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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I rise today in opposition to a bill introduced by my colleague from North Carolina. Let me start by saying this: The Senator from North Carolina says the Federal Government should not use official taxpayer resources--no taxpayer dollars--to advance partisan politics.

You will be happy to know that I agree 100 percent. And I would venture to say that all of my Democratic colleagues agree 100 percent. But let's also be clear the Executive order referenced isn't that.

And my colleague's attempt to attribute some scheme behind informing eligible citizens of their right to vote and facilitating their voter registration and participation is simply without merit.

As I mentioned a few minutes ago, when debating the SAVE Act, we are now less than 6 weeks until the November election. And while there may be disagreement on policy with my colleagues, we should certainly agree that it is crucial to make sure every eligible American can participate in the political process--again, without any unnecessary barriers or obstacles and certainly without intimidation.

As I referenced a few minutes ago, I once served as California's secretary of state and as the chief elections officer, and I am proud of the reforms that we implemented in making it easier for eligible citizens to register to vote, to stay registered to vote--because that is not easy in some States--and to cast their ballots in the elections.

I want to emphasize that these reforms were put in place for all citizens regardless of political party, regardless of political leanings. We wanted to make sure that every eligible Californian could exercise their right to vote, and that is what should be our business here today--to make sure that every eligible American can exercise their right to vote.

That is exactly why President Biden first issued this Executive order, which builds on decades of what, once upon a time, was bipartisan efforts to expand voter registration. What could be more patriotic than performing your civic duty? The bipartisan history of Congress in promoting voter participation includes the bipartisan passage of the National Voter Registration Act once upon a time.

President Biden issued the Executive order to bring the weight of the Federal Government to help Americans register to vote. It strikes me as perfectly reasonable that when Americans are already interacting with the government, that we should take that opportunity to securely get more eligible Americans registered to vote and ready to participate in the elections. The Executive order that we are debating here is simply fulfilling the mandates that Congress created with the bipartisan passage of the National Voter Registration Act.

I couldn't help but notice in the debate--in the presentation, in the arguments--that there has been a failure to point to any partisan language either in statute or in the Executive order. So I am disappointed that these efforts continue. What we should be doing is working together to facilitate civic participation and combating misinformation and disinformation surrounding the 2024 election that only risks confusing or discouraging people to participate.

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