Free and Fair Elections
Floor Speech
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Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, more and more I am troubled by a simple question: Will Donald Trump be the last President ever elected by a free and fair election?
That certainly seems to be the plan.
In 2024, Donald Trump said: Get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it again.
In 2023, he said that he would be a dictator on day one.
In 2021, after he lost, he tried to overturn the election, which led to people attacking this Chamber where we stand right now.
When Donald Trump talks about elections, he does not hide what he wants. He keeps talking about taking over elections, and his number one legislative priority is the SAVE Act. The only one thing that this bill is designed to save is Donald Trump's political future.
This bill would create a paperwork nightmare for millions of Americans. The SAVE Act requires documents that millions of citizens do not have in order to vote.
That is right. Even the new REAL ID drivers' licenses we all had to get don't meet the standard. Even military IDs wouldn't count. You will need a passport, which costs you about $160 and takes weeks to receive, or your birth certificate.
Mr. Speaker, did you know that half of the country does not have a passport, and millions more don't have access to their birth certificate?
Then there are married women who might have changed the name on their documents, and so now they don't match because they changed their name.
The SAVE Act also ends online and by-mail voter registration. Good luck registering to vote if you have a job, have a family, or live far from your county seat or board of elections.
Add it all up, and millions of American citizens will lose their right to vote.
This bill is designed to give the Stephen Millers of the world every opportunity they can to find or kick people off voting rolls.
If Congress passes the SAVE Act, it will be the first time since Jim Crow that our legislature has acted to make our democracy smaller, not larger.
Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump is many things, but a mystery he is not, nor is what he is trying to do. Funding Choices
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Ms. BROWN. Mr. Speaker, we have seen this movie before. In 2003, it was tax cuts for the wealthy and a war we were told would be quick and necessary. Trillions of dollars later, the American people were left holding the bill, and here we go again.
Did you know demand for private jets is booming after President Trump gave tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans last year? Now, the President wants $200 billion more to fund an unauthorized and unacceptable war in Iran, a war that is already jacking up costs from the gas pump to the grocery store. That is $200 billion, $200 billion.
Again, let's talk choices. Let's talk priorities.
We were told there is no money for healthcare, so Republicans gutted Medicaid and refused to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits.
We were told there was no money to help people to put food on their table, so Republicans passed their big, ugly law cutting $186 billion from nutrition programs.
We were told there was no money for education, so they cut student loan programs, and at the same time they delivered more tax breaks at the top while everyone else falls further behind.
For war, for the wealthy, suddenly there is always money. There are billions for conflict. There are billions for ICE. There are billions for billionaires. We were told there was no money to help families afford groceries, to educate our kids, or to lower healthcare costs.
These are the choices being made: higher costs for you, bigger checks for war, and more tax breaks at the top.
I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle: This isn't really about priorities or scarcity, is it? It is about actually your priorities, and right now the priorities are upside down.
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