For the People Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. HAGERTY. Madam President, I am here today to address Democrats' deceptively labeled ``For the People Act,'' which should more accurately be labeled the ``For the Politicians Act.''

This legislation represents a breathtaking, unprecedented power grab. In a 50-50 Senate, this is a blatant attempt by those who are in power by the slimmest possible margin to take over and rewrite the election and campaign rules for all 50 States in one fell swoop.

This would be done on an entirely partisan basis to ensure candidates from that same party win elections. In fact, while the only supporters of the bill are Democrats, there is bipartisan opposition to this legislation.

This legislation would disenfranchise every American through the Federal seizure of the authority of each State's representatives to set election rules for their State in accordance with the wishes of their citizens.

This partisan legislation would wash away election integrity measures, making it easier to cheat. Each invalid vote cast dilutes the strength of each valid vote cast.

Our form of government for the people and by the people rests upon voters' faith in the integrity of our elections. If we allow that faith in our elections to continue to be compromised, we are allowing the very foundation of our American system to be eroded.

Democrats don't want to talk about the details of this legislation. They don't want you to peek under the hood. They want to just slap a voting rights bumper sticker on it, jam it through, and then disparage and name-call anyone who opposes it.

So let's take a look at exactly what is in this legislation.

Under this legislation, a Federal politician running for election can take millions in taxpayer money for his or her own campaign.

The legislation says that States must then allow that politician to pay political operatives to visit nursing homes, dormitories, emergency shelters, and other residences to collect thousands of ballots and, then, choose which ones to be dropped into unmanned drop boxes, maybe in the middle of the night.

This bill would make it illegal for States to verify the identity of voters at the polls. Under this bill, ballots arriving even a week after election day would still be counted.

It would require States to adopt universal mail-in voting practices. States would be forced to allow murderers, rapists, and child molesters to vote, even if a State's citizens have adopted laws to prevent it.

It would require States to allow unregistered voters to cast ballots by simply showing up on election day and signing a form, without an ID and with no vetting allowed.

The bill would silence political speech by religious and nonprofit organizations while politicians can use taxpayer dollars to air attack ads with which many Americans would find distasteful.

The bill provides that if anyone disputes any of this, that is OK. They can lodge their complaints with the Federal Election Commission, a body that has been bipartisan since its creation. But wait. In addition to changing the rules to benefit one team, the legislation also ``buys off the umpire'' by transforming the FEC into a partisan, Democrat- controlled body--a body that could hound the opposing party candidates to the ends of the Earth. This bill transforms the judge into the prosecutor.

I wish that was all this legislation did. It also snatches the responsibility for drawing Congressional districts from the elected representatives of all 50 States, who have done that job for the last 230 years, and sets up a Byzantine process that would ultimately hand it over to an academic consultant hired by a liberal judge right here in Washington.

Let me repeat that: A consultant hired by a judge in Washington, DC, will be drawing every congressional district in the country.

Using government power to seize control of elections, to limit speech, to pack tribunals, to ensure the ruling party stays in power-- that sounds like a headline you would hear in Venezuela, Russia, Iran, or even China, not in the United States of America.

Not too long ago, both parties would have considered this partisan power grab beyond the pale. But far-left operatives want permanent power, and Democrats, eager to keep the power for themselves, are afraid to tell them no.

Democrats are now characterizing this legislation as an emergency response to recent legislation in a few States. This legislation isn't just a solution in search of a problem; it is a power grab that for years has been in search of a crisis--any crisis, manufactured or otherwise--that can be used to justify it.

Democrat operatives introduced a previous version of this bill on January 24, 2017, 4 days after President Trump took office. The purported crisis then was the American people's election of Donald Trump, which the Democrats found unacceptable. They continued this effort by introducing yet another version of the ``For the Politicians Act'' in 2019, which at that time passed the House without a single Republican vote. Like the bill the Senate will consider this week, this bill was a Democrat operative's electioneering fantasy--federalizing unlimited mail-in voting, prohibiting voter ID requirements, and allowing unregistered voters to show up and vote on election day. Wisely, the Senate, in 2019, never took it up.

Then, as the pandemic took root in the spring of 2020, Democrats, in search of yet a new crisis to justify this bill, included it in a pandemic relief bill that the House passed--again, without a single Republican vote. Once again, the Senate dismissed it and wisely focused on providing bipartisan pandemic relief, rather than using the pandemic as a justification to federalize elections.

With the pandemic now in the rearview mirror, this legislation is being pitched as necessary to preserve voting rights, using cartoonish, overheated, and false characterizations of a few sensible, measured voting integrity laws that have recently been enacted by States. Why? Because Democrats have to invent a new crisis every 6 months or so to conceal this quest to install themselves permanently into power.

Don't let them fool you. This isn't about some State election law. The House passed virtually the same bill last year. Most of the components of this bill have been floating in Democrat National Committee back rooms for years.

This isn't about voting rights. This legislation protects voting rights like banning security guards at banks would protect bank depositors.

Now, why are the Democrats so desperate to pass this bill? Well, a recent report from POLITICO explains it. POLITICO says:

What's at stake is . . . potentially the future Democratic majorities. Many in the party privately worry that frontline Democrats could lose their seats if Congress doesn't [pass this bill].

So, to keep power, Democrats have determined that they have to take over State elections. This is about holding on to power and nothing else. There doesn't seem to be a power grab that is too extreme for the modern left, whether it is this bill, legislation to pack the Supreme Court, suddenly changing their position and pushing to scrap fundamental Senate rules in order to obtain short-term political gains or adding Washington, DC, as a State. It is all about one thing-- fulfilling a fantasy of permanent Democrat power.

Under this legislation, American elections would no longer be about earning the support of voters by communicating a powerful vision. Rather, American elections would be all about creating the largest machine, identifying favorable voters, and mass-gathering their ballots door-to-door as efficiently as possible.

The winning campaign would be the one with the largest army of ballot harvesters to drive voters--registered or unregistered, with or without ID--to fill out and hand over a ballot that will be ``dropped'' on their behalf in unmanned ballot boxes.

Americans want commonsense laws that make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. Such laws currently exist throughout the country. That is why we had recordbreaking voter participation in 2020, including in my State of Tennessee.

This legislation is as unnecessary as it is misguided and dangerous.

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