[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 20, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3544-S3546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Portman, Ms. 
        Sinema, Mr. Romney, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Warner, 
        Mr. Tillis, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Young, Mr. 
        Coons, Mr. Sasse, and Mr. Graham):
       S. 4573. A bill to amend title 3, United States Code, to 
     reform the Electoral Count Act, and to amend the Presidential 
     Transition Act of 1963 to provide clear guidelines for when 
     and to whom resources are provided by the Administrator of 
     General Services for use in connection with the preparations 
     for the assumption of official duties as President or Vice 
     President; to the Committee on Rules and Administration.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Portman, Ms. 
        Sinema, Mr. Romney, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Warner, 
        Mr. Tillis, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. Coons):
  S. 4574. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to increase 
penalties for crimes against Federally protected activities relating to 
voting and the conduct of elections, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the months of 
bipartisan hard work that have gone into two bills that we are filing 
today: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition 
Improvement Act--I repeat--the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential 
Transition Improvement Act--and the Enhanced Election Security and 
Protection Act.
  I would like to commend my dear friend Senator Susan Collins for her 
leadership throughout this process. She has been shepherding this 
through and working diligently, as only she can do, and she does it so 
well.
  We started these discussions back in January, when partisanship 
around here was at a fever pitch, a toxic environment that was 
absolutely not conducive to things that needed to be done. But for 
those who may not remember, we were in the middle of a heated debate 
over voting rights with both sides--Democrats and Republicans--equally 
dug in on their positions, and it was kind of hard to move people off 
of that.
  The insurrection January 6 and the situation that has been going on 
since 1887 and should have been corrected and had not been--but no one 
ever felt that we would have what we had. So now, we needed to take 
care of it. And everyone stepped to the plate.
  By January 19, my Democratic colleagues were so frustrated that they 
forced a vote on repealing the filibuster to allow that bill to pass 
with a simple majority, along party lines. It appeared to many, both 
inside and outside of Washington, DC, that the Senate was fundamentally 
broken. But Senator Collins and I have worked together for a long time, 
and we never gave up. We were not convinced it was broken, and you just 
have to work a little bit harder.
  They call us the most deliberative body. Well, to deliberate means to 
talk, to converse; and when that fails, then, basically, the 
deliberative body is no longer the deliberative body. And we were not 
going to let that happen to us.
  We asked our colleagues and friends to come together to start trying 
to see if we could work together and find a pathway and find common 
ground. Well--guess what--they did. So I am here to thank those who sat 
down: Senator Portman, Rob Portman; we had Senator Murphy; we had 
Senator Romney, Senator Shaheen, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warren, 
Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema, Senator Capito, Senator Cardin, Senator 
Young, Senator Coons, Senator Sasse, and Senator Graham.
  Now, that was truly a team effort when you think about it. And this 
has gone on for quite some time.
  What we learned through those discussions was that there was 
bipartisan support for some important, commonsense reforms that would 
help restore Americans' faith in our democracy and how we basically 
apply our democracy, how do we select our representative form of 
government. Specifically, most of our group felt that we could and that 
we should:
  Reform the Electoral Count Act to remove the ambiguity that we saw 
weaponized after the last election. We were all in agreement.
  Enhance the protections for local election officials who were facing 
unprecedented threats and intimidations. These are people who 
volunteer, most basically. And it is basically a family handing down 
generation after generation, people who always believe that their civic 
duty is to be able to perform during election times.
  We wanted to establish best practices for the U.S. Postal Service to 
improve the handling of mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots have been so 
convenient to older people, shut-ins. And in the situation where we had 
this pandemic, my goodness, it was the only way that people could vote.
  So reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission to help States 
improve the administration and the security of Federal elections.
  The most important thing that we can do is that when that vote is 
cast and that vote is counted accurately, it has to be counted and 
reported accurately. And that is what we have to do and make sure that 
there is not even a shred of a thought where a person might think that 
count is not valid--it is not a valid count. And we have done 
everything we possibly can to make sure that we have cleared that up.
  This is not everything that people on both sides of that wanted. Some 
on our bipartisan committee wanted a lot more, and some didn't want to 
basically interfere with the States' rights. So we were caught in 
betwixt and between. We worked back and forth on different things we 
could. We tried to put the guardrails on that gave guidance, and we 
think that we came up with a piece of legislation.
  And when you have every Member I just mentioned all sign on, with the 
diversity of these memberships--we have almost 20; 20 Senators have 
been involved, coming equally between Democrats and Republicans, and 
able to come to an agreement--this is a bill that we should put 
forward.
  I was proud to be an original sponsor of both the Freedom to Vote Act 
and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and I still believe 
that we can and we must continue working to protect every American's 
sacred right to vote. But we also have an obligation to the American 
people to do the most good that we can right now--right now.
  The confusing and antiquated language that we have on the books today 
from the 1887 Electoral Count Act is a real and present danger to our 
democracy. We can fix that, and that is exactly what we intend to do.
  The increased threats and attacks we are seeing across the country on 
poll workers and election volunteers--we can fix that, too. But even 
more important than the policy provisions contained in these two bills 
is the fact that we have Democrats and Republicans standing arm in arm 
proposing commonsense election reforms that can begin to restore 
Americans' faith in our democracy. That is our solemn commitment and 
promise.
  When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the Constitutional 
Convention had given us a republic or a monarchy, he famously replied 
``A republic, young man, if you can keep it.''
  He qualified his answer because he understood a democracy is fragile 
and can be lost if we are not careful. And while today's introduction 
is an important step in this process, we do have much work yet to do.

