Terminating the National Emergency Declared to Impose Global Tariffs

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues in standing up for the right to vote and the critical need to ensure that that right is protected.

I want to thank Ranking Members Padilla and Reed for their leadership on this issue and in organizing this floor block. Senator Padilla, a former Secretary of State himself, understands to a core how important the right to vote is.

The right to vote is sacred to our democracy. It secures all of our freedoms. As Congressman John Lewis once said, voting is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect Union.

But in recent years, from the January 6 insurrection--I just came from a spotlight hearing in which Officer Dunn and in which former prosecutors were speaking out about their work on that day. I remember that day because, at 3:30 in the morning, it was Senator Blunt and Vice President Pence and I that were here on our own in this very Chamber and made that walk, which in the morning had been a big celebration of our democracy; but this time we were walking over broken glass, we were walking by marble pillars spray-painted with racist vulgarities. But we made that walk, and our democracy prevailed.

But in one of President Trump's first acts, he pardoned the violent offenders who had struck police officers, who had injured over 100 police officers. That is what he did.

And from that January 6 insurrection to dangerous rhetoric and baseless election conspiracies, to other actions taken by this administration over the past 100 days, we have seen unprecedented attacks on the freedom to vote and our democracy.

Nowhere are these attacks more clear than at the Department of Justice. The Justice Department was founded in 1870 with the very purpose to enforce civil rights. This includes voting rights guaranteed by the 15th Amendment. And since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Division has been responsible for enforcing that law.

Today, the work to protect voting rights is as urgent as ever. In 2023 alone, over 19 States enacted laws to restrict access to voting and to make it more difficult to vote.

In the words of Senator Warnock, what is happening is simple: Some people don't want some people to vote.

Yet what are the words that are inscribed at the Justice Department over its entrance?

Equal Justice for All.

Department of Justice officials would like us to believe that the fight for equal rights and the fight for voting rights is already over. In fact, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights has said that the Voting Rights Act ``was once necessary to push back on Jim Crow laws.''

At her hearing in front of the Judiciary Committee, I asked her if she will enforce section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court of the United States, a conservative Supreme Court, just reaffirmed 2 years ago. She didn't answer the question.

It is clear why she didn't answer--because she never planned on enforcing it. In fact, it has been reported that the Department's lawyers in the voting rights section have been directed to dismiss active voting cases.

But they are not stopping--this administration--at forcing attorneys to dismiss cases. Justice Department officials have also removed all of the senior civil servants--civil servants--in the Civil Rights Division. That has had a ripple effect, as you can imagine, causing a mass exodus of experienced attorneys from the Division. And rather than try to stop the loss of talent, the current head of that Division, installed by the Trump administration, simply told reporters:

I think that's fine.

Well, I don't think that is fine. The people who have endured voter discrimination don't think it is fine. Those of us who have been active in this area, who have heard the stories, as I did when I was Rules chair and held a field hearing in Georgia--the story of the veteran who had signed up to serve and there was no waiting line, and when he comes home to this country and he wants to vote, he finds out that there is a waiting line in the hot Sun for hours; he finds out that his vote in one location, which he figures out, for the primary is different from where he votes in the general and then is different from where he votes in the runoff. That is a system designed to make it harder to vote.

In the election for Senator Warnock, suddenly they took down Saturday voting when there are only a few weekends between the general election and the runoff.

Then there were the people in camo standing to intimidate voters in lines in Arizona.

The stories go on and on.

In Harris County in Texas, they had one voting dropoff box in a county the size of my entire State when it comes to population.

So, no, I don't think it is just fine.

It is not just at the Department of Justice that we see an assault on voting. President Trump also issued an Executive order to overhaul our Nation's elections.

As a Federal judge recently made clear, the President has claimed power over our elections that the Constitution does not give him.

If implemented, the order could disenfranchise millions of citizens, including millions of women who changed their last names after getting married, as would the legislation that my colleagues have just highlighted. I heard Senator Merkley discussing the problems with this bill.

It would make it harder for men and women in uniform serving overseas to vote, and it would compromise--this Executive order--sensitive, personal data, giving Elon Musk access to private information about citizens, contained in voter files in every State.

Instead of creating barriers to the ballot box, we should be protecting access to the polls. That is why we intend to reintroduce a bill that I led, the Freedom to Vote Act--something that we negotiated over months and months and months. This legislation would set national standards to ensure that all eligible Americans can vote in the way that works best for them, regardless of their ZIP Code. That is why I also strongly support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and strengthen key portions of the Voting Rights Act.

But there are things that all of us should be able to agree on, like ensuring that State and local governments have reliable Federal support and funding to maintain election infrastructure--something that Senator Blunt and I, when he was chair of the Rules Committee and when he was ranking on the Rules Committee, agreed on, and I know Senator Padilla is carrying on that torch; that we must, in our local election offices, keep pace with new technology; that we must combat cyber security threats.

I think about Chris Krebs, someone who I respect very much, who was in charge of the Division of the government that makes sure elections are protected from cyber attacks.

After the election in 2016, after that election, he declared it safe. The Attorney General for the United States at the time for Donald Trump, Bill Barr, echoed his words and said it was safe. Then the President just decided at the time--President Donald Trump, in his first term--to fire Chris Krebs.

But that wasn't even enough for this President. He comes back just a few weeks ago and says he is going to investigate Chris Krebs. Why? Because this civil servant had the audacity to declare our election safe and correct, which it was, after spending his time in government working to make sure that it was and that Russians and other countries that wanted to do us harm would not influence our election.

We also should be able to stand by our election workers, including volunteers, who face a barrage of threats and intimidation. We have heard the testimony--so many us--of those who were threatened, of those who were told--election workers just doing their jobs--that their head would be on a stake.

Mr. President, Congressman Lewis never stopped working for our democracy. While we are seeing daily assaults on our democracy, it is our duty to never give up hope and to continue to fight for what Congressman Lewis aptly called ``one of the most important blessings of our democracy,'' and that is our Nation's right to vote.

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