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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I am so grateful that we are having this discussion on the floor.

I will note that our friends across the aisle wanted a unanimous consent just to pass pay for TSA workers. I think it is imperative that we remind the body and also remind our citizens that this is one of their ploys. They have a ploy that they are trying to pull off here wherein their goal is to defund Federal law enforcement, abolish ICE, and return to a wide-open border. The only way they can get to that is if they use the American people and TSA workers as pawns in their scheme and say ``We are only going to fund them but not the rest of Homeland Security,'' because their goal is to defund Federal law enforcement, to abolish ICE, and to return to an open border.

But the American people are smart. They are watching, and they are listening. They see that what the Democrat Party has chosen to do with this continued shutdown--for now more than a month--is to not fund FEMA. Of course, many people need emergency management assistance right now. They don't want to fund TSA. They are asking them to work without paychecks. It is the same thing for the Secret Service. By the way, it is the same thing for those in Homeland Security Investigations, who are going after drug dealers, pedophiles, predators, and a lot of bad actors who came in across our border during the Biden administration.

So the American people know what this is about. They also know that by a vast majority--83 percent, actually, including 71 percent of all Democrats--83 percent of the American people think it is reasonable that if you go to the polls to vote, you show an ID. They do this many times a day, and they think that is common sense. You prove that you are who you are. If you go to a doctor's office, you are going to do that. When I go to the children's school to have lunch or pick them up, I show that ID. So of course you should do that when you go to the polls and cast that ballot.

In Tennessee, we have been rated No. 1 in election integrity. There is a reason for this. In Tennessee, you do a few simple things when you cast that vote. You show an ID. Our voter rolls are well maintained, and if you are going to register, you have to be a U.S. citizen. All common sense. All supported by 83 percent of the American people. You do that because you respect ``one person, one vote,'' and you want each and every vote to count.

You do that because you respect the men and women who have put on the uniform and have fought to defend the freedom of this great Nation so that you and I and each of our citizens have the opportunity to go to the polls and cast that vote. It is why voting has remained such a cherished institution in our representative form of government.

The SAVE America Act would require that everyone present that ID when they cast a ballot, it would require proof of citizenship in order to vote, and it would make certain that people who are not citizens are not going to vote in our elections.

This legislation should be going to President Trump's desk, and I am so pleased that he has really come out in front of this discussion and said: Let's get this done.

I find it really almost laughable that some of my colleagues are trying to say: Well, this would disenfranchise people. It would make it difficult for people to vote.

No, it would not, but what it would do is make certain that we know who is voting.

I think the other thing, too, is that it would make it harder to cheat. If you clean up your rolls, if you have to prove that you are a citizen, if you have to prove that you are who you are when you go to the polls to vote, it would make it more difficult to cheat.

There are 14 States in this country that require zero documentation in order to vote, and there are 12 other States that do not require a photo ID to cast a ballot. Some of these States--California, Hawaii, and New York--fail to take basic steps to ensure the accuracy of their voter registration lists.

There are some ways that States could do this if they wanted to. This isn't rocket science. These are things that the secretaries of state organization will tell you that many States do--States like Tennessee-- choose to do this.

Many of these States that work to keep these rolls clean and accurate go through and compare their voter rolls with the Social Security Administration's death records. Now, why would they do that? Well, it is to make certain that if you are mailing out ballots, you are not mailing unsolicited ballots and that you are not mailing ballots to an address where someone is deceased and someone could possibly have that ballot fall into hands and have someone vote who is not allowed to vote.

Our colleagues across the aisle, in addition, like to claim that there is very little illegal alien voting that takes place here in the country--oh, that never happens.

I heard one of my colleagues earlier today talking about this issue and saying: Well, there is just not that much of a problem here. But just this week, the New York Post reported that illegal aliens from China, India, Cuba, and other nations have voted in United States elections and, you know what, it goes back decades.

And across the country, the Heritage Foundation has documented hundreds of instances of proven voter fraud. In October, Texas discovered more than 2,700 potential noncitizens on its voter rolls using the Federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database--one database, 2,700. Ohio, that same month, found more than a thousand potential noncitizens registered to vote in the State. Governor Youngkin over in Virginia removed more than 6,000 noncitizens from Virginia's voter rolls last year.

And it is important to note that it is State Republican leaders who are leading the effort to show respect for the voter, clean up the voter rolls, and ensure that everybody's vote counts.

If there is someone illegally in the country and they are voting, that cancels out the vote of a citizen. It is imperative that States that have these large noncitizen populations make certain that noncitizens are not voting.

I would encourage my colleagues across the aisle, instead of enabling fraud, they should stand with the American people. As I said, 83 percent of the American people support the SAVE America Act. And they should stand there in support of fair, honest, transparent elections.

It is time to pass this legislation and move it to President Trump's desk.

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