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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise today to defend the heartbeat of our democracy, and that is and always will be the right to vote.

From the first National Women's Rights Convention held in 1850 in Worcester, MA, to Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, Americans have been mobilizing and marching and chanting and fighting for generations to protect the right to vote, which is the most cherished right. And it is now under relentless attack by the Trump administration and the MAGA Republicans who sit right across the aisle here on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

And that is why we are here today: because when you can't win by the rules, you have to sabotage. You have to manipulate the game. That is what this bill is all about. It is not the SAVE America Act. It is the ``Save Your Ass Act'' because the American public is rising up in revolution against higher healthcare costs, higher gasoline prices, higher home heating oil prices, higher prices for everything on Main Street because of the sales tax called a tariff, which is being imposed upon all those goods.

That is what they are afraid of because they know that the voters are coming with pitchforks toward them this November, and they have to do something about it. So they call it the SAVE Act.

But if there was a section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission of unfair and deceptive act provision here and it was applied properly, it would be called the ``Steal Act,'' the ``Steal the Election of 2026 Act.''

That is what they are doing on the Republican side. That is what they are trying to perpetrate upon the American people, upon our elections. They have to manipulate our elections through voter suppression, disenfranchisement, unconstitutional tactics to win in 2026 and in 2028 and beyond.

As Trump says, they will win every election if they can pass the SAVE Act. They won't have to worry anymore. And why is that? Because it is a craven effort to turn back the clock, institute a new modern-day Jim Crow, and take away the one right central to our democracy, and that is the right to vote.

This legislation is dangerous. It is anti-democratic, and it is wrong. The SAVE America Act would impose unnecessary and overly restrictive voter ID requirements. It would require Americans to present a birth certificate or passport in person whenever they register to vote or whenever they need to update their registration.

There are tens of millions of Americans without passports. There are tens of millions of Americans who don't have a birth certificate on them at all times. That is the goal of the Republicans: No, you can't vote today. We are going to make it impossible for you to vote.

Now the goal in America should be more people are voting. It is already too low. No, that is not the Republican Party's goal here. Their goal right now is fewer votes, lesser participation in our democracy.

That is what they are trying to perpetrate upon our democracy right now because most Americans, right now, they register to vote online, through the mail, or at their Department of Motor Vehicles.

Only 6 percent of Americans register to vote in person at an election office, and the Republicans know this. And that is why they want to establish the new standard for everyone. It is like forcing everyone to use a fax machine to register to vote. It makes no sense, it is unnecessary, and it would only prevent people from participating in our democracy.

The new requirement to present a photo ID at the polling place is more stringent than laws already on the books in all but one State in the country. If the SAVE Act--if the ``Steal Act''--passes, it would be easier to buy a gun in many States than to vote.

Can I say that again? The NRA does not want it to be difficult to buy a gun. Republicans go along with that. In red States, the standards are very low to buy a gun. But to vote, oh, now they are concerned. Now we need standards, which make it almost impossible for tens of millions of Americans to be able to comply.

So just let that sink in. It would be easier to buy a gun than to exercise the most fundamental right of citizenship in our Nation.

And who would bear the brunt of this law? The 146 million Americans who do not have a valid passport.

I had never been to Washington, DC, before I was elected to the U.S. Congress. My father drove a truck for the Hood milk company. I ran when I was 29 years old for the U.S. Congress, and I won.

And my first visit to Washington was to be sworn in as a Member of the U.S. Congress when I was 30 years old. I not only had not been to Washington, I had never been anyplace outside of our country. I didn't have a passport, and I was a U.S. Congressman.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, here is a bulletin for you: 146 million Americans do not have a valid passport. I know because I would have been one of them. That is nearly half of all American adults.

The 69 million women who have changed their names after marriage and lack an updated birth certificate, they are out. Sorry. Oh, you--that is not the same name. You must have gotten married. Sorry, can't vote today. Just using your maiden name here? I am sorry. Can't vote.

Elderly voters who would be forced to navigate bureaucratic mazes to renew their voter registration in person; an 85-year-old who helped build this Nation and has voted in every election for 60 years could suddenly be told: The ID you have been using your whole life is no longer sufficient. Prove it again or you don't get to vote.

Do you know who else loses big time? Black and Brown communities who already face preceding, already existing high barriers to their being able to vote in too many States in our country; young people who could no longer rely on their student IDs to vote; disabled voters who may face challenges in getting to polling places; Native Americans whose Tribal IDs may be rejected for registration to vote and then for actually voting. That is their goal.

