Nasa Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his leadership.

Mr. Speaker, today our Nation faces the most dangerous assault on the vote since Jim Crow. Last year alone, more than 440 draconian voter restrictions have been introduced across 49 States, with at least 19 States enacting 34 measures into law. This legislation seeks not only to suppress access to the ballot but empowers States to nullify election results entirely. That is the legislation that I referenced across the country.

This sinister campaign has particularly targeted communities of color. As the Committee on House Administration proved in last summer's report, partisan forces are accelerating a sinister campaign to silence the voices of color in particular.

There are four things, just four things, I want people to know about the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, four things to remember, and one observation, the four reasons why every Member should vote for this bill today.

First, it ends shameful voter suppression and election subversion, which lets local officials simply choose winners and losers based on their own political interests. Nullification of elections, vote ``no'' on that.

Secondly, it ends partisan gerrymandering so that the redistricting process will meet the standards of the Constitution, of the Voting Rights Act, and keep communities of interests together.

One, stopping voter suppression and election nullification; two, ending partisan gerrymandering.

Third, it stops big, dark, special interest money, which is suffocating the airwaves with misrepresentations, which does suppress the voices of the American people. Get rid of big, dark money. People can still give their big, dark, special interest money, but they have to disclose it so that the public knows.

Fourth, this legislation empowers the grassroots by rewarding their participation in our democracy and amplifying a voice and, yes, the power of matching their small-dollar contributions.

Hear this: There are no taxpayer dollars involved in that, no matter what you might hear them misrepresent. No taxpayer dollars.

Four things: end voter suppression and election nullification; end political gerrymandering; end big, dark, special interest money crushing the political system; and reward the grassroots. That is in the Freedom to Vote Act.

In the John R. Lewis Act, which is part of what we are voting on today, I just want to be clear: The Voting Rights Act has been strongly bipartisan. Indeed, Republican Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George W. Bush, who signed the most recent Voting Rights Act, which received like 390 votes in the House, unanimous in the Senate--it was signed by George W. Bush. It was bipartisan.

Four times the Congress has reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in a bipartisan way. This is the first time we have the assault that we have on that.

I am very, very proud of the House of Representatives, Mr. Speaker, because we have twice passed the For the People Act, which is to protect our vote, and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Even before he passed and had this named in his honor, we passed it once.

The House has made it clear: We stand with the people in the fight for voting rights.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to commend Mr. Butterfield for his leadership on all of this, going around the country; John Sarbanes, the author of the For the People Act; Terri Sewell, the author of the Voting Rights Act; Zoe Lofgren, the chair of the House Administration Committee; and Mr. Nadler, the chair of the Judiciary Committee. I also want to acknowledge the work of Jim McGovern, the chair of the Rules Committee, who has brought these bills to the floor time and time again.

This is a day when Democrats will once again take a strong step to defend our democracy as we send the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act to the Senate for urgent consideration. Nothing less is at stake than our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a strong, bipartisan ``aye'' vote on this legislation.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois.

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