[[Page S3545]]

  I look forward to continuing our bipartisan effort to get this bill 
to the President's desk as quickly as possible and signed into law. And 
our journey begins.
  And with that, I would like to yield to my dear friend from the great 
State of Maine, Senator Susan Collins.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my close friend and 
dear colleague Senator Manchin in introducing bipartisan legislation to 
reform the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887, the 
important law that governs how Congress tallies each State's electoral 
votes for President and Vice President.
  On January 6 of 2017, I was amused to learn that I had received one 
electoral vote for Vice President of the United States, an office for 
which I obviously was not a candidate. But on January 6, 2021, I 
realized that my unearned vote from 4 years earlier was really not 
funny at all. Rather, it was an indication of deep structural problems 
with our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for 
President and Vice President. These unfortunate flaws are codified in 
the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
  In four of the past six Presidential elections, this process has been 
abused, with Members of both parties raising frivolous objections to 
electoral votes. But it took the violent breach of the Capitol on 
January 6 of 2021 to really shine a spotlight on the urgent need for 
reform.
  Over the past several months, Senator Manchin and I have worked with 
a terrific, bipartisan group of Senators who are united in our 
determination to prevent the flaws in this 135-year-old law from being 
used to undermine future Presidential elections.
  I want to express my gratitude to my friend Senator Manchin and to 
all the members of our bipartisan group for their hard work, their 
constructive work, to craft this legislation. Specifically, I want to 
thank Senators Portman, Sinema, Romney, Shaheen, Murkowski, Warner, 
Tillis, Murphy, Capito, Cardin, Young, Coons, and Sasse for their work 
over several months. I also want to thank Senators Klobuchar and Blunt, 
who head the Rules Committee, for their advice and counsel throughout 
this process, and Senator Lindsey Graham for his insights and for 
joining as a cosponsor.
  The legislation that we are introducing--the Electoral Count Reform 
and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--will help ensure that 
electoral votes totaled by Congress accurately reflect each State's 
popular vote for President and Vice President.
  Our bill includes a number of important reforms, but I want to 
highlight just a few.
  First, it reasserts that the constitutional role of the Vice 
President in counting electoral votes is strictly and solely 
ministerial. The idea that any Vice President would have the power to 
unilaterally accept or reject or change or halt the electoral votes is 
antithetical to our Constitution and basic democratic principles.
  Second, our bill raises the threshold to lodge an objection to 
electors to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of 
the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Currently, only a 
single Member in both houses is required to object to an elector or a 
slate of electors.
  Third, our legislation will ensure that Congress can identify a 
single, conclusive slate of electors by clearly identifying a single 
State official who is responsible for certifying a State's electors; 
requiring Congress to defer to the slates of electors submitted by a 
State pursuant to the judgment of State or Federal courts; and 
providing aggrieved Presidential candidates with an expedited judicial 
review of Federal claims related to a State's certificate of electors. 
Let me be clear that this does not create a new cause of action. 
Instead, it will ensure prompt and efficient adjudication of disputes.
  To help promote the orderly transfer of power, our bill also includes 
clear guidelines for when eligible Presidential candidates may receive 
Federal resources to support their transition into office. And I want 
to particularly thank Senators Portman, Coons, and Sasse for their hard 
work on those provisions.
  We are also introducing a second bill--the Enhanced Election Security 
and Protection Act--to address other issues pertaining to the 
administration of elections. In the interest of time, let me just 
quickly note the major provisions of this bill. It would reauthorize 
the Election Assistance Commission and require it to conduct additional 
