Floor Speech2026-03-19

SAFEGUARD AMERICAN VOTER ELIGIBILITY ACT--Resumed

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Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 50 (Thursday, March 19, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 50 (Thursday, March 19, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S1314-S1355] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] SAFEGUARD AMERICAN VOTER ELIGIBILITY ACT--Resumed The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will resume consideration of the House message with respect to S. 1383, which the clerk will report. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: House message to accompany S. 1383, a bill to establish the Veterans Advisory Committee on Equal Access, and for other purposes. Pending: Thune motion to concur in the amendment of the House to the bill. Thune motion to concur in the amendment of the House to the bill, with Thune (for Schmitt) amendment No. 4420 (to the House amendment to the bill), in the nature of a substitute. Thune (for Tuberville/Blackburn) amendment No. 4421 (to amendment No. 4420), to protect women and girls in athletics. Thune motion to refer the message of the House on the bill to the Committee on Rules and Administration, with instructions, Thune amendment No. 4422, to change the enactment date. Thune amendment No. 4423 (to the instructions (amendment No. 4422), of a perfecting nature. Thune amendment No. 4424 (to amendment No. 4423), of a perfecting nature. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority whip. S. 1383 Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this past weekend marked 61 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his ``We Shall Overcome'' speech to a joint session of Congress. Speaking from the House rostrum in the wake of Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL, President Johnson urged Congress to pass legislation that would secure ``the full blessings of American life'' to all, regardless of color or creed. That Congress would heed his call. On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. That bill, nearly a century after the [[Page S1315]] ratification of the 15th Amendment, would finally, finally outlaw discriminatory practices that erected unjust barriers to voting for African Americans, like literacy tests and poll taxes. It would open the ballot box in America to everyone. Six decades later, another President would speak from that same rostrum--this time at his State of the Union Address--and that President insisted Congress pass a bill that would make it more difficult, would make it harder for eligible citizens to vote. How far we have fallen from Lyndon B. Johnson's noble goal. We have not overcome. With the SAVE Act, we are still trapped in bigotry. Earlier this week, at President Trump's request, the Senate began consideration of the SAVE America Act in a marathon debate session. Why? Because President Trump is throwing a temper tantrum, demanding that Congress pass his legislation and nothing else. I have long said that in politics, there is always a good reason and a real reason. The good reason the President touts when arguing in favor of this bill? That it supposedly would put safeguards to prevent voter fraud. Nobody wants to see voter fraud. That is a good reason, isn't it? But here is the truth: Federal law already prohibits noncitizens from voting in Federal elections, and cases of noncitizens voting are extremely rare. In 2024, the Bipartisan Policy Center decided to figure out how frequently we encounter voter fraud in American elections. The conservative Heritage Foundation's Election Fraud Database found that in the period of 1999 to 2023--24 years--how many cases do you think they found of voter fraud, incidents where noncitizens successfully cast ballots? Out of the millions and millions of votes that were cast, they found exactly 77 in a 24-year period--77. That is barely more than three per election cycle. You say to yourself, where is the voter fraud that is leading the Republicans now to create new obstacles for voters to face if they want to register to vote? What is the real reason if there are only 77 cases of voter fraud in 24 years? I will tell you. It is for MAGA Republicans to cling to power by rigging the elections in November. It was the same motive when it came to creating new congressional districts for Republicans. This President is scared to death of what is going to happen when the American people finally get to say the last word on his policies, and so he wants to change the election rules. Hard to imagine. He is very blatant about it. They are not hiding it. The lead sponsor of the bill, the senior Senator from Utah, said this weekend: Republicans will lose power--likely for a long time--if we don't get SAVE America passed. Unless we change the rules on registering and voting, even though there is little or no evidence of fraud and abuse, this Republican Senator who is leading the charge concedes the obvious: It will hurt them in the next election if they fail to pass this bill. They don't think they can win the election fair and square, so they need to change the rules and make it harder for eligible voters. So what is in this Republican political liferaft that is on the floor? Among the provisions is one that requires all States to obtain proof of citizenship in person--two critical words--in person for people looking to register to vote. In their bill, a driver's license--the most common form of identification in America--and most REAL IDs would not be enough to register to vote. You need more. You have to prove your citizenship before you can register under the Republican plan. Only birth certificates, passports, or similar documentation would count. Well, let's go through those. How many Americans actually know where their original birth certificate can be found? And how about those who have a birth certificate with a maiden name--a woman who is married--or are in a hyphenated relationship? What do you do with those documents? Do you know how many Americans don't have a passport? Almost half of the people living in America have no passport, half of the population. You say to yourself, well, go get a passport; there can't be much to it. Have you tried lately? Do you know what it costs? A hundred and sixty-five dollars. So before you get to vote, you have to write a check for a passport for $165. That applies to 146 million Americans. And how long does it take? Well, I can tell you, people work hard to get out the millions of passports each year, but we are talking about 3 to 4 weeks, in some cases months. If you put an extra 60 bucks on it and make it $225, they will expedite it. That is your poll tax. Do you want to vote? Do you want to register? Do you have a passport? If you don't, get ready to fork over $165 to over $200 for a passport. When you consider how long you have to wait, how long you have to wait for the opportunity to have this passport, maybe you are not doing it in time for this election. That is the Republican plan--make it more bureaucratic and more cumbersome and more confusing despite the fact there is little or no evidence of voter fraud in the United States. What this amounts to is a modern-day poll tax for a passport. This bill would also unfairly impact married women who have taken their spouses' names. They would either have to amend their original proof-of-citizenship documents or go through paperwork and bureaucracy to register to vote. You are going to hear from my Republican colleagues about how this bill has been updated to accommodate people who don't have the required documentation, but the fact remains that unnecessary barriers have been put in place to block access to the ballot for no apparent reason. Mr. President, 77 cases of voter fraud in 24 years--is that a national scandal? Is that a national crisis? Of course not. Here is the good news: At this moment, my Republican colleagues in the Senate don't have the votes to pass the bill, so now the question is, Will the majority leader throw out the Senate rules and bend to the President's pressure? I certainly hope not. If we truly believe, as President Johnson said, that we must not refuse to protect the right of every American to vote in every election that we participate in, then we must reject this terrible legislation which will deny the right to vote to eligible voters across the United States. The SAVE America Act is an affront to the fundamental right to vote, and I will be voting no. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Kentucky. Tribute to Paul Grove Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as Republican leader, I always enjoyed calling our colleagues' attention to longtime Senate staff as they notched milestones of service in our institution, but today, I would like to reflect for a few moments on a longtime advisor who is an institution in his own right. There have been any number of occasions over the past several decades when it would have been right and fitting to praise the talents and service of Paul Grove. There has certainly been no shortage of situations where, except for the efforts of this one man, the Senate might have missed opportunities to advance America's influence on the world stage. The longtime Republican clerk at the Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations is quite literally that good, but Paul, like so many of the brightest unelected members of the Senate family, is also good at dodging credit for his extraordinary service to the Senate and to our country. Well, not this time. Tomorrow will mark a cumulative 30 years of Senate service for Paul--25 of them consecutively. He has more Senate experience than 96 of our elected colleagues, and as his first Senate boss, I am invoking my right to say a few words about it. Long before Paul Grove was the Senate's resident expert on the levers of American soft power and our trusted emissary to the furthest corners of Southeast Asia and even beyond, he was a junior legislative aide to a freshman Senator. And if memory serves, I initially paid him to advise me

Referenced legislation: HR1, S1383, S4127, S4155, HR4553

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