You can see which one of the groups in our country they are trying to dissuade. You can see which of all of these subgroups of Americans-- they are going to create barriers to their ability to go into the polling places.

How about a working American who would be forced to miss more shifts to exercise their right to vote, rural voters who would have to travel for hours to satisfy the strict in-person registration requirements, and LGBTQ+ Americans who face hurdles in obtaining accurate IDs that match their gender identity?

So instead of free and fair elections, it is bought and paid-for elections. Instead of one person, one vote, it is one White person, one vote. And everyone else gets shown to the door. So sorry, you can't vote here today.

Take, for example, a constituent of mine, a woman who legally changed her name nearly 50 years ago. Her birth certificate no longer matches her legal identity.

But now the President of the United States and Republicans want to force her to dig through decades-old documents just to prove she has the right to cast a ballot.

So give us a break. We know what you are doing here. You are trying to disenfranchise that woman. You don't want her to show up. We know what you are trying to do.

Or take a servicemember who has been serving their country bravely. Under the SAVE Act, under the ``Steal Elections Act,'' a military ID alone would not suffice to prove citizenship because noncitizens can also serve in the military.

Can you imagine that? Somebody has served for 2 years, 4 years, 6 years, 20 years, they show up to the polling place. They show their military ID. And they are told: Sorry, that doesn't count.

It counted to send them overseas. It counted to put their lives in danger. But it doesn't count to be able to vote.

Well, this is, without question, all part of a pattern which has been created by the Republicans. And we had a hearing today in the Supreme Court just as a continuation of that plan to reduce participation in elections in our country because without, for example, that military official who is now standing there, trying to explain why they should be able to vote, they have to provide a military record of service, showing the United States as the place of their birth.

Without that document, a servicemember who has been risking their life on behalf of our country may find themselves shut out of the voting process.

So under this bill, a servicemember can deploy overseas, carry classified credentials, the top secrets of the United States, defend our democracy, but come home and be told their military ID is not sufficient for that serviceperson to engage in our democracy after they spent their entire life protecting us, and they have a military ID to prove it.

Or take a young person who just went off to college and is eager to become a first-time voter. The student hasn't yet left the country and has never had a passport. And under the SAVE America Act, they are also not allowed to use their student ID.

But by the time they apply and receive their passport, the voter registration deadline has passed, and they won't be able to cast that first ballot they were so excited about. So just think about that.

The student at one of our great universities across the country, they think that they are going to be able to register and vote where they are going to school. And they have a student ID, and now they are told: You cannot vote. You have to get a passport, which that student has never had.

Let's take a single working mom who just moved home. This new law might force her to reregister to vote in person due to her address change. Although she has the required documents, she is unable to find the time between her shifts and taking care of her children to visit an election office in person.

On the day she does show up to the polls to cast her vote, after losing a day of work, she is told she cannot vote.

This bill is unconscionable. It is un-American. It is actually unworkable, but that is not deterring the Republicans. They have a goal. They want to save their seats. They want to lower the participation in the elections this year and in the 2028 election cycle. That is what it is all about--steal elections. That is all it is about.

And this bill itself doesn't test whether you are eligible to vote; it tests whether you can outmaneuver unnecessary redtape, whether you have the time and the resources and the documentation to satisfy a system designed just to say no.

We cannot become a country that cares about representation for some instead of representation for everyone. The future and the strength of our democracy depend on every single American being heard at the ballot box, not just those who Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters deem as worthy to be able to vote.

The SAVE America Act would also force States to hand over supersensitive voter data to the Department of Homeland Security. So just think about this. Kristi Noem--by the way, we are still celebrating ``Kristi Noem Got Fired Day.'' Kristi Noem and whoever her successor might be, they would have access to all of this voter data.

This would give Trump unprecedented power to interfere in local elections, conveniently just before the 2026 elections as Trump is down at 40 percent favorability and looking at a landslide heading his way, a tsunami of voters ready to change the control of the House and Senate.

So are any of these provisions an accident? No, this is designed. You know, there is such a thing that Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a great Senator who served here--he used to call something, when he didn't want to help something or hurt something, he said that people should just act in ``benign neglect''--``benign neglect''--of the problem.

That is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about designed neglect. It is a plan. It is a plan that they are putting together. The SAVE America Act--``the Steal the Election Act''--is a calculated effort by Trump and MAGA Republicans to erect barriers between American citizens and their fundamental democratic rights.

