Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman, the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, for his tremendous leadership.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill.

The right to vote is sacred. The right to vote is special. The right to vote is sacrosanct. The right to vote is central to the integrity of our democracy. It is the foundation of the principle of government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The problem is apparently my extreme MAGA Republican colleagues have concluded that, rather than trying to win a debate and the hearts and minds of the American people anchored in ideas, the majority has instead chosen a strategy to engage in voter suppression. There is no evidence that has been presented to suggest that undocumented individuals have been participating in Federal elections. Republicans who investigated these allegations on their own committee have been unable to document these allegations.

It is unconstitutional. It is the state of the law that only citizens can vote in Federal elections. Only citizens can vote for the House of Representatives. Only citizens can vote for the United States Senate. Only citizens can vote for the Presidency of the United States.

This extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill is not designed to solve any problem on behalf of the American people. It is designed to jam people up and prevent Americans from voting.

The extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill will not allow Americans to vote who have a State-issued driver's license.

The extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill will not allow Americans who are serving in the military to use their military ID while they are serving this country to vote.

The extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill won't allow young people, college students who are attending State universities all across the land and who have been issued college IDs through their State colleges and universities, to vote.

There is a big difference between the House Democratic view of free and fair elections, the peaceful transfer of power, and government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and the extreme MAGA Republican view.

House Democrats want to make it easier to vote and harder to obtain weapons of war. Extreme MAGA Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier to deploy weapons of war. These are weapons, by the way, not used to hunt deer, but to hunt children in classrooms and other human beings.

The extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill has given us an opportunity again to communicate with the American people on the difference between our values, House Democrats putting people over politics, focused on the things that matter, like lower costs, growing the middle class, ending price gouging, defending democracy, and fighting for reproductive freedom.

We embrace having a debate with our extreme MAGA Republican colleagues about issues that matter. Why won't Republicans just take their issues to the American people? Why are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle trying to hide their plans that are connected to Trump's Project 2025 publicly, but then come to the House floor and bring this extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill that is part of the blueprint of Trump's Project 2025? The majority can't fool the American people. They are smarter than my colleagues think.

Republicans don't want to have a real debate about issues because the extreme MAGA Republicans want to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle are trying to hide that now from the American people, stripping it from their convention platform.

We know what Republicans really want to do. The extreme MAGA Republicans put the Justices on the Supreme Court who detonated Roe v. Wade. That is Republicans' agenda. That is part of Trump's Project 2025.

Republicans don't want to debate the issues. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to suppress the right to vote because Trump's Project 2025, which is part of the majority's platform, wants to detonate and destroy the Department of Education, which the American people don't support.

Republicans don't really want to embrace the ability for young people of every race, of every part of America, including the heartland of America and rural America and Appalachia and suburban America, to get a high-quality public education. That is what Trump's Project 2025 is about.

The majority doesn't want to have a discussion about that. My colleagues don't want that exposed to the American people, so we are on the floor right now with an extreme MAGA Republican voter suppression bill that does nothing because the law is already clear: Noncitizens cannot vote in Federal elections.

We are going to continue to do everything we can to make sure that the American people can participate in free and fair elections, have the freedom to determine their own destiny by exercising their right to vote in an uncompromised and unfettered fashion, as opposed to engaging in this type of frivolous legislative activity, at best, perhaps designed as a cover already trying to set up an excuse for what may happen in November, just like what was done in advance of January 6.

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