Voting (Cong. Rec., Jan. 10, 2022)

Summary

Congressional Record, Senate, January 10, 2022 (beginning at page S106). McConnell, under the heading Voting, opposes an attempt to end the filibuster, says the Help America Vote Act passed in 2002 by a vote of 92 to 2, and says the 2020 elections had the highest turnout in 120 years. Durbin answers by recalling the vacancy on the Supreme Court after Justice Antonin Scalia died and by saying use of the filibuster on appropriations bills has led to an omnibus, and he speaks in favor of voting standards. A later section under the heading Ukraine begins with Lithuania in 1991.

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“Voting (Cong. Rec., Jan. 10, 2022).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2022-01-10-crec-2022-01-10-pt1-pgs106-2-d5b4f208cf/, SHA-256 e04dac07be7a84993804eaff73e458b984ae055e8fd089b10877482cffb5a682.

Full text

S106 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 10, 2022
I yield the floor. ram through bigger changes. Now, none Well, it is their bills that would over-
RECOGNITION OF THE MINORITY LEADER of this was occasioned by what State turn election results, overruling the
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Re- legislatures did in 2021. This is actually commonsense voting laws that citizens
publican leader is recognized. a yearslong quest for power in search across the country pick for their own
VOTING of a pretext. States.
Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, Their hysterical attack on State laws A case in point: The Democrats’ lat-
this week on this floor, we are poised are fake as well. The State of Georgia est bill would force the entire country
to witness something that has never passed a voting law providing for more to adopt two practices—same-day reg-
happened before in living memory: an in-person early voting than New York istration and no-excuse absentee vot-
attempt to attack the core identity of provides. It allows for no-excuse absen- ing—that the citizens of New York
the Senate by a sitting majority lead- tee voting, which New York prohibits. State had as ballot measures last No-
er. If there was not a voting crisis in Dem- vember. Deep-blue New York rejected
The senior Senator from New York ocrat-run New York 6 months ago, them both. So you have to ask your-
once said nuking the filibuster would there is no crisis in Georgia now. If self, why are Washington Democrats
‘‘turn what the Founding Fathers Georgia is a banana republic today, refusing to accept the decision of New
called the cooling saucer of democracy then New York has been and still is a York voters? Why are they trying to
into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.’’ banana republic. There is zero logic set aside these election results and
He said it would ‘‘make the country here, zero consistency. overturn the people’s will?
into a banana republic . . . a doomsday In the State of Texas, Democrats are Our Democratic colleagues also
for democracy,’’ he said. Now, he wants hysterical because the State rolled talked about a so-called voting rights
to trigger that doomsday himself. back some unusual COVID-specific ex- bill. This is a bill to turn the partisan
When I was majority leader, some of ceptions to their prior procedures, such Attorney General into a national elec-
my own party urged me to break the as universal drive-through voting and tions czar. The Attorney General would
Senate for our own party’s short-term 24-hour voting. So if the bar for voting no longer have to sue States to win in
gain. My answer was a simple word: rights now requires the possibility of court; he could end up doing an end run
‘‘no.’’ voting in person at 3 a.m., how many around the legal system and push
Less than 4 years ago, the senior Sen- blue States in America meet that bar? States around without having to per-
ator from Illinois said nuking the leg- Neither of these things existed in suade a judge first. I am sure our
islative filibuster ‘‘would be the end of Texas before 2020, and neither widely Democratic colleagues would have re-
the Senate as it was originally devised exists in blue States. acted well if Republicans had tried to
and created going back to our Found- Every hysterical claim that our de- break Senate rules so that Bill Barr
ing Fathers.’’ Now, he wants the Sen- mocracy is in crisis rings hollow. More could micromanage elections in blue
ate to end on his watch. Americans today say that President States. I am sure that would have gone
The last time Senate Democrats were Biden’s election was legitimate—now swimmingly on their side of the aisle.
in the minority, 32 of them signed a listen to this—than said the same But, ultimately, the issues at stake
letter demanding the legislative fili- thing about the prior President in late this week run even deeper than this
buster stay in place. Now, many of 2017. More Americans today say that fake hysteria, even deeper than voting
them say they want to break this insti- President Biden’s election was legiti- laws. Breaking the Senate itself and
tution. The excuses put forward for mate than said the same about the nuking the filibuster would cause a
this behavior are entirely fake. The prior President in late 2017. Yet Demo- massive political power outage for
supposed justifications are simply crats are trying to use their fake many millions of American citizens,
false. The Senate Democratic leaders hysteria to justify breaking Senate for entire States.
are trying to use a big lie to bully and rules so they can seize control of elec- So the filibuster is not just about
berate their own Members into break- tions in all 50 States. That is what they what bills are blocked; it is also the
ing their word, breaking the rules, and are up to. sole feature that gives millions of
breaking the Senate. Historically, the Senate has taken up Americans any voice at all in the legis-
We are going to spend all week elections legislation on a careful, bi- lation that does pass whenever there is
sounding the alarm on the radical partisan basis. We have made sure not one-party control. Annual appropria-
takeovers that some Democrats want to trample on the rights of voters and tions, government funding bills, the
to pull off. They want to silence mil- the proper roles of local officials. NDAA, rescue packages like the
lions of Americans and take over the In 2002, we passed the Help America CARES Act—all of them could be done
Senate so they can take over elections Vote Act by a vote of 92 to 2—92 to 2. on a one-party basis, thereby elimi-
so they can take over America. Chris Dodd and I authored that bill. In- nating the influence of every State in
Leading Democrats say they want to terestingly enough, the only dissenting America represented by a Member of
break the Senate because of the sin- votes came from then-Senator Hillary the minority.
ister anti-voting plot that is sweeping Clinton and the current Democratic For decades, both Senators and citi-
America. Of course, this is totally fake. leader, CHUCK SCHUMER. Ninety-two to zens have been able to take for granted
It does not exist. The current control two. that everybody gets a voice, even when
of Congress and the White House were Well, that is how you pass election they don’t have divided government. If
decided in 2020 by the highest turnout reform if there are actual issues that this unique feature of the Senate is
in 120 years. Ninety-four percent of need tackling. You do it carefully; you blown up, millions and millions of
voters said voting was easy. More do it thoughtfully; bipartisan com- Americans’ voices will cease to be
Americans say current voting laws are mittee work; regular order. Our col- heard in this Chamber—a radical Sen-
too lax than say they are too restric- leagues aren’t doing anything like ate takeover, for a radical elections
tive. that. They are trying to ram through a takeover, for a radical takeover of our
Confronted by the facts, the Demo- sweeping, partisan legislation that Nation’s future.
cratic leader says they are, of course, they first drafted and introduced in its What the Democratic leader wants to
irrelevant. He says the entire nuclear first iteration back in 2019. do would not protect our democracy or
push is occasioned by what a few Democrats say they are concerned our system of government. It would de-
States did in 2021. This is utter non- about efforts to disempower the appro- stroy a key feature of American Gov-
sense. The Senator from New York has priate local elections officials. Well, it

