For the People Act of 2021
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding, and I thank John Sarbanes, my colleague from Maryland, for all the work that he has done and the extraordinary leadership that Zoe Lofgren has done in bringing this bill to the floor last year and bringing it back this year. It was passed with unanimous support on our side of the aisle because our Members know that Americans are frustrated, and they feel somewhat shut out from their democracy. This is a bill for the people.
I thank all of those who have worked for so long on making sure that Americans have access to the ballot.
Madam Speaker, last year, we lost an extraordinary giant in our country. His name was John Lewis, an acolyte of Martin Luther King Jr., and a servant for the people.
This is a very, very important bill. One could say that everything else we do depends on this bill because, in our democracy, government only works if those it serves have faith that it is truly a government ``of the people, by the people, and for the people.''
Madam Speaker, of course, it was Abraham Lincoln who spoke those words, mourning those who gave their lives in a great struggle to preserve our Union as it faced the evils of slavery, sedition, and secession.
That war was a war to not only give freedom to other human beings, but it was also a war, at its heart, which tried to live out the creed that all men are created equal; endowed by their creator--not by this Congress, not by the majority, not by the Constitution, not by the President, or any of us, but by their creator--with certain unalienable rights. And certainly, in a democracy, voting, knowing who you are voting for, knowing who you are supporting, who you are voting for are critical.
Even in that dark moment of the Civil War, when so many were losing hope for the success of our great American experiment in democracy and constitutional government, President Lincoln encouraged us to renew our faith as Americans in that project.
Now, in 2021, though the crises we face are different than in 1863, our Nation is clearly facing grave challenges. January 6 taught us that. January 6 took us by the scruff of the neck and shook us and said, ``Beware, lest you lose your democracy.''
A pandemic has led to the deaths of more than half a million Americans. Its subsequent economic crisis has put more than 10 million out of work and millions of families and small businesses are struggling to get by.
Deep racial and political divisions threaten to tear our country apart with misinformation and mistrust as dangerous to our Republic as any virus or recession.
Madam Speaker, the American people must have faith that their government is truly theirs; their collective expression and will is heard; and that it can deliver results that improve their lives and offer them hope for a better future. That is what H.R. 1 does, the For the People Act: Reassure the American people that their government will always work for them.
First, it will protect the sacred right to vote--protect the sacred right to vote--by ensuring that every American can participate equally and without undue barriers to casting their ballots.
No counting of jelly beans in a jar; no reciting verbatim the Constitution and Declaration of Independence; no poll tax; no effort to make it more difficult for people to register, more difficult to vote.
Bloody Sunday, a stark example of how committed some people were and some people still are, to not permitting people who they think will vote against them to vote.
H.R. 1 would be the most consequential piece of voting rights legislation enacted since we passed the Help America Vote Act, which I was proud to sponsor.
Second, this bill roots out corruption in government by increasing ethical standards and limiting the corrosive effects of dark money in our political campaigns.
My mother used to say: ``Consider the source.'' Consider who is talking to you. And if you don't know who is contributing, if you don't know who is paying for those ads for Citizens for a Better America, who is against that. But you don't know who it is. You don't know what interest they have that they are paying out millions of dollars to promote.
By forcing super-PACs to disclose their donors, H.R. 1 will ensure that American voters know exactly who is paying for the campaign ads they see or hear. And by requiring Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates to release 10 years' worth of tax returns, as most have done--with one singular, stark exception--it will provide voters with information critical to ensuring that those seeking our highest offices are free from conflicts of interest. Are they representing themselves or are they representing the people?
Third, H.R. 1 will end partisan redistricting, whereby politicians choose their voters instead of the other way around. Too many voting districts are drawn in a way to limit voters' voices in our democracy.
So many times we saw the central city cut up into pies, where you had a sliver of the city here, a sliver of the city here. And all of you know that happened. What was it designed to do? To take away the voting power of those who the people in the State legislature did not like.
Now, most of you are too young to remember Baker v. Carr and Reynolds v. Sims, when the Supreme Court said, ``Oh, no, we are not representing trees, we are representing people, and you are going to have to district.''
And then we had subsequent legislation which said, you cannot make it impossible for certain constituencies to elect people who look like them, talk like them, think like them. That has to end, and the only way to do it is through a national approach that creates, as this bill does, a nonpartisan process in each State.
Madam Speaker, lastly, H.R. 1 includes a number of provisions to increase transparency and accountability so that the American people can see what their elected officials are doing and make sure they are doing their jobs properly.
Through all of these steps, House Democrats will deliver on our pledge to renew Americans' faith in government by making sure it works for the people.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation so consequential to our democracy and our ability to deliver results for our constituents.
But I also ask the American people to join me in believing in what government can achieve when we take steps to make it work in the way our Founders intended.
With the challenges we are facing, with the divisions and mistrust that abound, let us seize this moment, as Lincoln once did, to rededicate ourselves to the work of ensuring that ``government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this Earth.''
Let us do so with a strong--and my hope is bipartisan--vote to pass H.R. 1 and send it to the Senate.
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Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I think that is a legitimate debate to have. I think we have been having that debate. Very frankly, I tell my friend from Texas that I think we won that debate. We won it in the courts over and over and over again, but understand that does not mean we ought not to have the debate here.
Madam Speaker, I would not be opposed to such a debate. This bill, I think, is a bill which has been debated over and over again in committee and on the floor and has passed through the Senate. Unfortunately, the Senate didn't take it up. We didn't have a conference because they had a different perspective on the question the gentleman raises. They chose not to debate it. They chose not to address it. They chose to ignore the problems that clearly do exist.
Madam Speaker, I think the gentleman's point is well-taken. I think, at some point in time in the future, we ought to have that debate, either on legislation you introduce or others introduce. I would support that effort.
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