Unanimous Consent Request--S. 4033
Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to discuss the threats facing our upcoming elections--threats from the coronavirus and threats posed by foreign adversaries--and to once again urge my Republican colleagues to immediately take up legislation to address these threats.
As ranking member of the Rules Committee, I am proud to be speaking on the floor today with my Democratic colleagues--including Senators Blumenthal, Warner, Durbin, Coons, and Wyden--who will speak during the next hour on the need to protect our elections and make voting safe and easy throughout this pandemic and beyond. And that is safe and easy for Democrats, for Republicans, for Independents, for members of any party or anyone who wants to vote. This is not a partisan issue. Voting in our democracy is not a partisan issue. Everyone who wants to vote should be able to vote for whomever they want to vote for.
Today there are primaries happening in Colorado and Utah--two of the five States that vote almost entirely by mail--as well as Oklahoma.
As cases of coronavirus in this country rise, it is vital that all voters be able to cast their ballots from home, to cast their ballots by mail--a system that Colorado and Utah know to be safe and secure. We have heard Senator Romney speak out strongly in defense of vote-by-mail and how it works in Utah. We have heard elected officials in Colorado, both Democrats and Republicans--these two States that have primaries today--say that their system works, that their democracies work.
This week we are also working to pass the National Defense Authorization Act. Colleagues, let me be clear. If we are concerned about defending our country, then we must protect our democracy, and if our elections are not safe, then our democracy is not secure. Election security is national security.
We shouldn't spend more on military bands--I love military bands, but we shouldn't spend more on military bands than we do on securing our elections on a Federal level--especially now, when we have foreign adversaries that the intelligence officials in the Trump administration have long said were emboldened by the last election--as in Russia--and will try to do this again.
We should not be spending more on military bands than securing our election on a Federal level when, in fact, we have a situation where a pandemic has made it unsafe for people to vote, especially seniors and people with preexisting conditions, especially our veterans.
The Government Accountability Office conducted a study and found that between 2012 and 2016, the U.S. military spent $1.5 billion on military bands. Since our elections were attacked by Russia in 2016, Congress has given $805 million to modernize our election systems and protect them from future attacks. That is about 6 percent of the cost of a new aircraft carrier. That was given to the States after the biggest attack on our elections in modern history. We now know they tried to get into every single State. They tried to hack. In Illinois, they got as close as the voter information.
What must we do? Now we face the immediate threat of COVID-19 as well as the threat we have known has been out there for years. I fought hard with Senator Coons and others to help secure $400 million, and I appreciate the work of my colleague Senator Blunt, the chairman of the Rules Committee, in helping us to secure that funding, as well as Senator Shelby and Senator Leahy. We know that is not everything we need.
Election officials are using the money from the $805 million in election security funding that I already mentioned--which is supposed to be used to replace old election equipment and produce a paper record, but now we know that election officials in States that are already strapped for cash and facing enormous debts are having to buy protective masks, cleaning supplies, and are trying to figure out how they are going to keep polling locations open and safe versus postage and envelopes.
Last week I was glad to appear here with my friend Senator Blunt. He has said that he is open to working with us on funding as well as making some corrections from the last bit of money that was sent out. He is also going to be holding a hearing in our committee on elections, which I truly appreciate during this time of pandemic.
As I said, elections are a matter of national security, and during a global pandemic, they are a matter of public health and safety. Contrary to what the President has been saying, I would rather put ballots in an envelope than put voters in the hospital. Yet our President keeps questioning the security of vote-by-mail. Yet we have Republican Senators like Senator Romney who said security in their States works quite well.
Our job now is to realize that 25 percent of the people have been voting by mail in the last few Federal elections, and we want to greatly increase that number. We know that not everyone will vote by mail. We know part of the solution is having poll workers who are not as susceptible to the virus, who are in safe conditions. We know part of the solution is keeping the polls open as long as possible, early in States, like my State, which keeps the polls open weeks before an election so then voters don't congregate as much. We also know a big part of the solution is making voting by mail available to everyone.