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ernment forever, and the Senators on
been publicly laying groundwork to is actually their bills that would both sides know it.
nuke the Senate rules since back in disempower local officials, by Wash- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen-
2019, before the 2020 election. More ington Democrats appointing them- ator from Illinois.
than a year before the 2020 election, selves the entire country’s board of Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I lis-
the Democratic leader was openly flirt- elections on steroids. tened carefully to the Republican lead-
ing with nuking the Senate rules if he Democrats say they are concerned er’s statement about the institutions
got the power so he would be able to about overturning election results. of the Senate, the traditions of the

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January 10, 2022 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S107
Senate, the rules of the Senate, the bated and voted on, and ultimately establish standards that will make it
precedents of the Senate, and why we that appropriations bill would go into easier to vote.
are dutybound to follow them, but I conference with the House and end up The Senator from Kentucky likes to
couldn’t get this image out of my mind doing what it was supposed to do, fund- come to the floor and say, well, New
as he spoke: the image of that news ing our government. York doesn’t have all those good
that came to us one day that Supreme I can’t remember the last time that things. He may be right. But why
Court Justice Antonin Scalia had trag- happened. I think it has been 10 years shouldn’t they? As far as I am con-
ically passed away. now since the subcommittees for ap- cerned, Illinois, New York, Hawaii, all
And we all remember what happened propriations did their normal business States should be governed by standards
next. It was the same Republican lead- with the budget resolution and pre- and give people an additional oppor-
er who sent the word out to his Repub- pared these bills. It is gone. Why? Why tunity to vote.
lican Members: Don’t even entertain is it gone? Wasn’t it the tradition of I would rather come down on the side
the possibility that President Obama is the Senate that you consider those of a larger turnout of the electorate
going to fill this vacancy on the Su- bills? It is gone because of abuse of the and let democracy speak than the al-
preme Court. We are going to keep this filibuster. ternative, which is being suggested by
vacancy open in the hopes that we can Any amendment that is offered is the Republican leader. They want to
elect a Republican President to fill it. threatened with a 60-vote requirement selectively make it difficult for some
Now, that was 8 months at least, and things grind to a halt. And you people to come and vote. I don’t. I
maybe 10 months, before the election. know the net result of it? We have think they are wrong.
And it was the first time in the history something called an omnibus. All the Time and again, the Senate Repub-
of the United States that a Republican spending bills are merged into one lican leader came to the floor and
leader of the Senate used his power to massive piece of legislation. Let the called things fake. I guess we are now
browbeat his members not even to staff write it. Let the Members look into that characterization and can
meet with Merrick Garland, the Presi- over their shoulder and see if there is thank President Trump for leading us
dent’s nominee, President Obama’s anything in there of interest, and we down that path. What is not fake is
nominee. They wouldn’t even entertain pass it year after year after year. this. Throughout the history of the
an office meeting with him to discuss Is that another fine tradition of the United States, the opportunity to vote
it. It was out of the question. The Su- Senate that we want to protect? I hope has been denied, primarily to people of
preme Court was going to have 8 mem- not. color and the poor, year after year, in
bers, period, and not one more because Let me say a word about voting, if I an effort to try to ensure that election
there was an election coming and a Re- can. For as long as we have had this results turned out a certain way.
publican opportunity in that election. Nation, there has always been a basic For the longest time, my Democratic
And so that is what happened. You re- question as to who will choose the Party was guilty of that sin. I readily
member it well, and I do too. leaders. confess it because history makes it
So when I hear about preserving the Our Founding Fathers showed a lot clear, but now that mantle has been