Republicans can claim that this bill is meant to combat voter fraud or to prevent noncitizens from voting, but the truth is that noncitizens already cannot vote in State and Federal elections. They run the risk of criminal prosecution if they vote in our country.

In this climate, with the way the immigrant community is being terrorized and targeted, the last thing noncitizens want to do is to register with the Federal Government to vote or to open themselves up to criminal penalties because they are not qualified to vote.

It is absolutely absurd to think otherwise. States already implement many checks to ensure that only citizens are allowed to vote. And despite numerous studies and audits and investigations over the years, it has been determined that noncitizens voting is very, very, very, very, very, very, very rare. It is not a problem.

I will tell you what is a problem: High oil prices, that is a problem; high healthcare prices, that is a problem; high tariff taxes on small businesses by the millions across our country, that is a big problem; inflation going up, that is a big problem; unemployment going up, that is a big problem.

Are we debating that on the floor? Are the Republicans having hearings on the Iran war? Are they having hearings on skyrocketing oil prices?

No, they are not. They are having the Senate, now, for over a week, debate something that is very, very, very, very, very, very, very rare, and they are trying to make a big crisis out of it.

Why is that? Because they want to distract everyone's attention away from the real crises of oil and healthcare and Iran and tariffs and all the other messes which they have created this year. It is strictly a distraction. It is a ``Wag the Dog.'' It is the take everyone's attention away from the actual issues that are harming families in our country right now on which we have no hearings, none--none--because there is absolutely no evidence that supports Trump and the MAGA Republican conspiracies that noncitizens are voting at a large scale.

It is simply false. It is a ghost story told for political purposes, used to justify laws whose real function has nothing to do with election security and everything to do with election outcomes so that the Republicans are not punished for their economic policies, for their foreign policy mistakes which they are making for which they do not want to be held accountable.

The SAVE America Act is a solution in search of a problem, but it is worse than that. It is a distraction from American efforts to strip millions of eligible Americans from their right to vote. Why do they want to do that? I have got five reasons--five reasons--why the Republicans want to establish this goal of disenfranchising millions of Americans:

No. 1, so that they can continue to give handouts and tax cuts to billionaire CEOs while making it harder for millions of Americans to get access to Medicaid and Medicare and affordable healthcare and looting by the trillions the money from healthcare for ordinary families to give over to the billionaires who do not need it; reason No. 1.

Reason No. 2, so they can continue their vendetta against the wind and solar energy industry, the all-electric vehicle industry, so that Big Oil and Big Gas can make bigger profits off of the hard-earned cash of American citizens because they will be forced to buy all gasoline- powered cars, and the oil companies can tip them upside down and shake money out of their pockets at the pump.

But they don't want that reversed. They don't want solar and wind and all-electric vehicles to be the future. No. That is reason No. 2.

Reason No. 3, so they can continue to give billions of dollars to ICE to terrorize immigrants while trampling on the constitutional rights of our communities. Right now, we have masked agents across our country not wearing cameras and violating constitutional rights that were built into the Constitution during the American Revolution and its aftermath. And they just hate the idea that they would have to comply with those constitutional safeguards that have matured and been codified over the centuries.

No. 4, they can continue to operate a pay-to-play pardon system, where fraudsters and friends and supporters of the President can essentially buy their way out of convictions and jailtime.

No. 5, so they can keep raising prices at home while razing countries abroad--but to do so without a peep coming out of the majority in the House and the Senate because that is where we are right now. We have a Senate; we have a Republican leadership which has been supine for the first 15 months of this second Trump administration. They have shown no courage. It is almost as though they had a vertebrae bypass operation that has made it impossible for them to be able to stand up to the illegal, to the corrupt, to the absolute disgraceful foreign policy, from Venezuela to Greenland to Iran and on and on and on, that Trump has been engaging in without a peep out of the Republican Party.

There are only three things you need in politics: backbone, backbone, and backbone. And what do they want on their side? They don't want to be held accountable for their lack of backbone. And the only way they can do that is reduce the number of people who vote this year. Don't allow for there to be a change of government by suppressing the votes of those who are most likely to be angry over what they have been doing to our country over the last 15 months.

Trump has thrown us into an illegal, reckless war, which is costing lives abroad, costing hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars, costing American families at the pump, in-home heating oil, airline tickets, grocery prices, and in every other monthly bill. It is just going to ripple through our entire economy because he has created a global energy apocalypse. And every time Americans go to the pump, they are in for a crude awakening, courtesy of Donald Trump's illegal war in Iran.

