Providing for Consideration of S. Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Law- Enforcement Innovate to De-Escalate Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Undersea Cable Protection Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Securing America's Critical Minerals Supply Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we have four bills in this rule today. All of them are completely closed--no amendments, no debate, completely closed. I feel like I am in Russia. Three of them are from the failed rule last night, which was the third failed rule in this Congress, the seventh under Speaker Johnson, and the tenth of the reigning Republican majority. That alone demonstrates Republicans' inability to govern.
Then we have the so-called SAVE America Act. The gentleman from Texas is going to spend today's debate trying to convince you that this is a commonsense, simple bill, but I want you to remember a very few important facts while he is talking.
First of all, it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections, period, full stop. If noncitizens are voting in Federal elections, they should be prosecuted. We don't disagree on that.
Second, nobody disputes the fact that voters should follow the law and indicate who they are. We agree on that, too. Nobody is debating that on the floor today.
What we are debating is whether we are going to believe the BS conspiracy theories cooked up by Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans about whether or not elections can be trusted in this country.
What we are debating is whether, in response to those lies, we are going to require Americans to go down to their county clerk, to take the train to city hall, or to drive down to the registrar's office and jump through bureaucratic hoops just to register to vote.
Who asked for more red tape? Did Jim Crow call?
I mean, that is what this bill is about. It is not about voter ID. It is about voter registration, and it is about voter suppression.
We always tell people to vote, make their voices heard, participate in our democracy, right? Those are supposed to be good things.
Why are Republicans passing a bill that makes it as hard as possible to vote? I will let them answer that question, but I guess it is about what I have come to expect from a party that no longer believes in democracy, though.
Yesterday, in the Rules Committee, I asked the chairman of the Committee on House Administration a simple question: Did Donald Trump win or lose the State of Minnesota in the last three Presidential elections? It is not a curve ball; not a difficult question.
Of course, anyone living in reality knows the answer to this--Donald Trump lost Minnesota three times--but not Donald Trump. He continues denying election results. He said just last Friday that because of voter fraud, he feels he won Minnesota.
The Republican chairman of the House Administration Committee, the congressional committee which regulates Federal election laws, couldn't give me a straight answer, couldn't answer that question. He couldn't tell me if he agreed with Donald Trump. He wouldn't say who won Minnesota. He went through all kinds of contortions to avoid answering the question.
I mean, this is a simple question. That is shocking, Mr. Speaker. I mean, you guys want America to trust you to write our election laws? Americans can't even trust you to tell us who won the election.
Oh, and then here is another thing: One of the changes that were made--by the way, this bill didn't go through committee process. I mean, this was kind of rushed to the floor. All kinds of major changes have been made in the last week, but here is one of the major changes: This bill, if passed, was supposed to take effect in the year 2027. There is a change in this bill. It takes place immediately, for this election.
I mean, how is that going to happen? We have elections beginning in a matter of a few weeks, and you are expecting every State to be able to comply with all these new rules and regulations, like, immediately?
This is about sowing chaos and confusion. My friends on the other side know they are probably going to lose the next election, and they are going to lose big. Rather than live up to the reality or respect the voters, they are going to try to make up some conspiracy theory that the election was stolen or undocumented migrants came in and voted against them.
Here is the hard truth: If Republicans want to know why people are losing faith in our elections, they ought to look in the mirror. They ought to look in the mirror.
People are losing faith because Donald Trump, the election denier in chief, can't admit he lost. People are losing faith because Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel's FBI raided an election office in Fulton County, Georgia, based on recycled conspiracy theories. They seized 2020 election results, even though it was Donald Trump who asked the Georgia Secretary of State to find 11,780 ballots so that he can win, even though he lost, and that is on tape.
They are losing faith in our elections because they saw Pam Bondi trying to shake down Minnesota's State government, saying the administration would only withdraw ICE if Minnesota handed over their voter rolls to Trump's DOJ. They are losing faith because of bills like this, which force every State in America to give their voter rolls over to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Let that sink in. She is probably one of the least trustworthy people in the country right now. I wouldn't trust Kristi Noem to tell me the correct time, and we are asking States to turn over their voting rolls to her. Give me a break.
