[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 18, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1309-S1310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SAVE AMERICA ACT
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks from my friend
from Minnesota. I think she laid out an unassailable case about how
this is going to greatly constrain people's abilities to cast their
votes, how it is a broad assault on democracy, how it effectively makes
up a problem that doesn't exist.
I think I am the last speaker tonight before everybody gets to go
home. So I am going to be very brief, and I am going to try to put
today's debate in some context.
Here is what President Trump told a gathering of lawmakers at his
golf resort. By the way, let's just not gloss over the fact that Donald
Trump doesn't spare any moment to make money off of his Presidency,
including demanding that, if you want an audience with him, you have to
go down and spend money at his golf resort.
Here is what he said. He said: If you pass the SAVE Act, ``[i]t will
guarantee the midterms. If you don't get it, big trouble, my opinion.''
Pass the SAVE Act, and ``[i]t will guarantee the midterms. If you
don't get it, big trouble.''
Donald Trump--one of the most unpopular Presidents at this point in
his Presidency in history. All he cares about is power and winning
elections. He can't maintain power in the Senate or the House this fall
being this unpopular in running a war that is out of control and that
is driving up costs for Americans, tariffs that are costing the average
family thousands of dollars a year, an economy that is not growing; and
manufacturing jobs that are fleeing. So he is seeking to gain power
that he believes will allow him to manipulate who can vote and who
can't vote.
That is why we are here. We are certainly not here because voter
fraud is a systemic problem in our elections.
The Heritage Foundation--the organization behind Project 2025 and
many of the ideas that form the foundation of this legislation--has
been able to uncover 10,000 instances of non--wait a second--5,000
instances of noncitizen voter--no, not 5--no, 400--no. It is 100. They
found 100 instances in a country of 300 million of noncitizen voters
trying to vote since 2000--in 26 years, 100 cases.
Another study found that the percent of voter fraud in Arizona over
the last 25 years was--and I have got to read this carefully--0.0000845
percent. I actually have no concept of what that number is. That number
is so tiny as to be kind of impossible to comprehend. The rate of voter
fraud over the last 25 years in Arizona is 0.0000845 percent.
When you ask Americans what the top problems are that are facing the
country right now--this is a Washington University poll, so it is not a
Democratic poll or a Republican poll--they are, 1, jobs are
disappearing; 2, prices are going up--let's see--3, the President
generally; 4, the cost of living; 5, corruption in government; 6,
polarization in government; 7, crime; 8, immigration; 9, abortion; 10,
healthcare. I would bet you, if you went 11 through 19, you would not
find voter fraud on that list. Statistically, this isn't a systemic
problem. Voters aren't asking for us to focus on it.
So why are we here? Why is this the emergency issue--the urgent
issue--that Congress is debating at nearing 11 o'clock on a Wednesday
night?
It is, first and foremost, because Trump is demanding it. He has said
he will not sign any other legislation until this bill reaches his
desk, and Republicans in the Senate are compliant. They are employees
of the President. He has said: This is the bill I want. So they are
attempting to deliver him this bill. He believes, I think wrongly, but
he believes this bill will give him special powers with which to change
the electorate in his favor.
But we are also here because Republicans do not want to talk about
the issues that are actually top of mind for Americans. They do not
want to talk about prices or the economy or healthcare. They do not
want to talk about corruption in government or the cost of living. That
is probably the primary reason we are debating this bill--because, if
you asked Americans what should be in a ``save America'' law, they
would not say this.
[[Page S1310]]
There are 4 million Americans who are losing their healthcare as we
speak--4 million Americans. There are 20 million Americans who, right
now, are getting ready to sit down at the kitchen table and figure out
how they are going to afford a 100-percent increase in their healthcare
premiums. There are millions of families right now, because of the
actions of Donald Trump and Republicans in this Congress, who are
deciding whether they are going to pay the tuition bill for their child
next semester or whether they are going to have to come home and
postpone college for a little while because they just can't afford
college and healthcare.
That is a crisis in this country. That is a healthcare cataclysm that
is happening in this country.
