[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 217 (Thursday, December 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9236-S9239]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Freedom to Vote Act

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor to speak in 
support of legislation that is critical to our democracy--the Freedom 
to Vote Act. And this is a bill that was the product of work by many, 
many Senators from across the country with different views but all 
committed to one thing: our democracy.
  And I want to thank Senator Schumer for bringing the group together 
as well as the other Senators: Senator Manchin, whose name is on the 
bill, whose experience as secretary of state really was so helpful to 
us in forming this bill and also realizing the differences between so 
many jurisdictions, including world jurisdictions, that have different 
staffing levels and different needs; Senator Merkley, an expert on 
election law; Senator Padilla, also a former secretary of state; 
Senator King, bringing his independent spirit from the State of Maine; 
Senator Kaine, former civil rights lawyer; Senator Tester, who sees 
this and understands all of this firsthand in the State of Montana, 
where, by the way, for decades they have had same-day registration, 
which when you look at the States, whether they are red or blue--States 
that have same-day registration, like my State--tend to have some of 
the highest voter turnouts in the country, and, sadly, they have 
disposed of that in the State of Montana recently; and Senator Warnock, 
from the great State of Georgia, who was the host, along with Senator 
Ossoff, of a Rules Committee field hearing we recently held in Georgia, 
where we saw firsthand why so many leaders in the business community 
across the country and in Georgia have voiced their concern about a 
bill that recently passed there that would literally say that you 
cannot vote on weekends during the runoff period, during a critical 
period of votes in Georgia.
  That was a group that came together, different views, different 
levels of experience, but all committed to one idea: that democracy 
will prevail.
  The freedom to vote is fundamental to all of our freedoms. That is 
why this bill is called the Freedom to Vote Act. It ensures that people 
are part of the franchise and that government is accountable to the 
people, but this fundamental right that is the very foundation of our 
system of government is under attack.
  Since the 2020 election, we have seen a persistent and coordinated 
assault on the freedom to vote in States across the country. These 
attacks on our democracy demand a Federal response. The Constitution 
anticipated that perhaps we would need a Federal response when, in the 
words of the Constitution, as written by our Founding Fathers, that 
Congress can make or alter the rules regarding Federal elections.
  The need for action could not be more serious. It has been almost a 
year since the violent mob of insurrectionists stormed into this 
Chamber and desecrated our Capitol. They came into this very room, 
rifled through the desks, were up there right on the dais where the 
Presiding Officer now presides. They came here, but what they did was 
not just an attack on a building, it was an attack on our Republic--an 
attack on our Republic.
  I still can picture it like it just happened. Senator Blunt and I 
were the last two remaining Senators in the Chamber at 3:30 in the 
morning, along with the incredible staff from the Parliamentarian's 
office, with the pages, along with Vice President Pence, and the two 
young women with that mahogany box filled with the remaining electoral 
ballots. We made our way over to the House of Representatives, where 
glass was smashed against the sides, where there was still spray paint 
on statues and on columns, and we finished our job.
  Two weeks later, as we stood on that inaugural stage--Democrat and 
Republican leaders from both parties from this Chamber, all the 
Senators from this Chamber, leaders nationally--Republicans, Democrats 
stood on that

[[Page S9237]]