We have seen what has happened when people can't vote safely. No one will forget the images of those voters in line in Milwaukee, in garbage bags and homemade masks, just waiting to exercise their right to vote. No one will forget the numbers--that dozens and dozens of them contracted the coronavirus and that, in fact, poll workers got sick from that day.
No one will forget the image recently in Georgia of people waiting and waiting--of a woman who had marched with Dr. King, now in her eighties, getting there at 6 a.m., waiting, and then actually staying because she wanted to make sure her friends would be able to vote.
We have seen the President's tweets about voting by mail. These tweets are a direct hit on our democracy. They degrade the integrity of our voting system, and people shouldn't fall for it. We know that these States that have been holding elections that are mostly by mail--Utah, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, and Washington--have done a good job. Some of those States are blue States, some are purple States, and some are red States. Again, just like the virus, it doesn't know if it is hitting someone who is a Democrat or Republican. Vote-by-mail--it works regardless of what someone's political affiliation is.
So it has really concerned me, what the President has been saying. As the New York Times editorial board noted, States that use vote-by-mail essentially have zero fraud. Oregon, the pioneer in this area, has sent out more than 100 million ballots since 2000 and has documented only about a dozen cases of proven fraud. Rounded to the seventh decimal point, that is 0.0000001 percent of all votes cast.
To top it off, while those voters were standing in line in garbage bags and homemade masks in Wisconsin in the rain, the President was voting in the luxury of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with his own mail-in ballot that he obtained from Palm Beach, FL. That is what he did. Everyone should have that same right.
So what do we do in the midst of this pandemic? We need to make sure that no voter has to choose between their health and exercising their right to vote. That is why I am urging my colleagues to support legislation with Senator Wyden that is now cosponsored by 36 other Senators, the National Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act, to help election officials meet this pandemic head-on.
What does it do? Well, it has the funding. I am so pleased that my colleague Senator Blunt has said he is willing to work with us and work with me on that funding as we work to negotiate COVID-related provisions, I hope, in the next few weeks.
Our legislation does more. It starts with guaranteeing every American the option to vote by mail. Sixteen States require voters to provide an excuse if they want to cast a ballot by mail. I will note that during a pandemic, 13 of these States are allowing all voters to cast a ballot by mail without needing to provide an excuse. They have done it because Governors have waived things, because legislatures have done their job. But it still remains with three States--three States still have those provisions in place. Why, during the midst of a national pandemic that isn't hitting just one State--it is not about just Vermont or Wisconsin or Hawaii; it is about every single State--why would we not at least have a floor requirement that people be able to vote without an excuse?
Why would some States still require a notary? Yes, that is in place. Six States have a provision that you either have to have a notary or two witnesses in order to get a mail-in ballot. Yes, some of these States have waived that. That is a good thing. But why wouldn't we just simply, since they all have not waived it, put in place some simple requirements that everyone knows will guarantee them their right to be able to obtain a ballot?
The bottom line is that it should be easy to vote and not hard to vote.
We are not alone in this fight. Our legislation has been endorsed by more than a dozen organizations, including the group founded by former First Lady Michelle Obama, When We All Vote; the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; the Lawyers' Committee on Civil Rights; Voto Latino; the National Urban League; and Common Cause.
I think the key here, though, as we head into--I know my friend is going to object to the legislation as is, but I think the key, as we move ahead the next few weeks, is for everyone to step back and talk to your secretaries of state and talk to your Governors. You are going to find that both Democratic and Republican Governors are saying: Look, we are already strapped for cash. We had no idea the pandemic was coming our way. We didn't plan ahead in our budgets last year. We need some help in our State to be able to mail in all the ballots so people will be able to vote.
At the very least, I hope that is what comes out of this.
Last, I will tell you, the American people are ahead of this body right now. Three polls released in the last couple of months show that an overwhelming majority of voters--over 80 percent--favor measures to make voting safe and easy in November by expanding early and mail-in voting. Seventy-four percent of voters want their Senators to support legislation to implement voting reform, including a majority of Republican voters in those States. That is across party lines. That is why I hope my colleagues will join us, and we can get this done.
4033, the National Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank Chairman Blunt for his leadership on the Rules Committee and on the inauguration. We have a big group and are working together well on that. I look forward to our hearing.
