[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 114 (Wednesday, July 10, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4540-H4542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        LEGISLATION THAT DEMANDS THE ATTENTION OF EVERY AMERICAN

  (Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. JOHNSON of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon we will be 
voting on legislation that demands the attention of every single 
American. This will be one of the most important votes that Members of 
this Chamber will ever take in their entire careers. It is an issue 
that we never thought we would actually have to address, but that 
moment has come to us now.
  Should Americans and Americans alone determine the outcome of 
American elections, or should we allow foreigners and illegal aliens to 
decide who sits in the White House and here in the people's House and 
in the Senate?
  As the progressive wing of Washington has slowly crept in and marched 
through our institutions and has infected every level of government, 
they have brought us to a generation-defining moment. That is the 
moment that we have upon us now.
  Because the Democratic Party has shown time and time again that they 
want our borders wide open to every country on the planet and they want 
illegal aliens voting in our elections, we now have reached a fateful 
decision point.

  Here is the critical question: Should only American citizens, 
citizens of this country, be allowed to determine who controls the 
people's House, the Senate, and the White House?
  Every Republican, every one of our colleagues, emphatically says yes. 
The answer to that question is yes, and every Republican will vote for 
the bill that we have on the floor today.
  This is a question that almost every American agrees with us upon. 
Here is the number: 89 percent of Americans believe that only Americans 
should decide our elections, and that includes, by the way, 82 percent 
of Democrats, 80 percent of Black and African-American voters, and 76 
percent of Hispanic and Latino voters. Everybody who looks at this 
question answers it the right way, just about everybody.
  We are about to find out here very shortly if all of the Members of 
this Chamber agree.
  Americans all over the country understand what is at stake here. They 
refuse to hand over our country to illegal aliens, cartels, 
traffickers, violent criminals, and murderers. That is what is at 
stake.
  Now, I hate to say it, but we have so many noncitizens in the country 
right now that if only 1 out of 100 of those illegal aliens voted, you 
are talking about hundreds of thousands of votes being cast.
  Remember, these aren't huddled masses of frightened families yearning 
to be free.
  In January of this year, we took the largest delegation of Members of 
Congress to the border. January 3, we went to Eagle Pass, Texas. It was 
the epicenter of the open-border crisis at the time. We met with Border 
Patrol agents and high officers in U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. They 
told us the truth.
  They said, down there at Eagle Pass, of all the many, many countless 
people who come across that border illegally, because Joe Biden and 
Secretary Mayorkas opened the border wide, they said: You should know 
this, Members of Congress, 70 percent of the people who crossed 
illegally at Eagle Pass, down there in the Del Rio sector, are single 
adult males between the ages of 18 and 49. These are not huddled masses 
of people seeking refuge from persecution and seeking asylum here for 
just causes. These are people who do not have our best designs in mind.
  Because of Joe Biden's open-border policies, we have ISIS smuggling 
rings operating in our country. We have cartels who have operational 
control of the border. We have Chinese and Russian spies here in our 
midst roaming freely in our country. We have murderers and rapists 
offending again and again across the country, and they are never 
deported.
  These are people who Joe Biden and his administration are releasing 
into the country every day. The Director of the FBI has testified 
multiple times now before Congress, before our committees, and he has 
said: All the red lights are flashing. What is he referring to? The 
unprecedented dangerous situation.
  The enemy is here. The enemy is in our country now and is endangering 
American citizens, law-abiding citizens.
  You see the headlines on the news now almost every day: another 
violent act committed by an illegal.
  Joe Biden did that to the country. His administration did that 
because

[[Page H4541]]

