For the People Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, yesterday, the Senate was given an opportunity to begin debate on a subject that by all rights should be beyond debate: protecting the right to vote.

As we all know, Republican legislatures across the country are passing some of the most draconian restrictions on the right to vote in decades--a throwback to Jim Crow.

Every single Democrat yesterday voted to begin debate on legislation to fight back against this assault--and that is what it is, an assault on our democracy--every single one. It was the first time in this Congress that we have united all 50 Democrats on moving forward with strong and comprehensive voting rights legislation.

Senate Republicans, to the very last Member, voted against allowing the Senate to even have a debate on voting rights. Not a single Republican voted to move forward with a simple debate. In fact, the Republican leader went so far as to say that ``regardless of what may be happening in some states''--voter suppression laws, phony audits, or the partisan takeover of election boards--he believes the Federal Government should not intervene. Who said that? Southern Senators from the Civil War all the way through said States' rights--used as a tool to prevent particularly people of color from voting. And to invoke that in 2020? The majority leader is way off--way off base. It is disgraceful that he would even invoke that.

Yesterday's vote was another piece of evidence that voter suppression is now part of the official platform of the Republican Party. But I want to be clear about one thing. As I said last night, the fight to protect voting rights is far, very far from over. Yesterday's vote was the starting gun, not the finish line.

As the Senate majority leader, I reserve the right to bring up this issue for debate again. Yesterday was the first time we tried to consider major voting rights legislation, but it won't be the last. Democrats will explore every option available to us for reconsidering legislation on this topic. We will leave no stone unturned. Voting rights are too important. The fight against modern-day voter suppression is just beginning.

One other point. Some of them like to make this point: Oh, this is just a partisan fight. Bull. This is a fight for the soul of America, and it shouldn't be partisan, and it never was in the past. When legislatures try to prevent poor people, people of color, urban people, and young people from voting, that is not a political fight; that is what America is all about. So don't try to hide under that guise.

It is Republican legislatures doing this. But in the past, when legislatures, usually in the South, tried to do these things--and in other places--both parties united to stop it. No more, sadly. Shame, shame, shame, shame on my Republican colleagues. This is a very bad day for them that history will recognize.

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