We don't need any more lectures from Republicans about the sanctity of democracy or why people are losing faith in our democratic institutions. We know why, and we know what this bill is. This is Jim Crow 2.0. Republicans think that when fewer Americans vote, they win. It is as simple as that.
I am so sick of the other side just making things up. This widespread voter fraud conspiracy is all part of the same election denialism that goes right up to the Oval Office.
The other side has been making these claims for years now. We have heard about this for over a decade. They claim that massive numbers of noncitizens are voting, swaying elections, and that rampant voter fraud is changing results.
Every single one of those claims, Mr. Speaker, has been investigated again and again by Republican Governors and Republican Secretaries of State, by journalists, by academic researchers, and by President Trump himself, whose own voter fraud commission was disbanded because he couldn't find enough evidence to warrant the absurd allegations that he was making.
Every time these claims are investigated, they disappear like a mirage. This entire bill is fundamentally predicated on a lie. In fact, when you crunch the numbers, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than to successfully impersonate someone at the polls. Enough already.
The SAVE America Act is a terrible bill that makes it harder for American citizens to participate in our democracy. That is it.
America does not want to be saved by a Republican Party that spent a year propping up Trump's tariffs, which have driven costs through the roof. We don't want to be saved by the people who continue covering up for pedophiles in the Epstein files. America certainly doesn't want to be saved by the same people who still can't get over losing the 2020 election so they are going to try to rig the next one.
Go save somebody else, but we don't want this garbage. We will fight like hell to stop you from making it harder for millions of Americans to register to vote.
We know why you are doing this. It is because you are afraid that you are going to lose in November. Well, too bad. Too bad. Either change your crappy policies or face the voters and deal with the consequences of your own actions. Those are the only two options in a democracy.
Mr. Speaker, let me first correct the gentleman from Texas, who mischaracterized deliberately my remarks. I made it very clear in my opening, and I will read it again to him, that if noncitizens are voting in Federal elections, they should be prosecuted. We all believe it. He doesn't have to listen if he doesn't want to, but please don't mischaracterize what I said.
Mr. Speaker, I am looking over to the other side of the aisle and can't help but be stunned by the number of people over there who I remember coming on this floor and denying the election results in the year 2020 because they didn't like the results.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge that we defeat the previous question. If we do, I will offer an amendment to the rule to make in order amendment No. 10 to the SAVE America Act, which prohibits Members of Congress, the President, the Vice President, their spouses, and dependents from owning or trading stocks.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, to discuss our proposal, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Morelle), the sponsor of the amendment and the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration.
Let's talk about common sense for a second. When the gentleman from Texas introduced this bill, the effective date was in 2027. All of a sudden, because, I think, a right-winger on their side did a tweet that caused all kinds of chaos, they moved for it to take effect immediately, notwithstanding the fact we have primaries beginning in some States in a matter of just a few weeks.
I would just point out to the gentleman who just spoke that we have this thing called a Real ID. For 20 years, we have been trying to implement it. We spent billions of dollars trying to implement it and still not everybody has it. It has taken 20 years. My colleagues are pushing all these new changes on States. They have to do it in a matter of a couple of weeks?
We all know what this is about. We all know what this is about. People see through this. This is not about protecting our democracy. It is not about preventing undocumented immigrants from voting. That is already illegal in this country. This is about sowing confusion and chaos because they know they are going to lose the next election. What an underhanded way to deal with elections in our democracy. What an insult to the American people.
Simon).
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Mr. McGOVERN. ''
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Mr. McGOVERN. We Can Prove It.''
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Mr. McGOVERN. . . expansive voter fraud concerns espoused by Donald Trump and those aligned with him are not grounded in any observable features of the 2016 election.''
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the final thing I will say before I yield to my colleague here is that not too long ago former Governor Rick Scott claimed erroneously that there were hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants registered to vote in Florida. He launched this massive investigation and spent all kinds of money investigating it. It was essentially a witch hunt.
I would ask my colleagues if they know how many people were prosecuted in that or convicted of any crime. One person was prosecuted.
Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) read a list, and I asked him to yield to me, but he didn't want to. What the gentleman was doing was cherry-picking cases basically to sow distrust in our elections, just like Donald Trump does.
