Nasa Enhanced Use Leasing Extension Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I am old enough to have grown up and become cognizant of public affairs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It is ironic that today, I am hearing the language of interposition of States' rights. There were a lot of States' rights in the 1950s and the 1940s and 1960s. And John Lewis will tell you those States' rights kept people from voting, from participating, from playing a role.
Now, we have legislation before us that will ensure, as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 assured, that people would not be shut out by States' rights by people who wanted to keep certain other people from voting and participating in their State's elections, in their county's election, in their municipal election, in their city election.
I have heard a lot about States' rights. I am old enough to have heard about what States' rights meant. They meant don't butt in to assure that every United States citizen, one nation, under God, indivisible. But we were divisible. We were divisible by color and by other arbitrary and unjustified distinctions. So we are here today to say that is not America. That is not one nation under God, indivisible.
So, yes, all the States will be covered because we want all States to comply, and they will not have a thing to worry about under this legislation if they have not had violations within the 20-year period.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, we will mark what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, 93rd birthday. When he was born in 1929, it had only been 9 years, just 9 years from the date of his birth that women were given the opportunity to vote in America. How sad that it took us so long. When he was born in 1929, it had only been 9 years since the 19th amendment had been passed, and it had only been 64 years since the amendments ending slavery and ostensibly guaranteeing the right to vote for African Americans.
But that constitutional amendment was not honored. And ways and means were found to prevent people from voting, from registering. And so, yes, the Supreme Court passed the decision in Shelby v. Holder, Shelby in Alabama, a county that had discriminated greatly and was discriminating at that point in time. And as soon as the Supreme Court said this is no longer necessary, we saw a cascade of new laws to restrict access to the ballot box--a cascade.
When Dr. King was born, neither African-American men or African- American women could cast ballots and participate in our democracy in many States and jurisdictions, North and South. Before he was killed, at just 39 years of age, Dr. King led a movement to correct the injustices that had come about because for so long many Americans had no recourse to participate in our democracy or pursue opportunities equally because their States felt they had the right to discriminate. That is what State rights were in my generation. And apparently, the concept still exists, but that is the right.
The right to vote is the guarantee to all others. Dr. King joined by other giants of the Civil Rights Movement, including our dear friend and brother. My, my, my, G.K. and I were just saying how sad we are that John Lewis is not on this floor, who gave blood and almost his life but lived his life to assure that every American had the right to vote and was facilitated in that right.
Dr. King, joined by other giants of the Civil Rights Movement, including our friend and brother, John Lewis, used the tools of nonviolent, peaceful protest in organizing to expose the hypocrisy of a system that called itself a democracy but did not allow all of its citizens to share in electing leaders.
Each year, on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, birthday, Americans reflect on the lessons of his life and on the Civil Rights Movement as though they formed a chapter in America's past. Would that they mirrored simply the past. But if we look around us today, there can be no doubt that the fight for our democracy is very much a part of our present.
Now, this is a radical bill that will allow process of the United States Senate that is a failing practice. The majority will rule on debating this bill--the majority. It is not a radical proposal that the majority of the Senate that is for this bill. When people get up and say, Oh, this bill can't pass. The only reason it can't pass is because the minority will stop it, if they can. I hope they can't. I hope they change the rules. I am an opponent of the filibuster. It is undemocratic, and as Hamilton said, it poisons democracy.
The right to vote has not been so endangered since Dr. King walked among us. But there is a remedy. It is not perfect but it will go a long way toward turning back the tide of voter suppression in protecting the fundamental right to vote. One nation, under God, indivisible. All of us could vote. The legislation incorporated into this bill represents the boldest and most consequential voting rights reforms in a generation.
I was the sponsor of the Help America Vote Act. It was called then a very consequential bill. It was not nearly as consequential as this bill will be in empowering every person eligible to vote. And by the way, every citizen, from my perspective, to vote, so there is no mischaracterization of my view.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Nadler, Representative Sewell, Representative Sarbanes, Chairwoman Beatty, and the entire Congressional Black Caucus, and literally hundreds of Members who through the years have fought to protect this sacred right.
In addition to providing for automatic online and same-day voter registration, the Freedom to Vote Act will make Election Day a Federal holiday--a holy day, if you will--in the pursuit of our secular commitment to democracy. It will guarantee at least 15 days of early voting.
