Elections

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about the need for integrity in our elections.

On Monday, the Democrats on the Rules Committee took a field trip. The Democrats went to Georgia. They continued their efforts there to start a panic about election laws. Now, I am sure they will take more field trips in the months ahead. Taking over State election laws seems to be the Democrats' No. 1 priority. It was their No. 1 bill in the House, H.R. 1. It was their No. 1 bill in the Senate, S. 1. The Democrats claim that they are only responding to reforms passed in the States, and they say it is just the reforms passed in the States this year. Yet the election takeover bills that the Democrats have introduced were first drafted years ago. It is not in response to anything.

Don't let the Democrats kid you. It is an attack on States' rights and an attempt to stack the deck. After Democrats took over Washington, they rushed this takeover bill right through the House of Representatives, with Nancy Pelosi at the helm. Then they tried to rush a similar bill through the Senate, and they failed. Senator Schumer continues to say the Democrats will try again.

At the State level, most recently in Texas, the Democrats are obstructing the democratic process in order to block election reforms from becoming law. Rather than allow an election reform bill to pass, Texas Democrats fled the State. They took private jets to Washington, DC. They hobnobbed with the Vice President, and they hobnobbed with the Speaker of the House and with many Democratic Senators. They sent out a lot of fundraising emails in the process, and they did a lot of television interviews. They took a lot of pictures of themselves, published them on social media, and told everyone they were making a heroic effort. They said it was a sacrifice.

Well, six of the Democrats became infected with the coronavirus. Then they spread the virus. It wasn't enough they infected each other; they spread the virus to staffers at the White House and here on Capitol Hill. It was a political stunt, and it turned into a coronavirus superspreader event, and I am sure they still consider themselves heroes. The hypocrisy is astonishing.

In the name of the democratic process, they actually blocked the democratic process, disregarded the will of the voters, and shut down the function of State government. They took a joyride on a private jet and endangered the health of many others. They believe in winning at any cost, and they put democracy in second place. This whole stunt is not about voter rights; it is about power. The Democrats are going to keep trying to keep the panic alive.

President Biden went to Philadelphia last week, and he spread even more falsehoods about the law. Now, I can understand why President Biden is doing everything he can to change the subject from the failures of his current administration. We have an open southern border that Americans are very disturbed about; we have surging violence in Democratic cities in the streets; and we have rising inflation that is hitting every family in America. Of course, President Biden doesn't want to talk about his one failure after another after another. So, instead, he throws rhetorical grenades at the Republicans, and he tells stories.

The Democrats' scare tactics on State voting laws are not going to work.

Their claims are false, and they have been repeatedly disproved.

The American people are finding out what is in the Democrats' election bills, and they do not like it. It is not pretty. It is ballot harvesting, which people reject. It is automatic voter registration, which many, many reject. It is taxpayer funding of political activities and campaigns, which Americans reject. It is giving the vote to felons on parole, which Americans reject.

It is 800 pages of mandates, which Americans hate, and it is banning voter ID laws nationwide at a time when voters across the country from both parties, all political persuasions, think voter ID laws are critical to ballot integrity and security. The more the American people find out what is in these bills, the more they oppose them.

You know, it has never been easier to vote in the United States. You take a look at the statistics from this past election year, never been easier. The American people know it.

American people support commonsense laws, which make it easier to vote and harder to cheat, but they do not support the Democrats' radical election takeover.

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