stage under that beautiful blue sky with little flakes of snow, and it 
was like everything was in technicolor. I said that day, this is a 
moment where democracy brushes itself off, stands straight and moves 
forward, one Nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for 
all.
  Maybe I was naive. I thought this was the moment in the middle of 
this raging pandemic that we were going to move forward as a country. 
And we did, but lurking--lurking--in the background were claims, false, 
incredibly dangerous claims that somehow the election was invalid and, 
along with that, a coordinated effort across the country to introduce 
bills--over 425 of them now--to make it harder, not easier, for people 
to vote.
  What has been the result of this democracy on fire? What happened 
here in the Capitol is that canister of bear spray has been replaced by 
bill after bill after bill. Those flagpoles that were used to poke and 
jab at our brave officers who are here to defend us, resulting in 
several of their deaths--that has been replaced by repeated efforts to 
lie about the results of the election.
  What has happened to our democracy? Members in this Chamber know 
well. This year alone, Capitol Police have responded to nearly 9,000 
threats against Members of Congress since the beginning of the year--
9,000 threats. That is nearly double the threats faced by Members just 
3 years ago.
  Election officials across the country have also been targeted by an 
overwhelming increase in the number of threats. Senator Blunt and I 
held a Rules Committee hearing on this deeply disturbing trend this 
fall. We heard from the Kentucky Republican secretary of state who said 
if we do not act, States and localities will be unable to retain or 
recruit people to administer future elections. He talked about the need 
to make it very clear that local elected officials who are 
administering the election should be safe; that they should not be 
threatened.
  Then we heard from others. Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner 
Al Schmidt shared some of the horrifying threats that he and his family 
have received after he stood up to lies about election fraud, including 
a message that said: ``Tell the truth or your three kids will be 
fatally shot,'' with the names of his 7-year-old son and his 11- and 
14-year-old daughters, their address, photos of their house out on the 
internet.
  Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, received a voice mail saying:

       I am a hunter--and I think you should be hunted.

  These aren't just a few examples; this is happening across our 
country. This is why we have united on this side of the aisle behind 
the Freedom to Vote Act. It takes these threats against these election 
officials head-on by establishing a right to vote and have every vote 
counted and protects election officials from improper removal by 
partisan actors. You have to have--malfeasance has to occur to be 
removed.
  There are protections against sham audits like the ones we saw in 
Arizona and the ones being advanced in Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, and 
Pennsylvania and strengthens the protections for election workers by 
making it a Federal crime to ``intimidate, threaten, or coerce'' 
election workers.
  It was during Senator Bob Dole's funeral service in Washington that 
President Biden reminded us what Senator Dole had once said. You see, 
Senator Dole stood against the tide. He supported civil rights 
legislation when that was a really hard thing to do. He supported the 
Martin Luther King holiday. And the words he said at that time ring 
true today. He said this:

       No first-class democracy can treat people like second-class 
     citizens.
       No first-class democracy can treat people like second-class 
     citizens.

  His warning is exactly what is going on today: efforts to treat some 
Americans as second-class citizens by making them stand for hours and 
hours and hours to vote in lines; by telling them: Oh, by the way, you 
are not going to be able to, like you did before, get water or food 
from certain people who might give it to you while you are standing in 
line. That is the story we heard in Georgia; by telling them--like a 
bill that passed in Wisconsin that would have been put into law except 
for the Governor there. It said we are only going to have one dropoff 
box in the entire city of Milwaukee; or like what we saw in the last 
election in Texas, in Harris County, a county that has about as much 
people as my entire State: We are only going to have one dropoff box 
there in that county; taking away options for registering to vote; 
making it harder for people with disabilities or elderly voters to 
receive the assistance they need to make their voices heard; telling 
people: Oh, hey, if you have COVID and you are in the hospital and you 
want to apply for a mail-in ballot because you obviously aren't going 
to be able to go in and vote, you need to get a notary public to sign 
the application. South Carolina had taken that requirement away, and 
then they put it back in.

  Over 400 bills were introduced in nearly every State to limit the 
freedom to vote, and over 30 already were signed into law. That is why 
we must now establish national standards for voting--completely allowed 
for in the Constitution--to make sure all voters can cast their ballots 
in the way that works best for them, regardless of what ZIP Code they 
live in.
  The need for Federal action is urgent. Redistricting is underway to 
draw congressional maps that will define our democracy for the next 
decade. You know how many of these maps do not come close to 
reflecting, on a nonpartisan basis, what goes on in the State.
  We know what has been happening in Wisconsin. Actual--actual--ideas 
and actual proposals are supported by someone in this very Chamber to 
take away the right of the bipartisan election board to count the 
ballots and instead have them counted by the legislature.
  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.
  As Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock has said, What is this all about?

