For the People Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill. It will not kill the bill. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

Much has been made of election security as of late, much of it for good reason. In the end, these concerns, the concerns that many Americans rightfully share, are built around the fundamental notion that our vote should count, our vote should mean something; and we should know that, when we cast it, it is sacred and unchanging.

Our vote is a signal of what direction we want our country to move toward, and that vote is an element of trust that we place in the men or women elected to take it in that direction.

We vote because this country is governed by the people, by the citizens of this country. We in this body humbly serve at their pleasure.

The quickest way to erode a democracy, erode faith in our institutions, is to erode that trust, erode the notion that your vote truly counts.

The truth is this is already happening. In places like San Francisco, Democrats have fought hard to ensure that U.S. citizens must share their civic duty, their vote, with illegal immigrants. The city of San Francisco has effectively canceled out the votes of its citizens and replaced it with illegals.

When I say it out loud, it sounds like I am making it up, because what kind of government would cancel out the votes of its own citizens and replace them with noncitizens--but not just any noncitizens, ones who entered our country illegally.

It is with this in mind, this sacred duty to protect our citizens, protect their vote, protect their voice, that I propose this motion to recommit.

This motion to recommit would show the American people that, despite the deep and growing differences between us, we can at least agree that the people who vote for us are citizens of this country.

Madam Speaker, this is a simple affirmation. It is an affirmation of the fact that the elected representatives of this body answer to the citizens of this country who voted for us. We will not stand by and let their voices be muted. We will not let their trust be eroded. We will not let our democracy be questioned.

Last year, Congress voted on this very idea. Forty-nine Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with us.

It should not be a partisan idea that the people who do not legally live in our country cannot legally vote in our elections. If you are not legally here, if you entered our country against the laws and wishes of our citizens, then you should not vote for representation in our government, diluting the voices of Americans.

I am proposing this MTR not because it feels good, not because we want to attack anyone, but because it is clear to all of us that voter integrity actually needs to be defended.

It has become clear because San Francisco is not the only municipality that has fallen into this radicalism. Other cities have done or attempted to do the same.

The men and women in this body are here because we were duly elected as such.

Our citizens expect much of us. They expect us to protect their most fundamental rights: the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They expect us to respect their voice. Often, the only way they have to express that voice is through their vote.

If we no longer agree to protect that voice, as we did last Congress--if we don't, in this moment, agree that their voice should not be canceled out but protected, then I worry a great deal about our democracy. I worry that radicalism has made its way into this sacred body, as it already has in so many other places across our great country.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this motion to recommit. Vote to protect the voices of your constituents. Vote to preserve the notion that our Nation's government is elected by--and only by--the citizens of this country. Anything less is a disservice to the very people who put us here.

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

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