cyber security testing of voting systems, a concept put forth by 
Senator Warren. It would improve the Postal Service's handling of 
election mail. It would enhance current penalties for violent threats 
against election workers; and increase the maximum penalties for 
tampering with voting records, including certain electronic records, 
that was the work of several members, including Senators Romney, 
Shaheen, and Sinema, among others.
  We have before us an historic opportunity to modernize and strengthen 
our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for President 
and Vice President. January 6 reminded us that nothing is more 
essential to the survival of a democracy than the orderly transfer of 
power.
  And there is nothing more essential to the orderly transfer of power 
than clear rules for effecting it. I very much hope that Congress will 
seize this opportunity to enact these sensible and much-needed reforms 
before the end of this Congress.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, while my dear friend is here, I want to 
tell her, you know, 6 months ago--we have worked on this for 6 months. 
It started in January, and it was 14 Senators who came at that time. We 
just started talking, and 14 Senators--with all of your support, Mr. 
President, also--we had support from everybody saying something had to 
be done. But as delicate as this was, knowing that some might think we 
are picking on one side or the other or supporting or defending one 
side or the other, there was only one thing we were concerned about: 
How do we defend this country and the Constitution and this wonderful 
Capitol that we have so this could never happen again?
  January 6 is a black mark on the history of the United States of 
America. And if you want to erase it, you better do what we did for 6 
months, bringing people together to find a pathway forward so that type 
of opportunity--for some looking for an opportunity--to degrade our 
government and our country and our form of governing ourselves could 
never, ever encourage them thinking they could do something here at 
this Capitol and disrupt us.
  When that day happened, the thing I was most proud of, we were all 
down in a secured room--and Senator Collins remembers--and it went on; 
we didn't know what the extent of this was going on. We knew one thing: 
They didn't come for a friendly visit. But we were down there talking; 
and, all of a sudden, someone said: Well, let's just conduct our 
business down here. Remember that? And to a T, everybody in that room 
says, No, no, no. They are not going to run us out of our body here. 
And we all came back here later that night and finished our business.
  What we did--and Senator Collins has led this admirably--is make sure 
that we are finishing our business. We are just starting it now to 
protect this democracy. This form of democracy that we have is a 
representative form and the Republic that we are responsible for. And I 
am just so proud to be part of it. And she is my dear friend. We worked 
many, many years together, and we will continue to.
  But I just want to thank the Senator for the hard work--our staffs 
worked together. I am very proud of all our staffs that they worked 
together for the betterment of our country.
  So when people think that bipartisanship is not capable of happening 
in Washington, I want to say: Watch, we have proved them wrong. We have 
done so many things together, and we will continue to. Again, I say 
thank you to all those who participated for just hanging in there. It 
took us 6 months to get here, but we have just begun.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I, too, want to salute all of the members 
of our group who worked so hard over many months. As is always the case 
when you delve into a complicated issue, it turns out that there are 
far

[[Page S3546]]

more nuances and complexities than you would think when you first look 
at the issue. But everyone continued to work for the common good to 
strengthen the procedures, to update this archaic and ambiguous law 
that was written in the language of another era. And we have 
accomplished that. And I really hope our colleagues will all join 
together and that in the end we can have an overwhelming vote.
  Finally, I, too, want to thank our staff members for their 
extraordinary work. They worked literally night and day to work through 
the many thorny issues and to help bring us together. So my thanks not 
only to the Members but to their staffs as well.

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