voting Rights Act and every 
reauthorization of the Act was always on a bipartisan basis.
  But in 2013, five conservative Justices of the Supreme Court overrode 
the bipartisan consensus of Congress. In spite of the voluminous record 
assembled by the Congress and the reality of the country around them, 
these five Justices effectively ended preclearance and gutted a key 
protection of the Voting Rights Act.
  As the late Justice Ginsburg wrote in her dissent, it was ``like 
throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting 
wet.''
  Well, the storm of voter suppression is most certainly pouring over 
us now.
  In 2020, in the midst of an ongoing global health pandemic, our 
Nation held one of the most successful and secure elections in our 
history. Voters of color made their voices heard in record numbers and 
confirmed again that our democracy is strongest when all eligible 
Americans are able to participate.
  But instead of celebrating this remarkable achievement, Republican 
legislative leaders in statehouses around the country this year have 
proposed and passed bill after bill after bill restricting the right to 
vote and restricting access to the ballot. They are doing this on the 
basis of lies about voter fraud and rooted firmly in the legacy of 
White supremacy. They continue to do so as we speak.

[[Page S5004]]

  The Supreme Court's most recent anti-democracy decision in the 
Brnovich case, which eviscerated a key remaining protection of the 
Voting Rights Act, will only embolden these attacks.
  But, so far, in this Senate, our Republican colleagues have turned a 
blind eye, choosing to be complicit in the outright assault on our 
democracy. Senate Republicans have refused to even open a debate on 
voting rights legislation. Instead, they prefer to abuse the filibuster 
to enable Republican legislative leaders across the country to continue 
their assault.
  Our democracy is on the line. The unfinished work of John Lewis 
remains. We must summon the courage to act. That is why I am committed 
to passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will 
protect the right to vote for all people. I can think of no more 
fitting way to honor the memory of a man who chose our democracy as the 
struggle of his lifetime.
  When I was first elected California Secretary of State to serve as 
the Chief Elections Officer for the State of California, I sought out 
the counsel of John Lewis. For more than 45 minutes during our first 
meeting, and time and again after that, John guided me with his wisdom, 
taught me by his example, and inspired me through his courage. He was 
always gracious with his time, warm with his spirit, and true in his 
conviction. And he reminded me, as he reminded so many of us, that our 
struggle is a struggle of a lifetime.
  As he said, we cannot be afraid to make some noise and get into good 
trouble, necessary trouble, along the way. In fact, given the 
circumstances, it is exactly what we need to do today. As a bipartisan 
Senate, if we can, or as the elected Democratic majority, if we must, 
it is imperative that we pass legislation to preserve our democracy.
  We must carry the torch that John Lewis carried for us for so long 
and build for all Americans a democracy that is as free, as fair, as 
accessible, and as inclusive as we can possibly make it. And we must 
remain hopeful in this pursuit.
  You see, despite the scars that he bore and the hatred that he faced 
down, John Lewis was fundamentally a hopeful man, a man who never 
abandoned the youthful spirit that carried him across that bridge in 
Selma, and he always looked to the next generation for leadership, for 
energy, and for inspiration to carry the cause forward.
  It is now on us to take up his work. There is no better way for us to 
honor the legacy of John Lewis.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I join in the wonderful words of my 
colleague from California, a true leader. He is someone who has served 
as an election official and the secretary of state for the biggest 
State in our Nation. He knows how important it is to count the votes 
and to make sure we allow everyone to vote.
  I come to the floor today to join him and to join Senator Leahy and 
other of our colleagues to honor the legacy of Congressman John Lewis 
and to continue his fight to make sure that every American can make 
their voice heard at the ballot box.
  As my colleagues have mentioned, it has been just over a year since 
John Lewis passed. I have always been in awe of him. This past week, I 
had the opportunity to reflect on his monumental contributions to our 
Nation when the Senate Rules Committee held a field hearing on voting 
rights in his home State of Georgia at the National Center for Civil 
and Human Rights, a place that commemorates the civil rights movement.
  Today, as we celebrate his legacy, I am reminded of his persistence, 