they opened the border. They engineered the open border. It is absurd 
and outrageous, and people know it. That is one of the things that is 
going to be a big factor in November.
  I will tell you this, too. Since our elections are so razor thin, it 
is not just the physical safety of our communities that are in 
jeopardy. It is also the integrity of the ballot box.
  With just a few precincts and a few States often now deciding the 
makeup of the Congress and the White House, we aren't just facing 
dangerous individuals; we are facing a dangerously high number of 
dangerous individuals who could actually change the outcome of our 
elections and thus determine the future of this great Republic.
  Just as our dear friend Congresswoman Miller-Meeks will tell you, she 
won her elections in 2020 by 6 votes. Some of these elections, some of 
your elections, are very, very close. We have to keep that in mind.
  Here is the solution. Today is this fateful moment. Again, I think it 
may be the most important vote you will make as a Member of this body 
because you are going to determine the course of this country today. 
You are going to determine whether you want the elections to be safe 
and fair.
  The SAVE Act is the bill before us. It is not complicated. It is 
written in very plain language so everyone can read it and understand 
it. We are merely suggesting that because so many illegal aliens are in 
the country--and there is no disputing that there are millions upon 
millions of them. I think the actual count is probably somewhere close 
to 16 million illegals who have come across the border in the last 3\1/
2\ years since Joe Biden opened it wide beginning on his first day in 
office--because there are so many of them here, I ask our guests in the 
gallery this question: Is it worth adding a layer of protection to 
ensure all of those illegals cannot register to vote? Everybody would 
answer yes, if we asked for an audible response, because that is 
obvious to us.
  Everybody understands the SAVE Act will do several important things, 
and all of them are obvious, commonsense measures.
  Here is the list:
  Number 1: It requires State election officials to ask about 
citizenship before providing voter registration forms. What a concept.
  Number 2: It requires an individual to provide proof of citizenship 
if indeed he or she wants to register to vote in our Federal elections.
  Number 3: It provides States with access to our Federal agency 
databases. Why is that so important? So they can remove noncitizens 
from voter rolls and confirm citizenship for individuals who lack that 
all-important proof of citizenship.

  Number 4: It directs the Department of Homeland Security to determine 
whether to conduct removal proceedings if an illegal alien, a 
noncitizen, has been identified as having registered to vote in Federal 
elections.
  American citizens will be protected and in no way harmed by this 
bill. There is not a conceivable argument that the Democrats can make 
to oppose the commonsense measures that we are putting before them 
today. Nothing changes the voter registration process in the States.
  The only people who will face hurdles here are those who are trying 
to break our Federal laws. That is why it is patently absurd that the 
White House issued a veto threat. President Biden says he is going to 
veto the bill, and Democrat leadership right now is engaging in a very 
robust whipping operation to stop this bill from being passed. It is 
absolutely outrageous, and the American people need to know what is 
happening here.
  It is dangerous. It is dangerous for the future of our country. It is 
dangerous for the future of your family, if you are watching at home.
  Joseph Story was a great American legal scholar and Supreme Court 
Justice, the author of the seminal ``Commentaries on the Constitution 
of the United States'' that we used to have to read in law school. He 
said it this way on this subject. This is very important. Listen to 
what he said.
  He said: ``If aliens might be admitted indiscriminately to enjoy all 
the rights of citizens at the will of a single State, the Union itself 
might be endangered by an influx of foreigners, hostile to its 
institutions, ignorant of its powers, and incapable of a due estimate 
of its privileges.''
  He said that so well. I wholeheartedly agree. I know everyone on our 
side of the aisle does.
  If we are going to maintain this great American experiment, this 
grand experiment in self-governance that we have now kept for 248 
years, if we are going to keep it for more, then we have to ensure that 
the outcomes of our elections remain in the hands of Americans alone.