We, obviously, don't agree about this legislation, but I truly appreciate the olive branch and his willingness to talk about funding at this critical time for our States and our democracy. I look forward to doing that with my many colleagues in the next few weeks.
Now I would like to turn this over to one of our great leaders, my colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin.
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Illinois. Next, we will hear from Senator Warner, who is the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee and a leader in taking on election interference from Russia and other foreign adversaries.
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, two other colleagues are here in support of this bill: Senator Blumenthal from the State of Connecticut, who is such a leader when it comes to civil rights and is a member of the Judiciary Committee; and Senator Coons, who is actually one of the leaders of the subcommittee that helped to finance the last expenditure for elections during the pandemic and is working with us, through his role on the Appropriations Committee, to help the States get the money that they need.
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Delaware for all the work he has done and his focus on what is going to be right in front of us, and that is additional help to States both with their needs--their medical needs and other economic needs--but also their democracy needs coming out of this pandemic.
When Hawaii was hit at Pearl Harbor, we did not expect Hawaii to defend itself. When this pandemic hits, it doesn't just hit one State. It hits our entire country. That is why we argue for Federal Government involvement.
With us--last but not least--is the other lead on this bill, and that is Senator Ron Wyden, who has been a longtime advocate, based in the forward-thinking State from which he comes, the State of Oregon, on vote-by-mail.
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Wyden for his longtime leadership on this issue. I want to thank all of my colleagues. I want to actually thank Mr. Blunt, who did object to our bill but is willing to work with us on the funding.
As I said, to sum up, we would rather put ballots in the envelopes than voters in the hospital. It is that simple.
Nomination of Major General Jon Jensen
Mr. President, I appreciate the kindness of my colleague from the great State of Nebraska.
I am going to briefly address one matter, and that is to express my support for the nomination of MG Jon Jensen of Minnesota to become the Director of the Army National Guard.
Major General Jensen has served in the Army National Guard for more than three decades. He currently serves as an adjunct general of the Minnesota National Guard--a position he has held since November of 2017. As adjunct general, Major General Jensen oversees more than 13,000 soldiers and air men and women in Minnesota.
His record of service and extensive experience in Minnesota and across the world makes him an excellent choice to lead the men and women of the Army National Guard across the country.
We are grateful for Major General Jensen's leadership and service and proud to see a fellow Minnesotan nominated to become the Director of the Army National Guard. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting his confirmation.
Major General Jensen has led the Minnesota National Guard in unprecedented times, including in the State's response to the coronavirus pandemic. In recent months, our Guard members, as they have in so many States, have provided planning and logistics support and transportation assistance, while also helping to conduct coronavirus tests.
Under Major General Jensen's leadership, the Minnesota National Guard has been critical in our response to natural disasters, including flooding in our State that caused significant challenges for so many farmers in Minnesota during last year's harvest.
In addition to his work in our State, the major general has been a national leader in working with the National Guard in other States to expand partnerships with the Federal Government.
He began his military career in 1982 as an enlisted combat medic, and in August 1989, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
He continued his training in Georgia, and his career eventually took him to assignments in Georgia, Kansas, and Iowa. But then he had major assignments in Italy and Bosnia, Herzegovina, Iraq, and in Kuwait.
His outstanding service is demonstrated by the list of decorations and awards he has earned over his career, including the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, and Army Commendation Medal.
In addition to serving as adjutant general, Major General Jensen has held numerous leadership positions within the Guard, including as commander of the 34th Infantry Division, director of Joint Staff, and assistant adjutant general.
I had the honor of attending the change of command ceremony where he became adjutant general of our Guard. Now I hope to have the honor of seeing him confirmed to help lead the brave citizen soldiers of the Army National Guard nationwide.
I have no doubt that our Nation will benefit from his leadership and from his decades of experience and his commitment to guardsmen and their families, including supporting families through multiple deployments, as well as in my State.
I think we know that dual role of the National Guard has been tested so much in recent decades, including their work, basically, fighting on the frontline over the last decade and then their work here at home through many natural disasters, as well as the current pandemic.
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