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Floor Speech
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Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I am here to talk about the SAVE America Act.
I have had two people already tell me my sign is upside down. The Presiding Officer is probably thinking it. I can tell the pages are too. It is a lot easier to show your photo ID when you go to vote than it is to read the poster. How do I know that? Because I go to vote and I show them my photo ID in Louisiana, which has a long history of, shall we say, people voting who are already buried. We no longer have that history since we have begun to put photo IDs out.
Think about that. It is no imposition upon our people, and now we don't have a problem with voter integrity despite our having had a long history of it, so I am told.
We keep on hearing that it is too difficult, so we have a commonsense, widely supported bill which is being objected to. The same people objecting to this bill don't object to having to show an ID to buy a gun, which is a constitutional right, but when it comes to this constitutional right and protecting its integrity, it doesn't work. The SAVE America Act is supported by 71 percent of Democrat voters and 95 percent of Republicans. If only it were supported by 71 percent of Democrat Senators. That is why I am a proud cosponsor.
You might scratch your head when you hear that some refuse to support it. I think that there is a small leftwing base who opposes this who is very vocal; therefore, that is the genesis of the opposition, but this does not keep an eligible American from casting a ballot. It doesn't take away someone's constitutional right.
I will say Mike Lee, who is sitting next to me, has been working with those who object to its passage in order to meet their concerns.
For example, one of the concerns is that, if someone marries and changes her name and her driver's license is different than her birth certificate, she won't be able to vote. I just confirmed with Mike--and he can tell me the page number and the line number, of course--that now all you have to do is sign an affidavit. My wife was born a Layden. When we married, she became a Cassidy. If she went and they said, ``Well, your birth certificate says Layden and now you are a Cassidy,'' she would sign an affidavit. ``I am married, and my name is now Cassidy,'' and--boom--she is there. So, as to the concern that it is discriminatory against women who marry and take their husbands' last names, just sign an affidavit.
Similarly--and, again, I don't always find Mr. Lee the most reasonable person. On this, he has been very reasonable, which is that, when you go originally to vote and you have to prove you are a citizen, Mike--I am sorry. I should not be addressing him--you can sign an affidavit establishing that I don't have my birth certificate but that I was born on this date, in this community, and you get to register to vote. The State shall come up with a mechanism by which that is allowed. It is really an attempt to meet the objections of those who oppose this bill. The lack of documentation is not an issue.
By the way, I will also point out, I have lost my birth certificate in the past. I called the place where I was born, and within a week, I had it in the mail, but now I am sure you can do it online. So even should you need a birth certificate--people lose birth certificates all the time. Then they get them back.
We have to show a photo ID or our citizenship sometimes, like, at least on a weekly basis. You fly. You open a bank account. You cash a check. All of those are routine activities of our lives, and you show your driver's license, which is a Real ID.
Those who are opposing this say that they are concerned regarding the woman who marries and takes her husband's name. That has been addressed; that you have to prove citizenship, but you don't have the documents when you go over to vote. That has been addressed; that the very fact of showing an ID is discriminatory. Yet over and over again in life, we show IDs to do things that are part of daily life.
I will note that, when New York City Mayor Mamdani offered New Yorkers a chance to make a little extra money snow shoveling during the blizzard last month, he required not one but two forms of valid ID.
So it is a weak argument when leading Democratic figures are having their citizens show ID. It is a weak argument that you have to endure some incredible hardship to show an ID to vote.
By the way, I have been asked about the talking filibuster. I have supported returning to the talking filibuster since I joined the Senate in 2015. I still remember Jimmy Stewart's ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' It was rough on the Senators, but being rough on the Senators, frankly, kind of pushed people together to get something done. I am from Louisiana. For the longest time, Huey Long had the record for the longest filibuster, but that filibuster eventually either broke him or it broke the Senate in the sense that they were willing to compromise to get something done.
So, to my Democratic colleagues, I ask you to listen to the people. Pass the SAVE America Act.
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