       Some people don't want some people to vote.

  Whether our democracy is threatened with bear spray, crowbars, and 
axes, or long lines, no dropoff boxes, and secret money, it is still 
under siege, and we must stand up and do what is right. We want trust 
in our government--trust regardless of where people are politically.
  You know, my State has one of the highest voter turnouts in the 
country, if not the highest every single time. We have elected a 
Republican Governor with those standards in Tim Pawlenty; we have 
elected a Democratic Governor in Tim Walz; and we have elected an 
Independent Governor in Jesse Ventura. What is the difference? People 
are part of the franchise. They come up, and they say: Look, I didn't 
vote for you, but I agreed with you on that; I didn't like what you did 
on that. They are part of the franchise.
  As we have seen in States like Georgia, Florida, Iowa, Montana, and 
Texas, we are up against this coordinated attack. Our democracy cannot 
wait.
  The infamous new law in Georgia says you can't vote on weekends, as I 
mentioned, in the runoff or register to vote during the runoff, and 
there are limitations when it comes to dropoff boxes for voting by mail 
and a new requirement--one that used to be in that was taken out for 
the pandemic because it was so confusing, and then it was put back in 
with this law--that you have to put a date on the outside of your 
inside envelope. What date would you think that would be? Anyone 
casting the ballot would think the date that I am voting. No, no. It is 
your birthday that has to be put on the outside of the envelope when 
you put that ballot in.
  In Iowa, a new law cut the days of early voting by 9 days and will 
close the polls an hour early. This was after the State, in the words 
of its own Republican secretary of state, had ``shattered'' its voter 
turnout record last year.
  Why do that except that you are trying to make it harder for certain 
people to vote. The words of a court about a North Carolina law years 
ago: Discrimination with surgical precision.
  A new law in Montana that I noticed says you can no longer register 
to vote on election day after that having been an option in the State 
for 15 years.
  In Texas, another new law eliminates drop boxes and puts new 
restrictions on vote-by-mail by also empowering partisan poll watchers.

[[Page S9238]]

