[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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