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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, since the founding of our Republic, the Senate has existed to encourage extended debate and protect the rights of the minority party.
Over the centuries, as various political parties have risen and fallen from power, the Senate's rules have been respected and followed. One of those rules is the legislative filibuster, which protects the minority party's rights by requiring a 60-vote threshold to pass legislation in the Senate.
Unfortunately, many of today's Democrats in Washington only care about one thing: radically transforming this Nation into a new socialist state. And they will use any means necessary to keep their grip on the Federal Government.
Now we are seeing Democrat leadership in the Congress wield their historically narrow majority to push one partisan bill after another without even attempting to get Republican input or support. Instead of working together with their Republican colleagues, they are searching for ways to make it easier to jam through progressive, socialist policies without any compromise. Just look at the majority leader's most recent statements on the filibuster.
Last week, the majority leader wrote a letter to all Democrat Senators explaining his plans to fundamentally and permanently alter the rules of the U.S. Senate and change the legislative filibuster. His statements could not be more hypocritical or self-serving.
The legislative filibuster, which has been in place for decades, has been repeatedly defended as a vital and necessary rule to protect the minority party's rights, including by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and even Senator Schumer.
In 2017, Senator Schumer urged then-Majority Leader McConnell to ``find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster,'' which is the most important distinction between the Senate and the House.
He went on to say:
Without the 60-vote threshold for legislation, the Senate becomes a majoritarian institution like the House, much more subject to the winds of short-term electoral change. No Senator would like to see that happen, so let's find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation.
These are the direct quotes from the Senator from New York. He called the filibuster the most important distinction between the Senate and the House, and now he is turning his back on them.
Of course, my colleague from New York isn't the only one caught in a bind here by previous statements and actions. Just remember that, in 2018, the current Senate majority whip, Senator Dick Durbin, said doing away with the legislative filibuster ``would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers.''
He further admitted: ``We have to acknowledge our respect for the minority, and that is what the Senate tries to do in its composition and its procedure.''
Or remember in 2017, when 32 Democrats signed a bipartisan letter urging Senate leadership to keep the sacred part of the Senate intact. Most of those same Senators who defended minority party rights are still in office today, but only one has expressed any opposition to Senator Schumer's plans to destroy the filibuster, now that he is in the majority.
And just last Congress, most of the Democrat caucus used a filibuster to block a police reform bill from my Republican colleague Tim Scott and a bill that would have protected newborn babies who survived attempted abortions.
So my Democrat colleagues think the filibuster is great when it works in their favor, but they can't stand it when it blocks their radical socialist agenda, an agenda we know the American people do not support.
So why the change of mind? Why are they willing to be so blatantly hypocritical and so obviously flip-flop? Because they know if they pull this off and pass this radical, dangerous bill to federalize elections, it will all but secure their power into the future. That is what we are talking about here.
Democrats want to push through this bill that will completely upend our current election system, and they are willing to abandon their principles and flip-flop on the filibuster if it means permanently maintaining power.
Senator Schumer admitted it earlier today on MSNBC. He said the quiet part out loud and explained that Democrat Senators are saying things like ``I'll lose my election'' or ``We'll lose our majority'' if they don't change the filibuster to pass their election takeover bill.
Democrats say this is about ``voting rights.'' It isn't. The right to vote is more readily accessible and easily exercised by eligible voters across the country than ever before. This is really about federalizing our elections and enacting policies that they think will give them an advantage in future elections. And all along the way, they will revel in their hypocrisy and self-righteously pretend that they are ``protecting democracy.''
But make no mistake, a change to the filibuster won't protect democracy. It will ruin it.
Democrats in this Chamber can posture all they want, but the American people see them for what they really are: self-serving, power-hungry politicians.
We all know that if the Democrats' bill was good, if it included policies that would actually improve our Nation's elections, it would pass. But there is nothing in the bill worth voting for. The Democrats' bill is an assault on American elections. It will fuel voter fraud, waste taxpayer dollars on political campaigns and attack ads, and make it nearly impossible to conduct fair elections that our citizens can trust.
We need an end to this self-serving hypocrisy, and we need Members who will stand up for what is right. I am urging my Democratic colleagues to see past their party's own partisan, short-term interests, and I ask them to consider the health and future of our democracy. That is what the American people deserve.
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