If the gentleman wants to read a list, I will read a list.
Matt DePerno, a former Michigan Republican State attorney general candidate, was charged with conspiracy and undue possession of a voting machine.
Former Republican Michigan State Representative Daire Rendon was also charged with conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine and false pretenses. What was Ms. Rendon's punishment for this? The Republican Party promoted her to be the chairwoman of the party in her congressional district.
A Republican county clerk in Colorado, Tina Peters, is in prison for a scheme to breach voting systems, fueled by 2020 election conspiracy theories.
A Republican official in Georgia was fined for illegally voting multiple times.
A former GOP lawmaker in Arizona pled guilty to attempted election fraud involving forged signatures.
In North Carolina, four people pled guilty on Monday to misdemeanors for their roles in absentee ballot fraud in rural North Carolina during the 2016 and 2018 elections to help Republican congressional candidates.
Let's not even get into Donald Trump actually being recorded--it is recorded--asking for 11,800 votes to basically change the results in Georgia during the 2020 election.
If my Republican friends want to talk about voter fraud, look in the mirror. Johnson).
Mr. Speaker, I love the fact that all these guys have are statistically insignificant anecdotes that they like to put forward here.
The gentleman from Texas talked about how wonderful the economy was. This is an article that just appeared today. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that U.S. employers added 181,000 jobs last year, far fewer than the 1.46 million that were added in 2024.
You may be impressed by that, but I am not a cheap date when it comes to making sure people have jobs in this country.
The gentleman from Texas said that we don't want to protect elections. We do. We want to protect them from you. We want to protect them from Trump. We want to protect them from all of you who are trying to suppress the vote, who are constantly in denial over the results of our elections.
Last night, we had Republicans come before the Committee on Rules, and they couldn't even bring themselves to say who won the 2020 election. They couldn't even say that Donald Trump lost Minnesota. They are so afraid of being punished by this administration. It is pathetic.
McClellan).
Mr. Speaker, I disagree very strongly with what was just said. I don't see Trump trying to preserve our elections. I have been witnessing him trying to undermine trust in our elections and to rig our elections.
Mr. Speaker, the bill before us is a prime example of how awful the process has been under this Republican majority. The SAVE America Act was introduced by the gentleman of Texas just 12 days ago, and it included significant changes from its original version, the SAVE Act.
After the SAVE America Act's initial introduction, the Committee on Rules posted a complete rewrite of it last Friday. Even after two sweeping rounds of edits, Republicans were not done changing their half-baked bill. Yesterday, they posted a manager's amendment, which makes more changes, including changing when the bill would take effect and which voter IDs would be acceptable. We have seen three totally different versions of this bill in a dozen days.
It is important to say that all of these changes were backroom deals. There were no hearings, no markups, no regular order. The chairman of the Committee on House Administration didn't even feign a desire to include rank-and-file members in the process. He actually requested a completely closed rule for this bill.
Mr. Speaker, bad process is not a rare occurrence around here. It is a fundamental feature of Republican governance. Last Congress, Republican leadership made history for running the most closed, unproductive, dysfunctional Congress in modern American history. This Congress, Republicans have only doubled down on this shameful record.
Eighty-four percent of measures that Republicans have sent to the House floor have been totally closed, no amendments, no discussion, no democracy, just take it or leave it. Republican leadership has blocked 82 percent of amendments submitted to the Committee on Rules, over 3,300 amendments blocked, including most Republican amendments, and over 60 percent of bipartisan amendments.
If you are a Democrat, forget it. I am not sure they even read what we submit.
This blockade on amendments is leading to some shameful records. For example, this Republican majority set a record for the fewest House votes cast in the first session of a 2-year Congress in over 35 years. Under Speaker Johnson, the Committee on Rules is where democracy goes to die.
