[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 11 (Tuesday, January 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S242-S243]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 5746

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, last week, I gave a long, detailed 
speech on the topic that was at hand last week and is the topic, right 
now, that we are focusing on here in the U.S. Senate: voting rights and 
the majority leader's goal this week, as it was last week, to blow up 
the legislative filibuster.
  I believe it would be the first time in U.S. history that a majority 
leader would actually seek to do this--to blow up the legislative 
filibuster--which, in and of itself, says a lot. This would, of course, 
change the Senate and change the country forever. There will be a lot 
of speeches on that. There will be many more speeches today, tomorrow, 
and Thursday on these important topics.
  Now, the President of the United States weighed in on these two 
topics--the filibuster and voting rights--in Georgia, in a speech last 
week that is already going down as an infamous speech by a President of 
the United States. Let's just say it really didn't go very well, the 
President's speech.
  I ask all Americans to take a look at it. It is quite disturbing for 
a whole host of reasons. The President's speech was almost universally 
panned, on the left even, on the right, and in the center. I have not 
seen one U.S. Senator come down on the floor, this week, to defend it. 
It will be interesting, as we debate these issues, if anyone does, but 
I doubt there will be, and there are many reasons for this.
  As a speech by a President, it was remarkably divisive--in essence, 
calling every Senator, Democrat or Republican, who doesn't agree with 
him a racist and a traitor. Read the speech. It was historically 
absurd--invoking the sacrifices of the Civil War and heroes like 
Abraham Lincoln and villains like Jefferson Davis to present-day 
circumstances. It was profoundly un-Presidential, as Senator McConnell 
stated, rhetoric, completely unbecoming of a President of the United 
States, and in an attempt to get Senators, especially Democrat 
Senators, to vote the way in which President Biden wants them to vote, 
it appears to have been a monumental failure. Now, I wonder why. Well, 
of course, here is why.
  Calling someone a racist and a traitor is not the normal, logical 
route to try to persuade one to come over to your side--neither is 
claiming that Republican Senators, Republican legislators, States, and 
Republican State voting laws are so-called Jim Crow 2.0, when your very 
own State's laws, in terms of voting, are some of the most restrictive 
in the country. This is a narrative, I hope, our friends in the media 
will keep an eye on during the debates this week.
  What am I talking about?
  Well, first and foremost, I am talking about Majority Leader Schumer 
and Joe Biden and their States, New York and Delaware, which have some 
of the most restrictive voting laws in America. Let me repeat that. 
Some of the most restrictive voting laws in America come from the 
majority leader's State and the President of the United States' State. 
Yet listen to their rhetoric. Listen to their rhetoric: Republicans and 
Republican States are ``Jim Crow 2.0.''
  I was on the floor last week, talking in particular detail about my 
State's laws. We are all different States here, but I know my State's 
laws. I know them well as they relate to voting rights. Here is one 
thing I said last week: On some of the most critical issues, in terms 
of voting rights legislation--early in-person voting, automatic voter 
registration, and this chart here of no-excuse absentee voting--the 
Republican State of Alaska, the great State of Alaska, has voting laws 
that are significantly more expansive than the laws of New York, than 
the laws of Delaware, than the laws of Connecticut, than the laws of 
Massachusetts, than the laws of New Hampshire. It is a long list, a 
long list. You can see why Senators like me--my constituents, in 
particular--find it more than just a little bit annoying when you have 
these smug arguments of Republican States being Jim Crow 2.0.

  Let me give you another particular one as it relates to New York, the 
majority leader's home State.
  My State has no-excuse absentee voting. We have had that for many, 
many years--many years. Now, the State of New York just had a statewide 
referendum to have same-day voter registration and no-excuse absentee 
voting to meet the high standards that we have in Alaska. The people of 
New York recently rejected that. I don't know why. I am not from New 
York. I am sure they had what they thought were good reasons to do 
that, but if the majority leader keeps coming down and calling the 
Republican States that restrict voting Jim Crow 2.0, is he going to go 
to Times Square and call his own constituents Jim Crow 2.0, relative to 
my great State--because they just rejected doing this, restricting 
voting rights--according to the logic of the majority leader and the 
President of the United States?
  There is something really wrong here on these arguments and it is not 
just New York and it is not just my making these arguments about where 
other States are. Again, my argument here is

