For the People Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, I am very pleased to be able to offer this amendment with my good friend from the First District of North Carolina, Mr. G. K. Butterfield.

Madam Chair, I am the father of four, and for the last 40 years I have tried always to take one of my children into the voting booth with me until they got too old, one by one, to come in because I wanted them to see by example how important it was to vote.

I tried to show them that this is a really big deal. Our dinner conversations for these 40 years have been always about the world, the country, inevitably, then about politics and then about government, because nothing is more important to our representative government than this idea of self-determination, that every one of us has the obligation to be part of our political process.

But, sadly, as we all know, way too many young people do not participate in our process. If we get to 10 percent, 11 percent, 12 percent under the age of 29, we are thrilled that they show up. So their voice is lost far too often.

So our amendment simply authorizes $25 million, over the next 2 years, in grant money to be issued to the Election Assistance Commission, and that is for them to give to eligible States money to be used to carry out plans, policies, and programs to increase youth involvement in elections. It does things like encourage States to implement methods to promote the preregistration of young voters.

I know this is probably already part of the bill itself, the requirement for preregistration, but in the 20 States that have it that you can register at age 15 or 16--not vote until you are 18--but if you do that, then you get a much higher voter participation.

It petitions States to modify the curriculum of secondary schools to promote civic engagement and activities to inspire young people to engage.

Madam Chair, I try to accept every invitation that I get from a high school to come be part of their classes. I came to 84 high school graduations when I was Lieutenant Governor because I get so discouraged when not just kids, but even adults don't know the names of their Governor or their U.S. Senators or certainly not their Congressman, and they have no idea how the Constitution works and how valuable it is.

We have to educate them, and this is a small investment in encouraging States to provide those curricula and others that can make it. They need substantive opportunities to participate in our political process and contributing to practical solutions.

Madam Chair, I feel deeply, if you can give good practice to kids, that will lead to good habits, good habits to good character, and as we all know, character is destiny.

So this small, humble amendment simply authorizes the Appropriations Committee to invest $25 in the Election Assistance Commission to help get our kids involved in politics at the best and young ages.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition.

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Chair, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren).

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, may I inquire how much time I have left.

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Chair, may I inquire how much time I have remaining.

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Mr. BEYER. Madam Chair, I want to say that all we are doing is giving the Appropriations Committee the flexibility to do this. We are going to spend over $700 billion on defense for people fighting for our democracy. We can spend a tiny, tiny fraction of that to make sure that American citizens understand what they are fighting for. This is a really important thing.

By the way, it is never an attack on teachers. Every teacher I have talked to would like more resources so they can do their job more effectively.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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