The for the People Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on a completely different matter, we know Democrats are desperate to create a national controversy over voting regulations, but the facts and the truth keep getting in the way.

For more than a year, we have seen a coordinated campaign to call any American institution that occasionally frustrates liberal activists an evil relic of Jim Crow. Let me say that again. For more than a year, we have seen a coordinated campaign to call any American institution that occasionally frustrates liberal activists an evil relic of Jim Crow.

When these talking points came into circulation last summer, their focus was the legislative filibuster here in the Senate, except it was Senate Democrats who had just used the legislative filibuster to kill Senator Tim Scott's police reform, body camera, and anti-lynching legislation.

Two days ago, our colleague the assistant Democratic leader suggested he now opposes the filibuster because it was used back in the 1920s to block an anti-lynching bill. To be clear, our colleague from Illinois was a loud and proud defender of the current Senate rules as recently at 2018. This isn't about the 1920s. It is not about the 1920s. It is about Democrats wanting different sets of rules, depending on whether or not they happen to be in the majority.

Our colleague didn't need to go back nine decades to find instances of Democrats' filibustering a Republican anti-lynching bill. He only needed to go back 9 months. He didn't have to go back to the 1920s but just go back 9 months to find an example of Democrats filibustering an anti-lynching bill.

Last summer, 44 Senate Democrats locked arms and filibustered Tim Scott's police reform, body camera, and anti-lynching legislation because it was not far left enough or anti-police enough. That is the irony here. If any recent Senate filibusters have been reminiscent of the 1920s, it was when Democrats killed a Republican anti-lynching bill just last summer.

Here is the truth. Our colleagues can't defend any of the details of their radical policies. So they want to change the subject--change the subject--by any means necessary.

Look at voting regulations. The recent bill passed in the State of Georgia mandates more days of early voting than plenty of Democratic- run States allow. It continues no-excuse absentee voting, which some blue States do not allow. There is no factual standard by which its overall approach is radically more restrictive than the rules in place in many other States, blue or red.

The Washington Post has given the White House its worst rating, four--four Pinocchios--for repeated lies about Georgia and the election law. But the President and his staff just keep on doubling down.

One of our colleagues who represents Georgia put his name to a public statement--to a public statement--with inaccurate information about the bill.

In the Rules Committee, the Democratic leader shouted angry attacks at things the Georgia law simply doesn't do.

Why the fake narratives? Why the falsehoods? We all know why. For more than 2 years, Washington Democrats have been desperate to pass a sweeping partisan takeover of our democracy. It is packed--packed--with shameless provisions that have nothing to do with ballot access.

They want to take the bipartisan Federal Election Commission, make it a partisan body, and give Democrats the majority. They want to send taxpayers' money to political campaigns. They want to expand Washington's policing of Americans' speech. They want to neuter voter ID and mandate ballot harvesting in all 50 States. Strangely enough, for multiple years now, this exact same power grab has been their answer to every changing circumstance. When they didn't like the outcome of the 2016 election, Democrats said our democracy was broken and only this takeover could fix it. Then, in 2020, they got the result they liked. Suddenly, this same bill became the way to simply preserve a system that functioned well.

There seems to be no situation where this attempted power grab is not the Democrats' answer. I think we can learn tomorrow that an asteroid was hurtling toward Earth, and Democrats would say our only hope was to pass H.R. 1.

This isn't about responding to recent State laws. It is not about justice or equity. Washington Democrats want to rewrite all 50 States' election laws. They want to take over the Federal Election Commission. And they have been trying out different justifications for multiple years straight to get what they want.

Any Federal law addressing the ground rules of our democracy has a special obligation to be sober, to be factual, and to be bipartisan. The Senate has done just that in the past. We have passed reasonable laws by huge, bipartisan margins making it easier to vote but harder to cheat.

So ask yourself: Why won't Democrats today deal in truth and facts? Why do they keep using the same smears to distract from their policies? Why are they hell-bent on a bill that passed the House with purely partisan support but bipartisan opposition? Talk about tipping your hand.

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