There are hospitals and birthing centers and clinics that are closing
in every corner of America because of the multitrillion-dollar cut to
Medicaid. There are 4 million Americans who are losing healthcare and
20 million Americans seeing an enormous healthcare increase, and there
are hundreds of clinics closing. We are not talking about that tonight.
Our economy is in trouble.
The economy lost 92,000 jobs in February. The Chairman of the Federal
Reserve said today that we have had zero net job growth in this country
over the last 6 months. The unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, up from 4
percent when Donald Trump took office; long-term unemployment, 25.3
percent, up from 21 percent when Donald Trump took office. The
unemployment rate for Black workers is 7.7, up from 6.2 percent when
Donald Trump took office.
The economy grew at an anemic 0.7 percent in the second quarter of
2025. We have lost 100,000 manufacturing jobs since Donald Trump took
office. We are losing jobs left and right.
This economy is in trouble, but we are not talking about that
tonight.
This administration is raising prices on people all across the
country. The tariffs alone, if the administration succeeds in
maintaining its current level of tariff revenue, will cost the average
family $2,500 this year. Who in America has $2,500 lying around? OK.
You know the folks who pay the ticket prices to show up and sit next to
Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago have $2,500 sitting around, but 40 percent
of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Forty percent of
Americans don't even have $400 saved for an emergency medical procedure
or a car repair. The majority of Americans cannot afford Trump's
tariffs, which are going to charge them $2,500 in additional costs this
year.
That is not a bad economy. That is not bad luck. That is the
President of the United States making decisions to purposefully raise
people's cost of living by $2,500 this year.
And then he makes it worse because his war in Iran is jumping gas
prices. Those increased transportation costs will soon increase grocery
costs.
There is an inflation and cost-of-living epidemic in this country,
and we are not talking about that either.
The White House is for sale--for sale. This is the most corrupt White
House in the history of the country. No. 5 on that list of what
Americans care about today is corruption in government because they are
scratching their heads, wondering why this Congress is not talking
about the fact that the President of the United States was just gifted
a $400 million plane by a foreign government as a gift. They are
wondering why we aren't having hearings on the secret payments that the
President has been getting from foreign governments as private, quiet,
secret investors in his cryptocurrency businesses. They are scratching
their heads wondering why we aren't spending our time talking about the
fact that the President's family has all of a sudden shown up on the
boards of corporations that are getting contracts from the Federal
Government. This White House is a 24/7 grift operation, but we are not
talking about that this week on the floor of the Senate.
And, oh, by the way, we are at war. We are at war again in the Middle
East. A dozen Americans have died.
We have a new war breaking out as a consequence of the President's
military action in Iran between Israel and Lebanon. A thousand people
have already died in that conflict. The entire region is on fire.
The President can't articulate a single reasonable, realistic endgame
scenario for this war. We haven't had a single hearing in the Senate on
a war that is underway right now in the Middle East. We aren't talking
about that on the floor of the Senate this week.
And we have a Department of Homeland Security that is out of control,
that is murdering American citizens, that is terrorizing our
communities, that is tear-gassing schools, that is disappearing legal
residents. And we aren't talking about that on the Senate floor either
this week.
Inflation, the economy, cost of living, corruption in government,
polarization, crime, immigration, abortion, and healthcare--these are
the issues, when you ask voters, they say Congress should be focused
on. They don't list voter fraud because the rate of voter fraud in this
country is 0.000845 percent.
There are serious problems in this country. There are families going
through hell right now because of what Republicans have chosen to do to
raise people's costs and to hurt our economy. There are Americans dying
overseas right now in an illegal, unauthorized war that this Congress
refuses to do oversight on.
We could be spending our time saving Americans by reducing their
costs, creating more jobs, or actually doing our congressional duty to
make sure that we don't waste lives and treasure overseas on forever
wars with no end.
But, instead, we are debating a bill that is going to withdraw
people's right to vote because Donald Trump has ordered congressional
Republicans to give him a tool that he thinks will help him steal this
election.
I ran for the Senate to work on real problems, not fake problems and
conspiracy theories, and there are a whole lot of real problems--real
problems--that this country is facing right now that this Senate should
be focused on.
I yield the floor.
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