For the People Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Chair, I just want to express my thanks to the gentleman from Colorado for offering this refining amendment. I think he is exactly right. In order to fully engage the American people, we need to make every effort for them to participate.

And for young people who feel that they really don't have a say, allowing them to pre-register helps them buy in to our American system of government.

You know, somebody on the other side of the building said, well, this is a power grab, to make sure that--H.R. 1 is a power grab. It is. It is a power grab for the American people, to take the power away from the special interests and give it to the American people. The gentleman's amendment helps further that worthy goal, and I thank him for offering it.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Chair, I congratulate the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Kirkpatrick) on this very smart amendment. I am not surprised. It is typical that she would make this a bipartisan amendment. It is very helpful. It is very smart. I am glad that she is back here in Congress to show this leadership.

Just one word on the CBO: It shows that there is indeed no tax money involved in the freedom from influence fund.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Chair, for 8 years, this Chamber has been silent, a silence that harms people. We have allowed measures to reduce people's access to vote, measures that caused the Fourth Circuit to find that African American voters were targeted with surgical precision, measures that excluded voters on Indian reservations and that wrongfully tried to remove 95,000 naturalized Texans from the rolls.

Today that silence ends. This bill is not for its own sake. A Member of the U.S. Senate said that H.R. 1 is a power grab. He is right. It grabs power away from the special interests, the elites, and the 1 percent and gives it to the American people.

I tell you plainly what it does: automatic voter registration to allow 50 million eligible citizens to vote, prohibits deceptive practices, increases access to polls for voters with disabilities, helps States replace outdated voting machines, and requires disclosure of dark money donors, not limiting their speech but simply asking them to stand by it. These reforms aren't difficult, but they will require courage to make.

Mr. Frederick Douglass saw what our democracy was and what our democracy could be and said: ``Where all is plain there is nothing to be argued.''

For that reason, I do not argue. But I look forward to joining and doing the will of the people and supporting this bill.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, H.R. 1 already prevents noncitizens from voting in Federal elections, whether they are here lawfully or undocumented. In fact, the motion to recommit notices that. They say: ``Federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting in Federal elections.''

H.R. 1 utilizes the authority in Article I, Section 4 to extend in Federal elections the opportunity for every American to vote.

This motion to recommit is an effort to divert us from the mission that we are on to expand voting rights to every American citizen in Federal elections. I urge its defeat.

Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rose).

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