[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 184 (Wednesday, October 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7106-S7107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Freedom to Vote Act

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor to speak in support 
of what is right before us right now, and that is, proceeding to debate 
legislation that is critical to our democracy, the Freedom to Vote Act, 
which I introduced with the members of the voting rights working group 
assembled by Leader Schumer. That would be Senators Manchin, Merkley, 
Padilla, King, Kaine, Tester, and Warnock. We all have our names on 
this bill. We all feel very strongly about this bill. Why? Because the 
freedom to vote is fundamental to all of our freedoms, and it is 
currently under attack.
  Since the 2020 elections, we have seen a persistent and coordinated 
assault on the freedom to vote, but it has been under attack for much 
longer, as States have closed polling locations on a massive scale and 
purged hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls.
  As foreign adversaries have actually attempted to interfere in our 
elections, these attacks on our democracy demand a Federal response. 
When you have one State attacked by a foreign adversary, when they try 
to get into voter rolls in Illinois or Hawaii, are we going to expect 
those States to respond on their own? When you have an assault, a 
coordinated assault, on voting rights, so you have similar bills 
introduced across the country to limit drop-off boxes; when you have 
coordinated attacks to limit vote-by-mail; when you have coordinated 
attacks to limit registration to vote, it demands a Federal response.
  What is amazing about our Constitution is that the Founding Fathers 
anticipated this because right in the Constitution, it says that 
Congress--this place where we work--can make and alter the laws 
regarding Federal elections. It is bulletproof. It has been upheld time 
and time again.
  The urgent need for action could not be more serious. With over 400 
bills having been introduced in nearly every State to limit the freedom 
to vote--over 30 of those have been signed into law--with redistricting 
underway to draw congressional maps that will define our democracy for 
the next decade--and the first primary for the 2022 elections is in a 
little over 4 months in Texas--we must act now.
  It has been over 9 months since that violent mob of insurrectionists 
stormed into this Chamber, opened up people's desks, and sat where the 
Presiding Officer is sitting right now. They desecrated our Capitol, 
the temple of our democracy. This was not just an attack on a building. 
It was an attack on our Republic. It was an attack on public servants, 
police officers who were serving us that day.
  As I said from the inaugural stage just 2 weeks later under that 
beautiful blue sky at the very place where you could still see the 
spray paint on the columns, where we stood in front of makeshift 
windows--where we stood together, leaders of both political parties in 
both Chambers and from across the Nation--I said: This is the day our 
democracy picks itself up, brushes itself off, and does what America 
always does--goes forward as one Nation under God, indivisible, with 
liberty and justice for all.
  We took back our democracy that day. With this Freedom to Vote Act, 
which includes provisions that have the support of 78 percent of 
Americans

[[Page S7107]]

who favor 2 weeks of early voting and 83 percent of voters who support 
public disclosure of campaign contributions because they believe the 
people should be running the government, not lobbyists and not outside 
groups, we will take it back again from those who are trying to take 
away the people's constitutional right to vote.
  With 19 States having enacted laws this year to roll back the freedom 
to vote, we can't simply sit back and watch our democracy be 
threatened. Whether it be threatened with bear spray, crowbars, axes, 
or whether it be threatened with long lines, no ballot drop-off boxes, 
and secret money, we must stand up for our democracy whether we are 
Democrats or Republicans or Independents. That is what our country is 
about.
  When we are faced with a coordinated effort across our country to 
limit the freedom to vote, we must stand up and do what is right. But, 
as we have seen in States like Georgia and Florida and Iowa and Montana 
and last month in Texas, we are up against a coordinated attack. As 
Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock has said, it is really quite simple: 
Some people don't want some people to vote. That is what this is about.
  What is this Freedom to Vote Act about? It is about minimum standards 
for voting. You know, it is 15 days of early voting. My State votes up 
to 40 days. That is not what we put in this bill. We put minimum 
standards in this bill, ensuring voters have access to at least 2 weeks 
of early voting so they can cast their mail-in ballot without an 
excuse--something people were able to use as a way to safely vote in 
the middle of a public health crisis. They did it in record numbers in 
the middle of a crisis because they believed in our democracy no matter 
which way they voted. Why would we take away that right from them now 
when we are seeing a curtailing of that right in many States across 
this country?
  It counters partisan interference in election administrations, makes 
sure that these super PACs and issue advocacy groups that hide behind 
veils have to show who is giving them the money, and prohibits partisan 
gerrymandering.
  Then we listened to secretaries of state across this country, 
Democrats and Republicans. We listened to our colleague Senator 
Manchin, who proudly has his name on this bill. So what did we do? We 
made changes to this bill. It provides flexibility for small and vote-
by-mail jurisdictions on early voting. It makes it easier to implement 
automatic voter registration. It creates a new flexible source of 
Federal funding to help our States. It ensures election officials can 
use best practices for maintaining accurate and up-to-date voter rolls.
  It is important to recognize that the Freedom to Vote Act is the 
first piece of voting rights legislation this Congress to come to the 
Senate floor with the support of all 50 Senate Democrats.
  Now, our Republican colleagues may not agree with everything in this 
bill. OK. Then don't be scared. Don't hide behind your desks. Don't 
deny us the right to simply debate this bill. Our leader, Senator 
Schumer, has made it very clear: We are open to amendments on this 
bill. We welcome your amendments. We are not putting a limit on 
amendments.
  So why would you shy away from debating this bill--unless you just 
don't want the American people to hear the truth; unless you don't want 
the stories told about what is going on in places like Georgia, where 
voters are now being asked to put their birth date on the outside of 
the inside envelope. Maybe you don't want to have the stories told 
about how voters in Wisconsin almost--except for the Governor stopping 
it in its tracks, voters in Wisconsin almost were limited in the entire 
city of Milwaukee to one drop-off box. That bill passed their 
legislature. That is what we are talking about here.
  So let's have this debate. Let's hear the argument. Let's not stop 
the debate over the fundamental right to vote that our entire democracy 
is founded on.
  If our Republican colleagues have constructive ideas on ways to 
improve this legislation and if they are willing to work with us on 
amendments, then we are prepared to hear them. We are simply asking 
them to open up the debate. Instead, it will be more people standing in 
line, like they did in Wisconsin in the primary, in homemade masks and 
garbage bags in a rainstorm just to exercise their right to vote. It is 
going to be people who are told, like they just were in Georgia: You 
can't even vote on weekends in the runoff period. It is going to be 
people who served in our military who have to wait in line in the hot 
Sun, wait for hours to vote. That didn't happen when they signed up to 
serve our country, but it happens when they try to vote.
  Let's have that debate. Americans have fought and died to protect our 
freedom to vote. They have done so on the battlefield, and they did so 
in marches during the civil rights movement. Fifty-six years after the 
Voting Rights Act was passed by this Chamber and signed into law, we 
cannot shut down the debate.
  Our Nation was founded on the ideals of democracy, and we have seen 
for ourselves in this very building that we can't afford to take that 
for granted. We can't do it when legislators and Members of Congress 
get to pick and choose who is going to be able to vote easily. We do it 
by debating real ideas and standing on the shoulders of those who went 
out to vote. That is what a democracy is about.
  I urge my colleagues to open up the debate, to not be afraid and shut 
down the debate, to not hide under their desks, to not put their heads 
down. I urge them to simply open up the debate.
  I yield the floor.