WVCCA Resolution Opposing the Passage of H.R. 1 & S. 1

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, the United States is a beacon of democracy in the world, and our Nation was founded on free and fair elections, but if the American people don't have confidence in our elections, we don't have a sustainable democracy.

Right now, unfortunately, many people do not have confidence. People across the country are mad when they look at the blatant power grab by the Democrats to fundamentally change our democracy. Do you know what? They should be mad. We are talking about the sacred right to vote.

If we want to continue as a thriving democracy, we have to take action so that Americans trust in free and fair elections. That is why I introduced the Save Democracy Act so as to restore faith in our Federal elections and guarantee that voters decide the outcomes of elections, not the courts.

I also introduced the Promoting Election Integrity by Proving Voter Identity Act so as to require voter ID. It is pretty simple. If you want to vote in person, you will need to bring your current and valid ID. If you want to vote by mail, you will need to provide a copy of your ID. Like I said, it is pretty simple and straightforward. If we want, and we do--we want 100 percent participation in our elections, and we want zero fraud. We want it to be easy to vote and very hard to cheat. Voter ID helps us meet that goal.

Of course, the Democrats will do anything to fight against these commonsense reforms. Instead, the Democrats are pushing S. 1, otherwise known as the Corrupt Politicians Act. S. 1 is the most ridiculous legislation I have seen since I have come to the Senate. I would need hours to go through all of it. For our purposes here today, I want to highlight just one piece of this lunacy: using taxpayer dollars to pay for political campaigns.

The Democrats want to use your tax dollars to subsidize their political campaigns. Think about how anti-democratic it is to allow public servants to use the people's money to manipulate the people themselves. Just to be crystal clear, here is what is exactly being proposed by the Democrats in this anti-democratic bill: Public officials--the government--take money from you. Then they use that money to pay for their campaign ads in order to manipulate you.

This bill is nothing but a political power grab by Washington Democrats. New Hampshire Democrat Secretary of State Bill Gardner even said recently that S. 1 was a power grab by the Federal Government that would ``trample New Hampshire's state constitution.''

Under the Democrats' plan, a candidate for the Senate in California could spend $80 million in taxpayer dollars to run attack ads and fund his campaign--$80 million. In Georgia, a Senate candidate could get as much as $25 million in taxpayer money. Candidates in Arizona could get almost $19 million. New York candidates would get more than $44 million. That doesn't make any sense.

What kind of return on investment are the American people getting when their hard-earned tax dollars are funding attack ads? Why is the Federal Government in the business of funding campaigns? Because my Democratic colleagues want the government to take your money and spend it on trying to manipulate your vote.

Only in Washington would a bunch of politicians look at the challenges from recovering from the pandemic and decide the most important thing we can do is make taxpayers fund campaign ads.

This is the most radical piece of voting legislation this Nation has ever seen at a time when restoring confidence in our elections has never been more important.

I was sent to the U.S. Senate to fight for Floridians and Americans against corrupt politicians. Here is my promise to every American family: I am going to fight every day to make sure the Democrats do not try to take your money to manipulate your vote.

If we are serious about working together to move our country forward, restore public trust in our elections, and protect democracy, we need to reject the insanity of S. 1 and look to commonsense reforms like voter ID.

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