  That is why we need the Freedom to Vote Act, which builds on the 
framework put forward by our colleague and the former West Virginia 
secretary of state, Joe Manchin, in June. It includes key reforms like 
ensuring voters have access to at least 2 weeks of early voting and 
same-day registration and that voters can cast a mail-in ballot without 
an excuse.
  Increasing transparency through the DISCLOSE Act. I don't care if you 
are a Democrat, Republican, Independent--whatever party you are in--you 
don't want to have money coming in an election, dark money that you 
can't even figure out where it is from, telling you stuff that you 
can't even figure out if it is true. This part of the bill would simply 
require super PACs and issue advocacy groups to disclose donors who 
contribute more than $10,000 so at least we know who is putting in all 
that money to run ads so you understand why they are doing it.
  It would prohibit partisan gerrymandering so voters choose their 
elected officials, not the elected officials choosing who votes for 
them.
  And we need to enact the bill now to give States time to implement 
these reforms.
  As I noted, the Freedom to Vote Act has the support of all 50 Senate 
Democrats. We have talked to our Republican colleagues about this as 
well as the John Lewis bill. Why have we done that? Well, for decades 
voting rights has been a bipartisan issue. In 2006, the Voting Rights 
Act was reauthorized by a vote of 98 to 0. Yes, 2006; it is not that 
long ago--98 to 0.
  This bill already includes bipartisan profiles that included many of 
our Republican colleagues. I know the Honest Ads Act is in this bill. 
That is a bill I did first with John McCain, whom we so dearly miss, 
and now with Senator Graham; the Secure Elections Act, which is about 
backup paper ballots and making sure that we don't have foreign 
interference on our elections. That is the bill Senator Lankford and I 
introduced together with the support of Senators Burr and Warner and 
Senator Graham.
  But in October, when we had a vote to open debate on the Freedom to 
Vote Act, not a single one of our Republican colleagues voted to even 
debate the bill. I see Senator Murkowski is here who did allow a vote 
to open debate on the John Lewis bill, which is very important to our 
country. She stood up and said: Look, I may not agree with everything 
in this bill, but we should allow for debate.
  Let's be clear again, article I, section 4 of the Constitution of the 
United States of America empowers Congress to make or alter rules for 
Federal elections at any time. I believe this provision was designed to 
help us in times like these, in times where we are seeing an assault on 
elections, where people are increasingly starting to distrust the 
results of elections.
  In the face of complete obstruction on something so fundamental as 
the Freedom to Vote Act, we must restore the Senate with rule changes 
that will allow us to debate this bill.
  Now, I just want to briefly address this. Throughout Senate history, 
rules governing debate have changed multiple times.
  We just somehow found a way to vote on what was good, and that was 
the debt ceiling vote--hmm, a little bit of a change to allow us to do 
that with a 51-vote margin. In fact, there are already 161 exceptions--
exceptions to the filibuster.
  Even the number of votes needed to end debate has changed. In 1975, 
Senator Mondale led the successful and bipartisan effort that reduced 
the cloture threshold from 67 to 60 votes.
  There have been cries for standing debates--standing--what is called 
a standing filibuster. Why is that? Because instead of an empty Chamber 
right now, except for me and Senator Murkowski and the Presiding 
Officer from the great State of Nevada, there is no one else here.
  And yet we have so many serious things before us. We have a 
continuing raging pandemic. We have climate change that is causing 
weather events we never thought possible, including thunderstorms in 
the middle of the State of Minnesota in the middle of December. Never 
in history have we had a tornado warning in our State in the middle of 
December.
  We have had tragedies across the Midwest with storms of magnitude we 
never thought possible. We have rising--no. Are we discussing that? No. 
Are we discussing voting and what is happening in this country right 
now, except for me giving this long speech? No, we are not.
  So I think we know that this isn't the Senate that is supposed to be 
the world's greatest deliberative body, that is supposed to allow us to 
have votes on amendments and discussions on serious issues, not to ram 
through things but to have discussions on serious issues so we can make 
decisions.
  Do you think the rest of the world isn't watching what is going on 
here right now? Simple attempts to do something about childcare or 
preschool or reducing the prices of prescription drugs, when we pay 
more in our country for prescription drugs than any other country in 
the world, and we are getting blocked from bringing those bills forward 
to have actual discussions on them or trying to fit them in little 
boxes of how they fit some archaic Senate rule.
  Even Senator Robert Byrd said, when he was advocating for rule 
reforms way back in 1979: ``Certain rules that were necessary . . . 
must be changed to reflect changed circumstances.''
  Well, I think an all-out assault on our democracy--that is a changed 
circumstance, where at least we should be debating the solution in this 
Chamber. I think being unable to advance things that we know we have to 
tackle, not just immediate crisis, because we are pretty good at 
those--we are pretty good when a financial crisis occurs or when we 
have storms or floods or tornadoes or hurricanes. We are pretty good at 
getting the funds out and rescue help out there.
  But not everything is an immediate crisis. It is just a crisis about 
to happen, and our job, our duty when we take that oath is to protect 
the Constitution. That is what we want to debate right now on this 
floor, instead of in another empty Chamber. And with the standing 
filibuster, requiring people to be here and debate and speak, it is not 
just an old movie, then; it is real life. Requiring people to actually 
be here and do their jobs--big surprise, news bulletin--we are here 
debating real issues and legislation and voting on amendments and doing 
our jobs, instead of just running back in here every four hours and 
making a vote and then going back out and making phone calls.
  Protecting the freedom to vote has never been easy. Throughout our 
country's 245-year history, we have had to course-correct to ensure 
that our democracy for the people, by the people actually lived up to 
its ideals. Voting is how Americans control their government and hold 
elected officials accountable.
  So for anyone watching this at home, do you want to hold people 
accountable? It is by making sure that they have the right to vote, so 
they can exercise their right to vote, and their views at the polls in 
a safe way, across this Nation.
  And do you want to hold them accountable? It is by actually having 
votes on bills and actually debating the issues of our time as the rest 
of the world watches what should be the beacon of democracy.
  It strengthens our hand with the rest of the world. It makes us 
stronger when our democracy is functioning and working, and not when we 
have a bunch of people in here with bear spray and bayonets going after 
our police officers.
  That is the vision, I am sorry to say, that much of the world saw 
less than a year ago. And that is not the lasting vision that we want 
of this Chamber or of this democracy.
  Americans have fought and died to protect our freedom to vote. They 
have done so on the battlefield and in marches during the civil rights 
movement, and 56 years after the Voting Rights Act was passed by this 
Chamber and signed into law, we still continue this fight.
  But just as we know from those trying to keep their fellow Americans 
from voting, those trying to undermine our very system of government in 
State after State across the country, they are not going to stop until 
we make clear that there is something larger than ourselves. As John 
McCain used to say, there is nothing more liberating than a cause 
larger than yourself.

