Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, ``let the good times roll''; ``laissez les bons temps rouler.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Wisconsin for yielding, and I thank Chip Roy for bringing the SAVE America Act to the House floor.

This is a bill that is critically important to one of the most precious franchises in America, and that is the sacred right to vote, the right that so many gave their lives to preserve, to allow to pass on to our next generation.

The importance of that vote is even more underscored when you recognize that, yes, there have been times where people have stolen your vote, Mr. Speaker. That veteran who was talked about deserves the right to vote. If somebody votes illegally, Mr. Speaker, they are stealing that veteran's vote. They are stealing your vote. They are stealing everybody's votes if we allow people who aren't legally eligible to vote to participate in elections.

How can you best preserve that? One way is that, when you are registering to vote, you have to prove citizenship. It is in this bill. Another way is when you go to vote, you just have to show your ID.

This is not some convoluted idea, Mr. Speaker. You hear the other side talking about it as the end of the world. Their own leaders have referred to it as ``Jim Crow.''

It is not the first time that they have used that phrase. They used that when the State of Georgia put an ID requirement on voting. They said it was going to be horrible and take away people's rights. It was going to disenfranchise minority voters, Mr. Speaker. That is what they said, but then what happened? We have actually got history to go look at.

After Georgia passed that law that was called every ridiculous name in the book, what we saw was record participation in elections. You actually had the University of Georgia that went and asked voters after that election, and a whopping zero percent, Mr. Speaker, of Black voters said they had a poor experience going to the ballot. Over 72 percent said they had an excellent experience at the ballot. Then, you could go further.

By the way, the American people get this. They understand that there are examples of voter fraud. I come from a State where our elections commissioner went to jail--yes, went to Federal prison--for stealing elections. We cleaned up our election system in our State. We have seen an increase in voter participation.

Why? Again, they would tell you if you actually increased the integrity of elections by requiring picture ID that somehow it is going to suppress votes, but the opposite happens, Mr. Speaker. What really does happen is that voters now have confidence in the sanctity of elections. More people will participate because they know that somebody is not going to be stealing their vote by showing up when they are not supposed to be there, just by requiring a picture ID.

Americans have been asked about this. An overwhelming 83 percent of Americans are in favor of requiring a photo ID to vote. That is not Republicans. That is all across the spectrum. Over 70 percent of Democrats support picture ID, 82 percent of Hispanic Americans support picture ID to vote, and 76 percent of Black Americans support a picture ID to vote.

If they still want to lie to people on the other side, Mr. Speaker, if they still want to try to scare people and talk about Jim Crow, then you might want to ask those same people why the Democratic Party at their convention just in 2024 required photo ID to get in. You couldn't get into the Democratic convention without showing a photo ID. If they want to call it Jim Crow, they need to look in the mirror, Mr. Speaker.

If you want to ensure the sanctity of the vote, the SAVE America Act does that. You will see higher participation because Americans across all spectrums--Black, White, Hispanic, Republican, Democrat, Independent--will know that there is a higher likelihood that nobody there is showing up illegally to steal your vote if you have the right to vote.

One person, one vote--that is the mantra that we all ought to embrace. The SAVE America Act gets us back to that great franchise of American democracy, and that is the right to vote.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everybody to pass this bill over to the Senate and then the Senate to get it to President Trump's desk so we can strengthen American democracy.

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