sanctity of traditions in the Senate, I of wisdom, but they missed it when it passed to the party of Abraham Lin-
can’t help but remember that vacant came to voting—at least by this cen- coln, the Republican Party, which is
seat on the Supreme Court for almost a tury’s standards because they denied now trying to restrict the right to vote
year. I cannot help but remember that the vote to African Americans who, by across the Nation.
in the last year of Obama’s Presidency and large, were slaves in that culture, When you heard that in Georgia you
that he was denied the opportunity and they denied the vote to women. couldn’t provide water or food to peo-
which other Presidents routinely were And they said that basically propertied ple waiting in line, it probably struck
given to fill a vacancy on the Supreme individuals were the ones who would most Americans as odd. Why would
Court. That was the reality. choose the leaders of our country. they say that?
And now there is a question of the fu- We have a different view of America’s Well, visualize, if you will, the lines
ture of the filibuster, and I will con- democracy today, and many of us be- of voters, and you will find, if your
cede that the filibuster has been part of lieve that every eligible person in this memory is the same as mine, that
the profile in the Senate for a long, country should be given an opportunity largely they were minority voters who
long time—for many decades. But what to vote that is not a hardship. were standing in line for hours to
the Senate Republican leader fails to So in the 2020 election, we had a vote—hours to vote.
note is that the use of the filibuster is record turnout. There were many of us And so the Georgia State Legislature
out of control. who felt we should build on that to and others have said, if you give them
We now have filibusters threatened have an even larger turnout in the next water or food, you have violated the
on everything in sight. It was by de- election—let the people speak, let the law. Let them stand in line without
sign, not by accident. And it was by de- people vote. any support.
sign to slow down the business of the And in about 20 different State legis- Really? Is that what it has come
Senate and stop the production of the latures controlled by the Republicans, down to? The fear that if you give a
Senate, and that is why day after exactly the opposite was decided. They cup of water to someone waiting in line
weary day this Chamber is empty. decided that they would restrict oppor- to vote, you are buying their vote? I
Nothing is happening because a fili- tunities to vote. Too many darn people just can’t believe the thinking that
buster is usually looming over the voted in that 2020 election, and the re- leads to that. But we know behind it
body. sults weren’t what some of the Repub- were a lot of situations where machin-
And for those who want to restore lican legislatures and Governors ex- ery and voting places were limited to
the Senate to an actual legislative pected. So they decided they wanted to minority populations.
body with actual debate and amend- change it—reduce the opportunity for UKRAINE
ments on the floor, we are being told early voting, reduce the opportunities Madam President, nearly 32 years
by the Republican leader that we are for registration, reduce the oppor- ago, Lithuania, a tiny nation on the
somehow denying the basic birthright tunity for same-day registration. Baltic Sea, dared to reclaim its free-
of the Senate, and we know that is They argued that some States have dom from the Soviet Union. At that
wrong. We know that the Senate, as them and some don’t. Well, the bottom time, the Soviet Union was one of the
many of us remember, has changed dra- line, as we see it on the Democratic world’s superpowers. The reaction from

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matically. side, is if we are going to open oppor- Moscow took 11 months, and it was
It was 25 years ago that I came to the tunity for people across the country brutal.
Senate. We voted a lot. We actually who are eligible to vote without hard- On January 11, 1991, 31 years ago this
had 12 appropriations bills come to the ship, then we ought to do it across the week, Soviet tanks rolled in to crush
floor of the Senate every year—every board, and that is why we support leg- Lithuanian freedom. It would become
year—under an open process where any islation—Federal legislation ordained known as Lithuania’s Bloody Sunday.
amendment could be offered and de- and envisioned by our Constitution to In the capital city of Vilnius, crowds

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