Voting Rights
Floor Speech
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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in supporting S. 2747, the Freedom to Vote Act; and S. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act; and S. 2615, the Right to Vote Act.
As some States and political operatives around the country seek to roll back voter protection laws and gerrymander voting districts, Congress must act to strengthen the freedom to vote and ensure elections are safe and accessible.
Since its original passage in 1965, the Voting Rights Act safeguarded the rights of historically marginalized voters at the polls.
Sadly, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder gutted key Voting Rights Act protections. Earlier this year, in July 2021, the Supreme Court issued another split ruling further weakening the law in its decision in Brnovich v. DNC, making it more difficult to challenge discriminatory voting laws under section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Over the years, this democracy has seen a crisis in access to the polls, and it has been worsened recently as Republican-led State legislatures have implemented policies that disproportionately suppress the voting rights of people of color, the elderly, college students, and those living in rural areas, among others. Those same political operatives have repeatedly weaponized false claims of election fraud, like those perpetuated by former President Trump, to try to overturn the will of the people.
The right to vote is a fundamental right guaranteed by our Constitution and our desired responsibility to protect it. In the United States of America, a beacon of democracy, our elections must be open and transparent and follow a process and procedure that all Americans can trust. It is more important than ever for Congress to affirm that voters have a right to free and fair elections.
The Freedom to Vote Act fulfills this constitutional responsibility by improving access to the ballot, advancing commonsense election integrity reforms, and protecting our democracy from emerging threats from cyber attacks to misinformation bots. It is not the job of government to make it hard to vote; rather, it is our responsibility to balance the convenience of voters with the security of their ballots. This legislation does just that.
I also support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which will repair the damage done by the Supreme Court's decisions by restoring the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division's oversight over historically discriminatory States when they change voting laws and legislative districts.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would provide needed Federal oversight and serve as a check on communities that have engaged in a pattern of restricting voting rights and making it harder for minority voters to be counted.
Finally, I support the Right to Vote Act, which would establish the first- ever statutory right to vote in Federal elections, therefore allowing Americans to enforce that right by challenging in court any policy that restricts ballot access.
This legislation takes an enshrined right and empowers the people with the tools to defend it. This way, States attempting to restrict voting access will have to meet a high bar to justify any policy that makes it harder for U.S. citizens to participate in Federal elections.
Restricting the ability of Americans to freely and fairly cast their ballots threatens the very core of our Nation's founding democratic principles.
As Americans deal with the ongoing effects of COVID-19 and prepare for elections in the coming months and years, we should be removing-- not adding--unnecessary barriers to voting.
While efforts to pass voting rights legislation have been stymied by Senate Republicans, you can be assured that I will continue to stand ready and willing to work with my colleagues in Congress to defend Americans' right to vote, end partisan gerrymandering, and prevent voter suppression.
The vote today will allow us to begin a much-needed debate on the topic of voting rights. I ask my Republican colleagues to come to the table and join us in this conversation about how we can protect our elections and safeguard American democracy.
I urge all my colleagues to support these important bills that would protect and advance voting rights in our country.
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Mr. REED. Mr. President, in reserving my right to object, on August 24, the Secretary of Defense determined that the mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 was necessary to protect the force and defend the American people.
Vaccination is not mandatory for any servicemember who has a legitimate medical or religious reason for not being vaccinated.
Mandatory vaccinations are limited to only FDA-approved vaccines. All FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines have been determined to be safe and effective.
According to press reports, as of October 4, Active-Duty vaccination rates are as follows: the Army, 81 percent; the Navy, 90 percent; the Air Force, 80.9 percent; and the Marine Corps, 76.5 percent.
Mandatory vaccination is not a new issue for military personnel. Mandatory vaccinations for critical illnesses are mission critical, and requiring vaccination is almost as old as the military itself. I can personally verify that point. Indeed, servicemembers are currently required to get 17 different vaccinations when they enter the military or before deploying overseas, including for measles, mumps, diphtheria, hepatitis, smallpox, and the flu.
We need a healthy and ready force. We saw what happened when Navy ships were contaminated with COVID. They weren't ready to deploy. They couldn't deploy. They were tied up. Their effectiveness and ability to defend the country were marginalized, to say the least. I think this is absolutely incongruent with the practice and mission of the military.
One other thing I would say is that one of the most fundamental ethics of the military is that every soldier, sailor, marine, airman, and guardian is prepared to sacrifice for their fellow servicemember, and the idea that one would put their own personal feelings ahead of the potential for contaminating or sickening another servicemember and affecting the unit is something that I don't think squares with the ethic of the U.S. military or the effectiveness of the force.
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