[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 6 (Monday, January 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S105-S106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Democracy

  Madam President, now on defending democracy, last week, the Nation 
observed the 1-year anniversary of the greatest violent assault against 
our democracy since the time of the American Civil War. Though the 
Capitol attack of January 6, 2021, was confined to a single day, the 
attacks on our democracy have not ceased. The Big Lie--the terrible 
fantasy that our elections are rife with voter fraud and that Donald 
Trump won the 2020 election--lives on to this day and is spreading 
throughout our country, used to undermine our democracy.
  Donald Trump has such an infantile ego that he cannot accept that he 
lost. So he spreads the Big Lie. But just as bad--or almost as bad--are 
all those in politics, in the media, and elsewhere who know it is a lie 
but continue to spread it, to the grave detriment of the fundamental 
roots of this country, its democracy.
  Tomorrow, President Biden will travel to Georgia and make the moral 
case to the Nation that the time has come to act to defend democracy 
and protect voting rights, even if it means changing Senate rules to 
restore the Senate.
  Every single lover of democracy across America, especially those of 
us in this Chamber, should take heart of the President's message and 
ask ourselves: What can we do to protect free and fair elections in 
this country?
  The Senate, I believe, stands ready to follow through on the 
President's call. Later this week, we will hold a vote yet again on 
legislation to protect our democracy and protect the sacred right to 
vote. Everyone in this Chamber will have a chance to go on record. Will 
Republicans join Democrats in a bipartisan manner to move forward on 
defending democracy or will they once again mount a filibuster and 
offer their implicit endorsement of the Big Lie?
  I hope they join us, but to date, unfortunately, I have seen precious 
little suggesting they will do so.
  On the contrary, our Republican colleagues have gone to great lengths 
recently to distract from the dangers of Donald Trump's Big Lie. Senate 
Republicans are so stung by our arguments about voter fraud and the Big 
Lie that the Republican leader has actually tried to argue that it is 
actually Democrats pushing a big lie when we warn about voter 
suppression.
  The threats of voter suppression are not false; they are dangerous. 
The Republican leader's line of argument is gas-lighting, pure and 
simple. The Republican leader has pointed repeatedly to the experience 
of the 2020 election as proof, somehow, that there exists no effort to 
suppress the vote. But he ignores that the problem today is not just 
about what happened during the 2020 election. It is about what happened 
after, and it is happening today.
  If Leader McConnell doesn't want to get into specifics about the laws 
passed by Republican legislators across this country to limit the right 
to vote, then we Democrats will. Despite the fact that the 2020 
election was free, fair, and accurate, in the year that followed at 
least 19 States suddenly decided to rewrite the rules that govern the 
way people voted in their respective States. At least 33--33--new laws 
have passed across the country that will make it harder to vote, harder 
to register to vote, and, worst of all, potentially empower partisans 
to arbitrate outcomes of future elections instead of nonpartisan 
election workers. And that may be just the beginning because 
legislatures in various States are preparing new laws as they enter the 
2022 sessions of their legislatures.
  I ask my Republican colleagues: Take a look at what has happened in 
many of the Republican-led State legislatures. When Republicans in 
States like Texas reduce polling hours and polling locations, how does 
that not make it harder for people to vote? When Republicans in States 
like Florida, Kansas, Iowa, and Texas make it harder for people to even 
register to vote--even to register to vote--how is that not suppressing 
their fundamental right to vote at all? What does that have to do with 
election security?
  When Republicans in States like Georgia, Indiana, and Florida cut 
back on the number and availability of locations where people can drop 
off their absentee ballots, how can Republicans say that voting hasn't 
been made harder? And when Republicans in States like Georgia make it a 
crime to give food and water to people waiting in line at the polls, 
how is that not making it harder for them to cast a ballot?
  Some of the examples are especially egregious. According to one 
recent report, Lincoln County in Georgia is looking to eliminate all 
but one polling location in the entire county before the next 
election--one location in a whole big county. That is disgusting.
  Some voters who live in the county would have to drive 23 miles just 
to drop off a ballot. This in no way makes voting more convenient. It 
makes it an enormous burden.
  Let's be abundantly clear. These new anti-voter laws are on the books 
today because their authors cited the Big Lie, cited the fictitious 
bugaboo of voter fraud, and are trying to succeed where the 
insurrection failed. It is a slow-motion insurrection but a very, very 
pernicious one.
  We have yet to hear, on substance, any serious attempt from Senate 
Republicans defending these terrible new laws. They don't mention them. 
The truth is our Republican colleagues cannot defend them because the 
goal of these laws is very clear: They are deliberately targeting all 
the ways that younger, poorer, and non-White Americans typically access 
the ballot.
  And by blocking this Chamber from taking any action, Senate 
Republicans are implicitly offering their own endorsement of the Big 
Lie.
  Senate Democrats have been clear of our intentions from the start: 
The Senate must pass legislation that will safeguard our democracy and 
protect people's right to vote. It is why we have pushed the Freedom to 
Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act numerous 
times here on the floor, only for Republicans to filibuster them and 
prevent the Chamber from having so much as a debate.
  By hijacking the rules of the Senate and preventing any movement, 
Republicans are saying they oppose policies that guarantee same-day 
voter registration, policies that safeguard against election 
subversion, policies that protect poll workers, and policies that 
prevent faulty and dangerous voter roll purges.
  By blocking action in the Senate, Republicans are saying they oppose 
efforts to fight the power of dark money and efforts to end partisan 
gerrymandering. Senate Republicans are saying they are perfectly fine 
with laws that limit voter registration, limit early voting, and limit 
the number of polling places and drop boxes. They are even fine with 
policies that criminalize giving food and drink to voters at the polls.
  These laws are anathema to the very spirit of our democracy. They are 
Jim Crow 2, and it is the Republican Party, by and large in this 
Senate, supporting the reenactment of those Jim Crow laws.
  If Republicans refuse to join us in a bipartisan spirit, if they 
continue to hijack the rules of the Senate to turn this Chamber into a 
deep freezer, we are going to consider the appropriate steps necessary 
to restore the Senate so we can pass these proposals and send them to 
the President's desk.
  On this month--the same month we mark the 1-year anniversary of an 
armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol--the question before the Senate 
is a simple one: How will we find a path forward on protecting our 
freedoms in the 21st century?
  Members of this body must now face a choice: They can follow in the 
footsteps of our patriotic predecessors in this Chamber or they can sit 
by as the fabric of our democracy unravels before their very eyes.

[[Page S106]]

  I yield the floor.