                              {time}  1215

  Now, some of our colleagues are arguing and some of the outside 
interest groups who want those open borders, the open borders crowd, 
they are pointing out that it is already illegal to vote, and you don't 
really need to do this. That is true, it is illegal to vote under 
Federal law. Only a U.S. citizen is supposed to vote in a U.S. 
election.
  But here is the problem: The law is not being followed. Even though 
it is already illegal, this is happening.
  Let me give you a couple examples.
  In Georgia, State election officials are catching thousands of 
noncitizens who are trying to register to vote, but they are one of 
only a few States that is making that effort right now to check the 
voter rolls on the front end before the disaster occurs.
  In May, the State of Ohio, they had to remove 137 noncitizen voters 
from the rolls when they did a quick check.
  In May of last year, Virginia removed almost 1,500 noncitizens from 
their voter rolls. Here is the catch: It was only after more than 800 
of those noncitizen ballots had been cast in 2019. They already 
participated in an election illegally.
  It shouldn't surprise us that criminals who break our border laws are 
also going to break our election laws. These are not paragons of virtue 
in all these cases, as the 70 percent of people who come across the 
border who are military-aged males come into our country without any 
deterrence at all. They are not law-abiding citizens. They are illegal 
aliens, and they should not be participating in the election.
  Remember, if just a small percentage, a fraction of a fraction of all 
those illegals that Joe Biden has brought in here to vote, if they do 
vote, it wouldn't just change one race, it might potentially change all 
of our races.
  Now, despite the claims of our opponents, it is also true there are 
no current preventative mechanisms to ensure that only those 
registering or voting are actually citizens.
  Perhaps the Democratic Party would prefer that we only identify 
fraudulent voters after the fact, after an election is already decided 
and the new Members are sworn in. That is not acceptable. That doesn't 
instill trust. It doesn't ensure the integrity of the system.
  Of course, that is nonsense. It is good and right to take 
preventative action now. We can look out on the horizon. We know the 
storm is coming. We know we have an unprecedented number of illegal 
aliens. We know many of them are being encouraged to register to vote, 
and they are doing so. We know we have a problem.
  We have a duty here under the Constitution to ensure it doesn't 
happen. We have an instrument before us, a piece of legislation, that 
will do just that, and there is no excuse--no excuse--to oppose it.
  Of course, preventative action is desperately needed because of all 
this, and the stakes are so high, and the loopholes are so wide that we 
have to do it.
  Regardless of what the detractors say, the voter laws are really that 
lax. If a citizen wants to vote for President, they just have to go to 
their local DMV, they go to the local welfare office or some other 
government agency, and they are given a very simple form that says 
while you are here signing up for taxpayer benefits, Mr. Noncitizen who 
just came across the border and was sent here by plane, train, or 
automobile by an NGO who, by the way, is sending the receipt for that 
to the U.S. taxpayer that we are all funding, hey, since you are here 
and signing up for benefits, do you also want to register to vote? On 
the form that was passed by Congress back in the early nineties, the 
motor voter registration law, it just has one little box that asks: Are 
you a U.S. citizen? How many people are checking that box who are not 
supposed to?

[[Page H4542]]

  Well, the problem is, whoever is working there is not allowed under 
current law to ask for proof of that citizenship. If somebody checks 
the box, they can't stop them and say, hey, do you have any paperwork 
to prove that? Where are you from? You have a funny accent. Oh, you 
don't speak English? Are you a citizen? They don't have any way to 
prove it.
  I believe I stand with the American public when I say our elections 
are just too important to simply rely on the honor system by people who 
have already proven they have no regard or respect for our laws.
  Would we be so foolish as to think every one of the 500 got-aways 
sneaking through our southern border every single day have good 
intentions? Come on. We have got to apply reason and common sense.
  Would we prefer to wait for fraud to happen and only do something 
after elections are finalized? No. We have to catch the fraud on the 
front end so there is no question about the integrity of our votes. 
Again, this is our duty to do so.
  If we don't catch any unlawful voters, great, that is wonderful. It 
means our systems are secure. If we do catch unlawful voters, then 
good, we stop them from voting. We did what was right by the 
Constitution, right by our Federal law, and right by the people that we 
represent.
  There should be no objection to this legislation at all.
  I will conclude with this: I have been here 8 years. Every so often 
in this Chamber, we take a vote that clearly reveals what we think 
about the world. There are important votes every day, but there are 
some votes that define who we are. It defines our world, and it defines 
what we believe about the Constitution and about the rule of law. It 
defines our careers, and it defines our character. It is a signal to 
the voters fundamentally about what we believe about our country.
  Republicans want 100 percent participation by citizens in our 
elections, eligible citizens who can vote. We want everybody to vote. 
We want 100 percent participation, but we want zero percent fraud. We 
want American citizens to be the lone people who decide our elections.
  Here is the question that is about to be answered on this floor: Do 
Democrats want that same thing, or do they want to hand over our 
country to the worst impulses and nefarious plans of foreign spies and 
criminals who will exploit the system for their own gain?

  Republicans are anxious to get this done. We are anxious to take the 
necessary steps to protect the integrity of every single vote, and we 
will ensure that we have free and fair elections, and we will ensure 
that only Americans decide American elections.
  The question that will be answered--and it is not a rhetorical 
question; this is a real live exercise--can Democrats say the same 
thing? Is there any measure that they will take to reduce the 
opportunity for fraud? Today is their chance, and, unfortunately, I am 
not that hopeful that they are going to do the right thing, but you are 
about to find out.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds Members not to refer to 
persons in the gallery.

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