The average price at the pump right now is $1 higher than it was just 4 weeks ago. Cumulatively, Americans spent $2.6 billion more last week than they did on gasoline before the war started. And $2.6 billion, it could pay for a lot of solar on more than 850,000 homes without any incentives. Mr. President, $2.6 billion could pay for about 350,000 drivers to use the electric vehicle tax rebate, which would insulate drivers from these crazy oil spikes.

Home heating oil prices are up by $1.20 a gallon in Massachusetts, which many families rely on to heat their homes. That means $350 more to fill up their tank, and it is still cold in Massachusetts in the winter.

So 500 bucks more for gasoline over the course of the year, 350 bucks more just to fill up their tank, and all as they watch television at night and watch a war going on in Iran that, so far, has had no public rationale that makes any sense whatsoever, and the Republicans are refusing to even have hearings so that we can cross-examine the rationale, if it existed at all, that Trump is using in order to perpetrate this insane war and its consequences not only on the Middle East but on the entire planet.

Oil prices go up like a rocket, but they come down like a feather. So we are going to see this price of oil in our economy that is going to go on for months and months and months, and when the President says he needs $200 billion more, well, it is costing $2 billion a day to run the war. So that means at least a 100 days more--2 billion times 100 days. That takes us into the summer. He is asking us--he is asking the Republican Senators to give him enough money to fight the war into the middle of the summer, which means the price of oil is just going to continue to go up and up and up like a rocket, and people are going to be standing there with the pump in their hands, with the nozzle in their car, and they are going to be looking up at that price as it goes up and up and up and up as this war goes on.

So experts say that Donald Trump's illegal war has now caused the largest oil supply disruption in the history of the world.

Can I say that again? Donald Trump has caused the largest oil supply disruption in the history of the world, and he has yet to explain successfully what the rationale for that war is.

So, to me, Trump's entire reign has caused the largest corruption in modern American history because his entire Presidency has been a disaster for American families. Even before the war, electricity prices were up by as much as 13 percent.

Can I say that again? People are paying their bills across the country--a 13-percent increase in electricity bills last year under Trump. And now those attacks on natural gas facilities in the Middle East are spiking prices worldwide, spikes that will likely hit American utility bills soon as U.S. natural gas exports surge to chase the highest price on the international market, which has been the goal of the natural gas industry right from the beginning.

And by the way, Trump is just wholly owned subsidiary of the natural gas industry. He said to them in April of 2024: If you raise me $1 billion, I will make sure that I kill all of the environmental laws in the country, all of the incentives for wind and solar and all-electric vehicles.

So that is cash and carry. They raise the money, and now we are living with the consequences of just having a total dependence upon those industries that Donald Trump said were going to make America great. No.

We are, right now, hostage to the oil industry, hostage to the natural gas industry. They can charge whatever they want.

This whole idea that he created energy independence for us? No. The price of oil and gas is set on a global market, not in Tulsa, OK. And I think every American now understands that, because these Big Oil vultures are already circulating, looking to scavenge their profits at the expense of every consumer, every family in our country.

Major oil and gas companies are poised to reap record profits this year from higher prices, as Americans reap devastating losses.

So Americans are going to be paying $2 billion a day in taxes for the war and $2 billion more each week for high gasoline prices.

And I am not even talking about home heating oil prices. I am not talking about jet fuel prices. I am not talking about natural gas prices for people's homes.

So the rich are going to get richer, and the rest are going to pay taxes and their skyrocketing energy bills. That is what he has left us with.

Do the Republicans want to debate that? They do not want to debate that.

Is that all the American people want us to debate? Yes, please put that front and center. Please, let me know when this ends. When does this chaos and corruption end and its impact upon the lives of every family in our country?

So let's just be clear: Big Oil only serves as a destabilizing force in global politics--not a stabilizing but destabilizing force. This entire conflict is a reminder that our continued dependence on fossil fuels pulls the world toward instability and pulls it towards conflict.

And the lesson is clear: We must transition rapidly to clean energy sources that cannot be blocked or bombed or weaponized.

In reality, wind and solar are the fastest growing electricity sources in history because they just make sense. In 2025, renewables made up over 88 percent of all new electricity generation in the United States. In 2025, the United States added more than 50,000 megawatts of new solar and wind capacity, compared to just under 5,000 megawatts of new natural gas capacity--10 times more.

