Nasa Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important as we have this debate, frankly, on a bill that was dropped last night with provisions that have gone through this Chamber before which, frankly, have gone nowhere in the Senate, it is important to understand for the context of this discussion that I actually represent a preclearance county. I have lived in one for 20 years. It is Collier County, Florida.
You see, Collier County was subject to preclearance in 1965 under the Voting Rights Act. But since I have lived there the last 20 years, there has been no evidence whatsoever that Collier County should even continue to be subject to preclearance. So much so that the Supreme Court agreed and actually decided that it was no longer needed to do preclearance in the United States because the evidence did not suggest it. But what this bill seeks to do is unleash preclearance across the entire United States with no evidence for it being needed, the evidence that did exist in 1965.
Mr. Speaker, I represent such a county today, and something tells me that in 1965, I wouldn't have represented that county then at that time. I do today. The evidence is clear. There is no reason to unleash preclearance on the United States, no need at all. The other provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act still exists today and will continue to exist. But the preclearance provision is no longer needed.
So what is this really about? This is really about making sure that politicians have direct control over how elections are going to be administered in the several States which, by the way, is a violation of the United States Constitution. Voting laws are supposed to be enacted by State legislatures, not here in Congress. That is the way the Constitution is written.
So I think this is a bad bill. We should not be doing this, let alone funding, doing public financing of Federal elections. Why would we ever want to do anything like that? We have more than enough money in our elections. We seem to spend billions of dollars every cycle doing this stuff. We want more? We want to take it from the taxpayer? It is outrageous. Vote ``no'' on this measure.
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