his resilience, and his faith that this country could be better if only 
we put in the work. It was his faith in our country that led him to 
Selma, AL, where he helped lead 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge on that dark day that became known as Bloody Sunday. Several 
times, several years, including the last year that he came to that 
bridge before he died, I was able to stand with him on the bridge in 
awe of everything he had done.
  The horrific events of that day shocked the Nation, with marchers 
attacked with clubs and tear gas. Congressman Lewis's skull was 
fractured. He bore the scars until the very end of his life.
  Soon after, President Lyndon Johnson came to the Capitol, and, as he 
said, ``with the outrage of Selma still fresh,'' urged Congress to 
guarantee the freedom to vote. Months later, with the help of former 
Minnesota Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Voting Rights 
Act was signed into law.
  One of the times I visited was, in fact, the 48th year anniversary of 
that march. That weekend, after 48 years, the police chief of 
Montgomery handed his badge to Congressman Lewis and apologized for not 
protecting him and the other freedom marchers. Forty-eight years is a 
long time, and it only happened because Congressman Lewis never quit 
fighting for progress, for civil rights, for economic justice, and to 
defend the voting rights of every American.
  But now, more than five decades since that day in Selma and since the 
Voting Rights Act became the law of the land, so much of the progress 
that Americans have fought and even died for is at stake. Throughout 
our country's 245-year history, we have had to course-correct and take 
action to ensure that our democracy--for the people, by the people--
actually lives up to its ideals.
  We all had that moment, that night after the insurrection when this 
Chamber, which we are standing in, was taken over by those who did not 
believe in our election processes and in our democracy. And we not only 
came back to this Chamber that night, but, 2 weeks later, we stood 
under a beautiful blue sky and declared--Democrats or Republicans or 
Independents--that we stood with our democracy.
  And as I said that day, that was a day where our democracy stood up, 
brushed itself off, and we went forward as ``one nation under God, 
indivisible, with life and liberty for all.''
  That is why earlier this week, believing that the job is not done, 
especially when over 400 bills have been introduced across this country 
in nearly every State, with 28 of them already signed into law, 
including an egregious example in Georgia--that is why--for the first 
time in two decades, we took the Senate Rules Committee on the road and 
held a field hearing in Atlanta to shine a spotlight on what is 
happening in Georgia and in States across the country to undermine the 
freedom to vote.
  We heard from State legislators and a former election official who 
had lost her job after a change in law meant that local election 
officials were taken away from their posts. And we heard from a voter, 
a veteran who had stood in line for hours and hours just to cast his 
vote. And when I asked him, when he signed up for the Air Force, was 
there a waiting line, he said no.
  Well, there shouldn't be a waiting line to vote in the United States 
of America, and that is why it is so critical that Congress pass basic 
Federal standards--that is the For the People Act--to ensure that all 
Americans can cast a ballot in a way that works best for them and that 
is safe for them, whether it is early voting, whether it is vote by 
mail, which so many Americans in red States and blue used across the 
country during the pandemic.
  And as we know the history of that, in States like the Presiding 
Officer's State of Colorado, or States like Utah, known as a red State, 
or States like Oregon, that has been the way they have been doing 
business safely for a long time. And many of us, for the first time, 
voted in that way
  But there are other ways as well, with dropoff ballot boxes. Some 
people have not registered way early because maybe they moved to a 
State, as we know happens in the United States, or maybe they are a 
young person at college, or maybe they forgot to register and they have 
to catch up and do it. None of those reasons, those simple reasons that 
could happen to anyone in their everyday life, should be reasons to ban 
people from voting, and that is why these basic Federal standards are 
so important.
  When we were in Georgia, we heard from Helen Butler, who I mentioned 
was a former election official from rural Morgan County, who pointed 
out that it was only after Black voters increased their vote-by-mail 
numbers in the 2020 election that the Georgia Legislature imposed new 
restrictions on mail-in ballots, after all those years.