Isn't that terrible? Well, it must be terrible because many States throughout the country are cutting those days down. Why? I don't know. If you vote on Tuesday as opposed to Thursday, is there more fraud involved? I don't know. It will guarantee those days and two weekends while ending requirements for difficult-to-obtain photo ID. It doesn't eliminate ID. If States have ID, it does not eliminate that.
Importantly, this legislation will restore voting rights to those who have paid their debts to society. And it will ensure that those who cast eligible ballots provisionally in the wrong precincts will still have their votes counted.
As the sponsor of the Help America Vote Act in 2002, that provision was in the Federal law. This bill would limit partisan gerrymandering and remove the corrosive influence of dark money. My mother used to tell me, consider the source. If the money is dark and you don't know who is paying the bill for the talk that is being given to you, you can't make that judgment. You can't determine who the source is. When it comes to defending the integrity of our elections and our democracy, this legislation is absolutely needed in America.
Not only will it prohibit the removal of election officials without cause, which is happening because a President calls up and says, ``Can't you find some more votes?'' That was the asking of some elected official, Secretary of State of Georgia, to commit a crime. Talk about fraud in elections.
This will enable the EAC to provide State and local boards of election with grants to upgrade outdated voting equipment and protect against hackers and cyber threats. It wasn't until 2003 that the Federal Government paid part of the election costs incurred in electing Federal officials, also restoring the full force of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was undermined by Shelby v. Holder, applying it to every State--not discrimination.
If you break the law in any State, if you preclude people from legitimate voting in any State, you are covered under this legislation. We don't pick out any actor. Every State is included. We apply it to every State. And updating it for the 21st century, the Freedom to Vote Act has the power to restore trust that our elections are fair and that every eligible voter will be able to participate.
House Democrats have passed voting rights measures multiple times, this Congress sending both H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 to the Senate. The majority is for it, but the filibuster stops it. The minority controls the majority.
Madison said that was not democracy. Now, the Senate must act.
Mr. Speaker, I urge Senators to come together on Monday and approve this historic voting rights legislation for our time. We have the opportunity.
I share G. K. Butterfield's sadness that John Lewis is not on this floor to cast his vote. Very frankly, I would have yielded all the time I have taken to John Lewis to talk to us about how important this legislation is and how many people gave their lives and their blood and their time and their talent to accomplish an America where no person would be shut out of the ballot box.
In future years, I hope Americans will be able to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by reflecting not only on how our country overcame Jim Crow in the 20th century but how we prevented its return in 2022.
I know we have heard, ``Oh, this is not Jim Crow.'' No matter how subtle the discrimination may be, it is discrimination.
I ask Members to cast your vote for this bill today, so our citizens can cast their votes without hindrance and share equally in the making of our laws and in the shaping of our future. Vote ``yes.''
Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois.
Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
In the lengthy oration of the 1 minute from the majority leader, I agreed with one word, that this is a radical bill. And the majority leader's argument is a ``throwing the baby out with the bathwater'' argument.
The States in this country remain a bulwark of democracy. The rhetoric from Democrats is that democracy itself won't survive without their elections bill. Well, nothing speaks of preserving our democracy like a late-night gut and replace in the Rules Committee. A bill about NASA gets 700-plus pages added and a floor vote within 18 hours.
Nothing speaks of preserving our democracy like giving Washington control of voter ID laws when 35 elected State legislatures have adopted them and 74 percent of the people favor them. People in my State voted to put it in our State constitution. Most believe elections should be made more secure.
Nothing speaks more of preserving our democracy than shifting the power to set election law from 50 decentralized States, where legislatures controlled by different parties have predominantly held and exercised that power for all 233 years of our experience under the Constitution, and centralizing that power in a single agency, the Department of Justice, at any time controlled by one party.
Nothing speaks of preserving our democracy like abandoning historic parliamentary norms to accomplish this radical transformation with bare majorities in both Houses of Congress without one vote from the minority party.
Democrats may continue gerrymandering in Illinois and Maryland with abandon, but they assure you that if you just put all control of elections into their hands in Washington, they will save democracy for you. It calls to mind the iconic Vietnam-era phrase: ``We had to burn the village to save it.''
America, that is Democrats' message to you. They will burn your democracy to the ground in order to save it. And they can't let anything stop them from getting it done before they face your verdict this November.
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