With that in mind, Mr. Speaker, why should we trust Republicans to rewrite voting laws when they are setting records for blocking voting in the people's House? This Republican Congress is an insult to the American people and a disgrace to our democracy.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from Texas I appreciate him reading that list, but the reason we know about that is because those people were caught. The list I read of Republican officials who were caught engaging in voter fraud, the reason we know about it because they were caught. The system is working. Stop trying to sow division and chaos into our electoral system.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the gentleman from Texas who wrote this bill: How the hell are States supposed to implement this new bill in a matter a few weeks? His original bill gave States until 2027. We have primaries coming up in a matter of a couple of weeks. How the hell is this going to be implemented, Mr. Speaker? This is ridiculous. This is about sowing division and chaos in our elections. The bottom line is it is a rotten thing to do.
People want to participate in our democracy. They want to vote. I am going to tell you, I can't wait until the next election because they are going to vote you guys right out of office. The economy stinks under this administration. I mean, the rhetoric coming out of this White House is appalling. Enough.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I am not going to respond to the gentleman who characterized January 6 as a normal day of tourism here.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for pointing out these anecdotal cases of voter fraud, and I appreciate the fact that he mentioned they were all caught, just like all the Republican officials that I read, and I have a volume more that I could read. They were caught, so it sounds like the system works.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.
Mr. Speaker, let me state, again, for the gentleman from Texas, because he doesn't seem to understand me: Nobody should vote illegally.
If this is the rampant problem they say it is, then maybe he should call Pam Bondi and ask her why she has only secured one or two voter fraud convictions nationwide out of over 155 million votes cast in 2024.
Maybe he should explain to us why his solution to a small handful of voter fraud cases is to punish the 155 million American citizens who did vote by making it harder for them to vote the next time.
Again, Republicans keep insisting there is this massive voter fraud conspiracy. The onus is on them to prove their absurd claim. Every time they try, every time this is investigated by States, by commissions, and by prosecutors, the result is the same: no widespread voter fraud conspiracy. There have been billions of votes cast over decades and a teeny tiny percentage of fraud. That is not a crisis, and it certainly is not a justification to rewrite the rules of democracy. But that is what is happening with the Republican lies to erode the trust in our democracy. That is why this bill is so toxic.
Again, the SAVE America Act tells millions of Americans: You have to show up in person and jump through hoops just to register to vote. Mr. Speaker, you can file your taxes online, you can pay your bills online, and you can get your medical results online, but if this bill passes, you can't fully register to vote online. That is nuts.
You have to buy a passport, Mr. Speaker--that is $130--or you have to buy a copy of your birth certificate. Good luck, because you might even have to pick that up in person. What if a person lives in a rural community and has to drive 100 miles round trip just to get to the clerk's office?
What if they can't afford to take the day off from work just to register to vote?
Who gets punished?
They are students, seniors, Americans with disabilities, and working parents who just can't leave a shift early to stand in line at a clerk's office window that closes at 5:00.
We know this isn't really about voter fraud. It is not about protecting our elections. This is a smokescreen. It is a distraction. If Republicans wanted to protect elections, they would be focused on real threats: cyberattacks, foreign interference, disinformation, intimidation, and violence against election workers. That is where the real danger is. Yet this bill does nothing to address those things.
The SAVE America Act is about denying elections and sowing distress in our system. That is because, according to Donald Trump, it is only fair and square when he wins. When Democrats win, then it is fraud. That is their whole argument in a nutshell.
The most ironic thing of all is that Republican leaders are the ones who seem to commit voter fraud the most. A Republican county clerk in Colorado is in prison for a scheme to breach voting systems fueled by 2020 election conspiracy theories. A Republican official in Georgia was fined for illegally voting multiple times. There was a former GOP lawmaker in Arizona.
Mr. Speaker, this isn't about voter suppression. This is a lousy bill, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I know mistakes happen, but just so everyone knows what is happening here: You introduced a bill less than 2 weeks ago. Then you gutted that with a substitute amendment. Then you changed that version with a manager's amendment. Now you have to fix that amendment.
There was no hearing, no markup, and a slew of changes and fixes in a matter of days. It makes you wonder what other mistakes there are, all to make it harder for millions of people to vote.
I would just say to my colleagues: Slow down. Do this process right. You want to implement this bill in a matter of weeks when we have primary elections coming up in a matter of weeks? I mean, it should give everybody pause. This process of legislating here needs to improve. Amendment Offered by Mr. Roy
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
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