For the People Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Madam President, today I am proud to join a number of my colleagues to highlight the importance of S. 1, the For the People Act.

The ballot box is the pulsating heart of our government of, by, and for the people.

President Lyndon B. Johnson said:

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice.

Think about that--``the most powerful instrument ever devised for breaking down injustice.''

It is Robert Kennedy who observed that ``each citizen's right to vote is fundamental to all the other rights of citizenship.''

You know, the opportunity to cast a ballot is not just an opportunity. It is not simply a responsibility. But it is a right--the right--the right that embodies all it means to a republic in which the power flows from the people.

Our Nation, however imperfect in the beginning, has worked toward this vision of citizens through the ballot box, driving the vision of our Nation, for over 200 years, overcoming barrier after barrier. We overcame some of the barriers of race with the 14th and 15th Amendments. We overcame the barriers of gender with the 19th Amendment. We overcame barriers that had denied Native Americans the right to vote with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. We overcame the barriers of Jim Crow with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But now, as we stand in this Chamber, the central right of each citizen's opportunity to participate in the election through the ballot box is again under attack.

Right now as we speak, there are 253 bills in 43 States assaulting the right to vote. These efforts are designed to make it harder for students to vote, for low-income Americans to vote, for Native Americans to vote, for seniors to vote, and most insidiously, for Black and Brown Americans to vote. And I say ``most insidiously'' because blocking access to the ballot has been a massive form of systemic racism throughout our history for Black Americans.

But all of us in this Chamber have taken an oath to the Constitution. All of us have a responsibility to defend the ballot box. It is our responsibility to knock down the barriers that others would put up to prevent citizens from having the opportunity to participate in our elections. That is exactly what S. 1, For the People, does in the face of the greatest attack on voting rights in this Nation since Jim Crow.

This legislation puts the power back where it belongs--in the hands of the people.

This bill said that if you believe in the vision of our democratic Republic, then you believe in voter empowerment, not voter intimidation, not voter obstruction, not voter suppression.

This bill says that the people should choose their politicians, not the other way around. Gerrymandering attacks the very notion of equal representation that is so important in the social contract of the citizens with their government. So this bill says we will have an independent commission in each State to draw the boundaries of the districts so that we put an end to partisan gerrymandering.

This bill says that government of, by, and for the people means you can't have a stadium sound system turned up to full volume, drowning out the voice of the people. And what is that stadium sound system? It is the dark money, hundreds of millions of dollars of unidentified funds racing and coursing through our elections across this country, doing attack ads, with citizens having no idea where that funding is coming from. That is simply wrong.

This bill says that public servants should work in the public interest, not to line their own pockets, not to serve simply the wealthy or the powerful or the privileged.

These points are straightforward. We have been fighting to improve and guarantee the vision of government of, by, and for th people over our entire history. Now, to protect our system of voting, the foundation of our Republic, we have to get this bill over the finish line. We have an extraordinary team working to make that happen, Senators with sturdy, clear ideals and excellent ideas and grit and determination coming together to save our Republic: Senator Klobuchar, who will be speaking next--author of several of the key provisions of this bill, including bipartisan provisions--who tomorrow will be chairing the first-ever Senate hearing on this landmark legislation; Senator Padilla, who knows exactly what it is like to be a secretary of state and has been an amazing champion for voter empowerment in his home State; Senator Van Hollen, who led the EMPOWER Act and the Restoring Integrity to America's Elections Act; Senator Whitehouse, who authored the DISCLOSE Act portion of the bill and is a tremendous leader on campaign finance reform.

Today, our Nation is at a crossroads. Are we going to be a nation for ``we the people,'' or are we going to be a nation for ``we the powerful''?

We must pass the For the People Act to save our democracy. As our leader said last week, ``Failure is not an option.'' So let's get it done, and let's ensure, as Abraham Lincoln declared, that ``government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.''

I yield to Senator Klobuchar.

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues who have come to the floor to speak so powerfully to the essential task of defending the ballot box, of stripping dark money out of our elections, of honoring the vision of equal representation by ending the practice of gerrymandering across this country.

Senator Klobuchar, who chairs the Rules Committee and who will host and direct the committee hearing, the first ever for S. 1, For the People Act, made a powerful representation of how vote-by-mail gives every citizen a full opportunity to participate in elections without the manipulations that can occur on election day, when different people who do not want you to have access to a ballot can put all kinds of hurdles and obstacles in your way.

Senator Van Hollen, who authored the DISCLOSE Act in the House, reminded us of John Lewis and his fellow protestors being beaten bloody on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to secure the right to vote, as so many other Americans have fought for the right to vote since our founding.

Senator Padilla, who implemented so many reforms in California as Secretary of State, gave us a sense that this can be done anywhere in the country in time for next year's elections.

Senator Whitehouse, who has championed the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate, noted that there is a scheme of 501(c)(3) corporations and donor advice trusts and phony-baloney shell corporations, as he put it, all working to corrupt our campaigns and that the amount of money that has been used to secure power to the powerful by manipulating the elections now exceeds $1 billion.

And Senator Durbin, who has championed year after year after year the Fair Elections Now Act, presenting a powerful remedy for the role of Big Money donations in our campaigns through public financing--public financing, not with government funds but with funds that come from corporate malfeasance.

So I appreciate so much these colleagues who have been all involved in so many different ways in this battle to save our Republic.

There is always a powerful force seeking to manipulate the election process to their favor, and it is one of many tools that that powerful group brings to bear. There are the dozens of lawyers who work night and day, being paid hundreds of dollars an hour, to secure power for the powerful. There are the public media campaigns that take tens of millions of dollars to frame issues to try to persuade Americans of their particular viewpoint or to drive a wedge between different groups of Americans. There is that dark money. There are those efforts in State legislatures to block the vote.

I want to just close by reminding us all that the Constitution clearly states that elections for Senators and House Members, this body--Congress--has the ability to pass laws to make sure those elections are fair across this country because every American of any State has a clear stake in the legitimacy of the elections in other States because it is the collective voice here that makes decisions. So this is not only a responsibility provided to us, it is a responsibility that we must fulfill to defend the ballot box, to end gerrymandering violating equal representation, and clear that dark money, polluting and corrupting our campaigns, out of the system forevermore.

Let's get this essential bill, this essential defense of the pulsating heart of our democracy, the ballot box--let's get this bill passed.

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