For the People Act of 2021--Motion to Discharge
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, well, here we go again, colleagues. We have seen this once before, and I think it is fitting that after passing this budget resolution full of reckless taxing and spending, we end the evening with an effort to Federalize--take over all elections all across America by the Federal Government.
Now, we are hearing it is going to be a substitute, but what is technically before us is as follows: After ramming through this reckless taxing-and-spending spree here in the dead of night, they also want to start tearing up the ground rules of our democracy and writing new ones, of course, on a purely partisan basis.
I suppose the timing actually makes sense, given the terrible votes that every Democratic Senator has just cast here tonight. I can understand why their thoughts have turned so quickly to their next elections and why they might be feeling especially anxious to tilt the playing field in their direction.
This ridiculous, go-nowhere bill that is stuck in the Rules Committee would let Washington Democrats take over 50 State election laws, completely Federalize how we handle elections in this country.
It would attack popular safeguards, like voter ID. It would turn the Federal Election Commission into a partisan body. It would even spend public funds on our political companies. Four-plus trillion dollars in new spending actually wasn't enough tonight. It wasn't enough.
The preference of at least 49 out of 50 of them is to spend public money on our own elections; have public money finance the attack ads of people you disagree with.
So, look, my view is that maybe this is just concluding the night with a little comic relief. S. 1 is an absurd and clumsy effort by one political party to literally rewrite the ground rules of our democracy to try to advantage them and disadvantage the other side.
It is always a temptation when the majority wants to write the rules to make it more likely you can get the outcome you want.
This isn't going to work. It isn't going to work tonight, and it isn't going to work when we get back. Vote on Motion
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source