[[Page S243]]

not to say: Well, everybody should be like Alaska. In the Constitution, 
the Founders gave the States the fundamental right and obligation and 
responsibility to design their States' laws in terms of voting. What is 
really difficult to swallow is that so many of the arguments we are 
going to hear this week and that we heard last week and that we heard 
from the President of the United States come from elected officials--
U.S. Senators and the President, who is a former Senator--who come from 
States that have some of the most least restrictive voting laws in the 
country.
  Again, it is not just me making this argument. This is an article I 
submitted for the Record, last week, from The Atlantic magazine--not a 
Republican mouthpiece by any measure. I am going to read extensively 
from this article, which came out last year, because it really makes 
the point I am trying to make.

       Biden has assailed Georgia's new voting law as an atrocity 
     akin to ``Jim Crow in the 21st century'' for the impact it 
     could have on Black citizens. But even once the GOP-passed 
     measure takes effect, Georgia citizens will have far more 
     opportunities to vote before Election Day than their 
     counterparts in the president's home state, where one in 
     three residents is Black or Latino. To Republicans, Biden's 
     criticism of the Georgia law smacks of hypocrisy. ``They have 
     a point,'' says Dwayne Bensing, a voting-rights advocate with 
     Delaware's ACLU affiliate. ``The state is playing catch-up--

  The State of Delaware--

     in a lot of ways.''

  The article goes on:

       Delaware isn't an anomaly among Democratic strongholds, and 
     its example presents the president's party with an 
     uncomfortable reminder: Although Democrats like to call out 
     Republicans for trying to suppress voting, the states they 
     control in the Northeast make casting a ballot more difficult 
     than anywhere else.

  I am going to read that again. I am going to read that again because 
it is an issue that no one is talking about, and it really smacks of 
hypocrisy when I see some of my colleagues down here making these great 
arguments about Jim Crow 2.0 in Republican States.
  Here it is again, from The Atlantic:

       Delaware isn't an anomaly among Democrat strongholds--

  Democratic State strongholds--

     and its example presents the president's party with an 
     uncomfortable reminder. Although Democrats like to call out 
     Republicans for trying to suppress voting, the states they 
     control in the Northeast make casting a ballot more difficult 
     than anywhere else.

  Then the article goes on to say:

       Connecticut has no early voting at all--

  Holy cow, my State has early voting. We have had it for years--

     and New York's onerous rules force voters to change their 
     registration months in advance if they want to participate in 
     a party primary.

  And, by the way, New York just rejected what Alaska has. Jim Crow 2.0 
in New York? Who knows? Maybe, according to the President's logic.
  The article goes on:

       In Rhode Island, Democrats enacted a decade ago the kind of 
     photo-ID law that the [Democratic] party has labeled 
     ``racist'' when drafted by Republicans.

  Hmm, a little bit of hypocrisy there.
  The article goes on:

       [T]he State [Rhode Island] also requires voters to get the 
     signatures of not one but two witnesses when casting an 
     absentee ballot (only Alabama and North Carolina are 
     similarly strict).

  The article goes on:

       According to a new analysis released this week by the 
     nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, 
     Delaware, Connecticut, and New York rank in the bottom third 
     of states in their access to early and mail-in balloting.

  And, as I just said, New York just rejected it again. I really wonder 
if the majority leader is going to come down and call his citizens Jim 
Crow 2.0.
  This is a very important issue, and here is the bottom line: Before 
any of my Democratic colleagues come to the floor this week with their 
insults, with their smug, offensive, inaccurate arguments about Jim 
Crow 2.0 racist traders, mimicking the President of the United States 
last week in Georgia, I want my colleagues to come and answer this 
simple question--a very simple question: Why should we listen to you? 
Why should any American take you seriously, when so many of you come 
from States with the most restrictive voting laws in America?
  I wonder if any of my colleagues are going to come down to the floor, 
particularly those like the majority leader, who love to rant about Jim 
Crow 2.0 when their States are leading the charge in America on 
restrictive voting.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.

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