[[Page S5005]]

  Georgia State Senator Sally Harrell also testified about how the bill 
was rushed through--this restrictive voting bill--through the Georgia 
Legislature without meaningful debate.
  We heard about the provisions of the bill that basically say that 
nonpartisan--that is already required, and that is correct--nonpartisan 
volunteers can't even give voters water when they stand in line, 
despite the fact that there were voters that we heard from the day 
before, with Senator Merkley and Stacy Abrams, and those voters stood 
in line for 3 hours, for 4 hours, and for 7 hours.
  We heard about the runoff changes. The runoff used to be 9 weeks in 
Georgia. It was reduced to 28 days. And during the runoff period, you 
can't vote, under the new law, on Saturdays and Sundays. You can vote 
that way during the general election. All of this--all of this--is 
done, in the words of one North Carolina judge, many years ago, in a 
decision, who said: This law discriminates with surgical precision--
literally going through ways that people voted, literally noticing that 
70,000 new voters registered during the runoff, and then banning that 
because you have to register now 29 days ahead, when the time for the 
runoff is 28 days. How obvious can you get?
  Where you live and what your ZIP Code is should not dictate whether 
or not you can vote for President or U.S. Senate or Congress or 
Governor or any election. We owe it to the people of this country, and 
to those across the country who stood in line for hours to cast a 
ballot, to take action and protect the fundamental right to vote.
  I know a little bit about that because, in my State of Minnesota, 
nearly every single election has the highest voter turnout in the 
country. And guess what. We have elected Republican Governors with 
those rules that allow for more people to vote and the highest voter 
turnout. We have elected Democratic Governors, and we have elected 
Jesse Ventura. What I have noticed is not who wins, given that we are 
the only State in the country that has one State House that is 
Republican and one State House that is Democratic, given that our 
congressional delegation in the House is split evenly and has changed 
over time. It is not really who wins. It is how people feel about 
elections. They are part of the franchise we call democracy.
  So they will come up to me and say, ``You know, I didn't vote for 
you, but whatever; you are doing OK,'' or ``I have this concern.'' But 
they feel like they are part of the action. That is what our goal 
should be, to have all Americans feel like they are part of the action.
  We must meet this moment. As President Biden said in Philadelphia 
last week, this is the ``test of our time.'' So what do we do? Well, 
first, we must pass the For the People Act, which Senators Schumer and 
Merkley and I introduced, along with many others, to ensure that all 
Americans can cast their ballot.
  It is nothing radical. You know why it is not radical? It is firmly 
based in the Constitution. On the basic voting rights, the Constitution 
literally says that Congress can make or alter the rules and the manner 
in which Federal elections occur. That has never been questioned. It 
has been affirmed time and time again.
  The other bill, the bill we are focused on today, Congressman Lewis's 
bill, that is the Voting Rights Act, and you restore the Voting Rights 
Act after a Supreme Court decision struck down parts of that bill. I 
didn't agree with it. I agreed with then-Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's 
dissent, but you fix it with the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement 
Act.
  It is now Congress's responsibility--the Supreme Court decision made 
that clear--to restore and modernize the Voting Rights Act and provide 
the Federal Government with the necessary tools to combat the assault 
on Americans' right to vote. We must recommit to the original goal of 
the Voting Rights Act to end discrimination in voting in America. We 
know this is something, historically, until recent years, that brought 
everyone together. The Senate reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 
1982 by a vote of 85 to 8, including 43 Republicans; in 1992, by a vote 
of 75 to 20, including 25 Republicans; and in 2006--2006--with a 
unanimous 98 to 0 vote, including 51 Republicans. And I don't think 
anyone with a straight face can say: Well, the reason we don't need to 
do this anymore is that we don't have any discriminatory laws being 
enacted on the State basis or there aren't any laws being enacted that 
limit voting.
  Truly, maybe you should read some of the court decisions, if you 
think that.
  I would say there is a stronger argument to do this, both sides of 
the aisle. John Lewis's bill is so important, and it isn't a substitute 
for passing the For the People bill, but we must do that, as well as 
include election infrastructure funding in the reconciliation bill, 
which I believe will be coming our way soon.
  I will end with this. Last Sunday, I had the privilege of attending 
services at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where I got to hear 
Reverend Warnock. There was a guest preacher, but for me it was like he 
was also preaching. And I got to hear him say something I will never 
forget. He said this:

       A vote is a prayer; it's a prayer for a better world, a 
     prayer for your kids' education, a prayer that you're going 
     to finally be able to do something about this world's 
     environment.

  So during the last election, we saw an unprecedented number of people 
go to the polls to do just that. Not every one of their candidates won, 
but they believed enough in our democracy, in the middle of a public 
health crisis, that they went and cast their vote.
  In Congressman John Lewis's words, ``The right to vote is precious 
and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our 
democracy.'' Today, we must be vigilant in protecting that blessing.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.

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