[[Page S9239]]

  That cause, my friends in this Chamber, is our very democracy, and 
that is why we won't stop. Our Nation was founded on the ideals of 
democracy, and we have seen for ourselves in this building how we can't 
afford to take it for granted.
  We have a lot of work to do in rebuilding our country. And, no, we 
should not go home tomorrow. No, we should not, not when this is at 
stake. We must stand up for the salvation of our democracy.
  And each day that we delay, it gets harder and harder to undo what is 
being done. We owe it to our country and to the future generation of 
Americans to take care of this country.
  We are the stewards, my friends, of this Nation right now and our 
democracy. So many people before us have found a way to do the right 
thing. And in the words of Bob Dole, in a first-class democracy, the 
people deserve better than being treated like second-class citizens.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska is recognized.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Madam President, I have come to this floor to speak on 
a matter that is very local to Alaska, very important to Alaska. But 
before I begin my comments, I want to acknowledge a few of the comments 
of my friend from Minnesota.
  Clearly, we share some of the same passions about the protections of 
our democracy, and I would absolutely agree that key and most 
fundamental is that right to vote. And I have clearly expressed that 
we, as lawmakers, need to be there to ensure that our elections are 
free, fair, and accessible to all, that barriers to voting need to be 
addressed.
  She has noted that I have joined with others to try to address what I 
believe are some of those impediments to voting through a measure that 
has been proposed to the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. It is not 
perfect by any stretch of the imagination, in my view, but I do think 
that it is something that is worthy of the debate. I was going to call 
it grand debate on the floor, but as she appropriately points out, 
there is not a lot of grand debate that goes on. More often than not, 
it is individuals who are speaking to those who are taking the time out 
of their day to tune in to C-SPAN.
  But these are important discussions for us to have. But I also 
recognize that enduring legislation comes about not because one party 
is able to make that happen on their own. Enduring legislation, whether 
it is the Civil Rights Act or whether it was the Voting Rights Act--the 
enduring legislation that stays with us for generations and decades--is 
that that is achieved when we have come together.
  We will never--it is very, very difficult to get entire consent of 
the body. But when we can achieve that bipartisan support and a 
recognition that this is good for both parties, good for all areas of 
America, this is when we do our best, when we come together to address 
these.
  And I hear the clear frustration that she has expressed, but I also 
recognize that how we do what we do is important. And if we peel away 
the last vestiges of protection for minority rights in the Senate, the 
Senate becomes a smaller version of the House, where you are able to 
effectively move things through just by the raw numbers.
  And so these are hard, these are challenging, these are worthy of our 
further and additional efforts. But I would remind us that as we are 
seeking to make these generational differences, as we are seeking to 
provide for these enduring protections for democracy, that how we get 
there is also a matter of importance to this body.
  (The remarks of Ms. Murkowski pertaining to the submission of S. Res. 
482 are printed in today's Record under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Warnock). The Senator from Utah.