Do you know who hates that? The natural gas industry.

Do you know who gave half a billion dollars to Donald Trump? The natural gas industry.

And what was the promise that they wanted back from him? We will kill the solar industry. We will kill the wind industry. We will kill all of those industries that are an existential threat to our business model.

And we are now living with the consequences of that.

So just let me repeat that for the fossil fuel apologists: New solar is cheaper than simply operating an existing coal-burning plant in our country. Onshore wind is half the cost of building new gas plants.

This isn't about ideology. This is just about arithmetic. It is not complicated. It is cheaper to do onshore wind.

And yet Trump and Republicans are failing basic arithmetic. Now, this is not trigonometry. This is not calculus. This is not algebra. This is just arithmetic. It is very simple.

We were in an energy crisis already before the war because of AI data centers, which are demanding record electricity, while Trump and Republicans have done everything possible to destroy American-made cheap, clean energy, leaving Americans dependent on the expensive fossil fuels, whose prices are now skyrocketing.

And now we are in an even bigger crisis. Trump may be crushing American manufacturing, but he sure is good at manufacturing an energy price hike for every American, every small business in our country.

We have to invest in true independence: electric and fuel-efficient vehicles; cheap, clean, energy and battery storage made in the United States; and energy efficient technologies that do more with less.

And do you know what Trump says? Oh, that is all socialism. That is socialism for wind and solar, tax breaks for all-electric vehicles. That is socialist.

Well, what do you call 100 years of tax breaks for the oil, gas, and coal industry? I call that socialism. And all we are asking for is some of that socialism for the competitive technologies that have been attacked and stopped for 100 years by the fossil fuel industry. That is all we are asking for, and that is what we have been denied.

And that is why they don't want to have any hearings. That is why they don't want to discuss what is going on in the Persian Gulf. That is why they don't want to discuss the Strait of Hormuz. That is why they don't want to discuss how we are hostage to the price of energy that comes out of the Middle East.

And the only way to break that dependence is with solar and wind and all-electric vehicles that don't need any fossil fuels whatsoever.

But because of Trump, because of the Republicans--they voted on this floor, last July, to kill all of those industries--kill them. They don't want to have that discussion right now. They know that they would be on the defensive. They know they would be backing away from the microphones while they try to explain why they would kill something that would actually break our dependence upon imported oil, break our dependence upon natural gas, break our dependence upon coal.

And, by the way, we do import oil into the United States. The Presiding Officer may not know that, but it is coming in from Canada. It is coming in from Mexico. It is coming in from Venezuela.

Just so you know, Mr. President--sometimes, it is a bulletin to you that we are part of a global oil marketplace that you are part and parcel of.

Foreign dictators and authoritarian regimes cannot stop the Sun from shining or the wind from blowing, but they can disrupt oil and gas supplies. Electricity generated by the solar panels can't get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. Electricity generated by our offshore wind plants can't be bombed by drones in Kuwait.

The SAVE America Act--the ``Steal the Election of 2026 Act''--is a classic ``shock and awe.'' Trump is trying to distract us from the cost he has created by bombing Iran--costing lives, costing hundreds of billions to fund his war, and costing us at the pump, at the airport, and at the grocery store.

And he has just become so desperate--so fearful that he is going to lose--that he is absolutely willing to suppress the vote of especially minority voters in our country because he knows that, otherwise, he will probably lose in Georgia, he will probably lose in Ohio this fall, and that we will have a revolution that is heading his way.

So that is what this is all about here today. It is millionaires and billionaires, greedy corporate executives, corrupt cronies against the voters.

And that is why the Democrats are not going to go away. We are going to stand up. We are going to fight. We are going to make sure that the American people understand what is at stake right now and why we cannot allow the Republicans, the MAGA base, and President Trump to pass this legislation because it would fundamentally be the end of democracy in our country.

And how do I know that? Trump says it himself that he would suppress the votes to an extent where they would never lose an election again.

So that is where we are. It is a moment in history. There is a nostalgia that some people have for a past that never existed, instead of the ideals which we need--to fight for the poor and the sick and the elderly and the immigrant communities, because for them the past is just a memory, and the future is their hard reality.

And that is what we are standing here today to fight to protect--the protections for their hard reality--and that can only be protected if we stop the SAVE Act, if we stop the ``Steal This Election Act,'' if we stop the ``Save Our Asses Act,'' which the Republicans are seeking to pass on the Senate floor today.

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