Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I come to the floor to mark the 1- year anniversary of the House passage of H.R. 1, the For the People Act. I am honored to be here with my colleagues, and I am here to urge the Republicans to bring this legislation to the floor for a vote.

This bill has been languishing in the legislative graveyard for a year. I know because I have 13 provisions in this bill. This bill--the combined work of so many people in this Chamber, including of my friends Senator Udall, Senator Merkley, and many others--would fundamentally improve our democracy by protecting voting rights, securing our election systems, and getting dark money out of our campaign system.

Why is it so important for us to act on this bill? Every one of the things we want to get done--finally addressing the climate crisis, immigration reform, improving people's healthcare, making healthcare more affordable--depend on there being a democracy that works so people can make sure their votes count.

At a time when the right to vote is under attack, when foreign adversaries are trying to exploit our divisions and interfere in our elections--something we are going to be briefed about this afternoon from intelligence agencies--and when an unprecedented amount of money from special interests is drowning out the voices of the American people, we need to take bold action to restore Americans' confidence in our political system. That is exactly what the For the People Act does.

As the ranking member of the Committee on Rules and Administration, I know this bill is important. I am frustrated that we have not had more Rules Committee hearings about things like the oversight of the FEC. I am frustrated that, just today, a Republican Commissioner was put forth for a hearing, recommended by the White House, when there is a highly qualified Democratic candidate who would be the first person of color in history to serve on the Federal Election Commission who has been vetted and has cleared the White House. Yet we only saw the Republican candidate. This is why this bill is so important.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. As we celebrate, we are reminded that, throughout our country's history, the right to vote has been hard fought and hard won. Just 2 weeks ago, I had the honor of joining Congressman John Lewis--a true hero for voting rights--on the 55th annual Selma bridge crossing to commemorate the sacrifices made on Bloody Sunday.

When we reflect on the sacrifices that have been made for the right to vote, one thing is truly clear--that the fight is not over. There are people today who are working to take the right to vote away. Their work comes in many forms: voter ID laws, gerrymandered districts, purging people from voting rolls, and one that we just saw just last week on Super Tuesday--polling place closures that result in voters having to wait hours in line just to cast their ballots. Just last week in the State of Texas, some African-American voters waited more than 5 hours in line. When a reporter asked one group of voters how the group got through it, a man said: We thought they were making us wait on purpose, so we motivated each other to stay.

The policies that led to those long lines didn't happen by accident. Discrimination in voting is happening, as the Fourth Circuit noted in a North Carolina decision on gerrymandering--and these are the words of the judges--with ``surgical precision.'' Discrimination in voting is happening with surgical precision against the African-American community.

Our democracy is stronger when more people participate, and our policies are better when more people participate, so we should be making it easier, not harder, to vote. Every eligible American should be automatically registered to vote when one turns 18. That is a bill that I lead. If Target, which is my hometown company, can track a pair of shoes in Hawaii with a SKU number, if everyone gets a Social Security number, we should be able to make sure that people who are eligible to vote are automatically registered when they turn 18.

So as to end the practice of gerrymandering, we also need to reform how we draw district maps by having an independent commission in each State. Certainly, we also need to ban the purging of voting rolls. As my friend Stacey Abrams has said, if you don't go to church or the synagogue or the mosque for a year or so, you don't lose your right to worship. If you don't go to a PTA meeting or any other kind of Rotary Club or anything for a few years, you don't lose your right to assemble under the U.S. Constitution, and if you have not voted in a few elections and show up when you have been registered but, somehow, they never sent you the notice and, because there is no same-day registration, you find out you cannot vote, even though you had been duly registered to vote, you should not lose your right to vote under the U.S. Constitution. That is exactly what is going on right now with voting purges.

I am proud to lead provisions in the important For the People Act that would accomplish the goals to end these discriminatory practices. Of course, we also have to make voting more secure, which is my last topic.

It has been 1,218 days since Russia attacked us in 2016, and we have yet to pass comprehensive election security legislation. The next major elections are just 240 days away, and primaries, as we know, are underway. We must take action now to secure our elections from foreign threats. That is why I have championed legislation to beef up our election systems, which was included in H.R. 1, by providing States with the resources to modernize our voting equipment--some of this has been passed here in this Chamber--but also to set standards for Federal elections, which is the key part--requirements like paper ballots and postelection audits. We still have States--entire States--that have no backup paper ballots.

I am not going to spend time going through all of those States, but let me tell you that the Russians know exactly which States those are that have no backup paper ballots. We just had some caucuses in this country, and people resorted to looking at those paper ballots. Imagine if we were hacked in a certain county or in a certain State and there were no backup paper ballots. What would that do to a Federal election?

These are the basics of a secure election system, but in 2020, as I noted, voters in eight States will now cast their ballots on machines that produce no paper trails. There are 16 States that still have no statewide audit requirements to confirm the results of an election, and a majority of States relies on voting systems that are at least 10 years old. That is wrong.

That is why Senator Lankford and I, as well as Senator Warner, Senator Harris, Senator Burr, and many others, have been pushing the Senate to act, but we have been gut-punched because calls were made from the White House and calls were made from Senator McConnell a year ago to stop the votes to get that bill through the committee to the Senate floor.

Making voting easier and more secure is only part of the solution. We also have to get dark money out of our politics and increase transparency. Americans know this. They know there is way too much dark money in our politics. In poll, after poll, after poll, they overwhelmingly want to have more transparency. Campaign finance reform is a central part of H.R. 1 for a reason. If we don't put a check on the corrupting influence of money in politics, American voices will continue to be drowned out by special interests.

Think about the three things I have just proposed: making voting easier, securing our election systems, and getting Big Money out of our campaigns. These are not radical proposals. These are proposals on which nearly everyone in our country agrees.

I conclude by noting, in addition to marking the 1-year anniversary of the passage of H.R. 1 in the House, today is Harriet Tubman Day. Most people remember Harriet Tubman for her incredible work on the Underground Railroad, where she repeatedly risked her life for the freedom of others. I recently watched the movie ``Harriet'' and highly recommend it to my colleagues. Yet Harriet Tubman didn't stop her fight for freedom and equality after the Civil War ended. She took up the cause of women's suffrage and worked tirelessly until she was 90 years old in helping women get the right to vote. We celebrate her life today because she spent a lifetime bending the arc of our moral universe toward justice.

The best way we can honor her and the countless others who have risked their lives for our country and our democracy is to continue the work of improving our democracy so that it works better for the next generation. That is what the For the People Act is all about.

I urge my Republican colleagues--I implore them--a group of people who I know believes in freedom--to allow us to have this bill come up for a vote to ensure that people have the cherished freedom to vote.

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