[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S231-S232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 5746

  And that leads us to where we are today. We have got to stand up and 
say people can vote. I remember being here and present when the Voting 
Rights Act was signed by President Reagan, President George H. W. Bush, 
and President George Bush. I remember the pleasure on their face, the 
look of everybody around them, Republicans and Democrats, applauding 
the President for signing that legislation.

[[Page S232]]

  Why did they applaud? Why did Republicans and Democrats applaud? 
Because we had all voted for it because we all believed in a person's 
right to vote.
  You know, I am the only Democrat ever elected to the U.S. Senate from 
the State of Vermont, and I remember my first two elections which were 
quite close. Ninety percent--I would say approximately 90 percent of 
the election machinery, those who count the ballots and whatnot, were 
controlled by Republicans.
  But I had faith in getting through because I knew two things: One, 
they could count and, two, they were totally honest.
  And I am sure--especially in the vote in my first election, for the 
vast majority who voted for my opponent, an honorable person, they were 
happy to have counted the ballots, and the State said where the ballots 
were. And there was even a recount in my second election, it was so 
close.
  And I remember one of the Republican auditing groups sent out a 
fundraiser, saying we have to fight the Democratic-controlled election 
machinery of Vermont. And I reminded them that the ``election 
machinery'' was 250 town clerks, 80 to 90 percent of whom were 
Republicans.
  And I say again: They can count, and they are honest.
  We are fortunate in our State that we encourage everybody to vote. 
And I remember when the Senators of the other party and the Judiciary 
Committee said: Well, you want--you want to change the rules so that 
Democrats would win.
  I said: We want, nationally, the kind of rules we follow in Vermont. 
And, by the way, in last year's election, we elected a Republican 
Governor and a Democratic Lieutenant Governor. Why? Because our rules 
do not favor one party over the other. Our rules favor one thing--the 
right to vote. And we insist on that in our State of Vermont, but we 
should insist on that throughout the country.
  It should not be a case where somebody can be blocked from voting 
because the voting booths and the places for them are changed so that 
some communities would have a harder time or a more difficult time to 
come there or hours change. No. We should be fighting.
  If we want America to be the strong, great Nation that we all claim 
it is and we all believe it is and we all want it to be, it can only be 
if we say make sure everybody gets to vote--everybody. I don't care 
whom they are voting for, make sure everybody can vote.
  Because what happens when people are blocked from voting and voting 
drops off, people lose faith in their government. If we lose faith in 
our government, we lose faith in our country. And if we lose faith in 
our country, this wonderful experiment in democracy--as some called it 
a couple hundred years ago--fails.
  We can't have that. We can't have that. So I look back on my 48 years 
here in the Senate, and I think it is not the title; it is not the 
chairmanships; it is not the President pro tem; it is not being dean of 
the Senate that I cherish, it is knowing that I can vote. I can vote. I 
have voted 17,000 times, more than that now.
  Can I go back over all those votes and find some where I might think, 
``Gee, I should have voted differently,'' of course, I can, but I 
voted. I can vote. And I call on my colleagues, vote up or down. I 
would hope that all of us would do as we have in the past, when I have 
been in the Senate, when we passed the Voting Rights Act 98 to zero. 
Republican Presidents were signing the Voting Rights Act. Let's go back 
to that time.
  Vote any way you want in a Presidential election. Vote any way you 
want in gubernatorial, congressional, in local elections, but in this 
body, this body, which should be the conscience of the Nation, vote to 
uphold the right to vote, vote to allow every American the ability to 
vote.
  Don't hide behind procedure. Stand on the floor, have the courage and 
the honesty to say: I am going to vote to allow people to vote or I am 
going to vote not to allow people to vote. But stand here and say what 
you are going to do. The last time, 98 of us stood here and voted. We 
wanted everybody to vote. Republicans and Democrats, we joined 
together.
  Wouldn't that send a wonderful signal to a fractured nation if we did 
that today and stood up and said: We are going to vote. We are all 
going to vote. We are going to vote yes or no, but we are going to let 
people of our State know how we voted. We are going to let the American 
people know how we voted and say why we voted.
  I would wish we voted as we did before to say to all Americans, 
Republicans, Democrats, Independents, any part of this country: We want 
you to vote. We will urge you to vote the way we would like, but we 
want you to have the ability to vote, even if you are voting for our 
opponents or for a different point of view.
  The most important thing, as Americans, as U.S. Senators, is to say 
we stand for the right of people to vote--every one of us, every single 
one of us.
  I will have more to say on this matter later.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                       Reservation Of Leader Time

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the leadership time 
is reserved.

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