Mike Lee

Mr. President, Claims · 124 wordswe see a lot of debates around here on a lot of different topics--too many topics, in my view, given the fact that the Federal Government is a government enterprise with narrow responsibilities. In Federalist 45, James Madison described the powers of the Federal Government as few and defined while describing those reserved to the States as numerous and indefinite.¹ We are in charge of national defense, weights and measures, trademarks, copyrights and patents, regulating trade or commerce between the States with foreign nations and with Tribes, bankruptcy laws, intellectual property laws, coastal roads, declaring war, granting letters of marque and reprisal, serving as the sole sovereign lawmaking authority for what we now call the District of Columbia, the city where we stand today. Procedure · 10 wordsThat is about it. There are a few other powers, ProcedureClaims · 21 wordsbut the lion’s share of it can be found somewhere in that list of relatively limited authorities that I just described. Positioning · 9 wordsWe venture sometimes too far afield from those powers, PositioningReasoning · 14 wordsand that is one of the reasons why a lot of things come up. Procedure · 14 wordsMy point in reciting all this is that in all the debates we see, ProcedurePositioning · 24 wordswhich probably range further than they should, we see some things that are weighty and some things that are more on the trivial side.Positioning Anecdote · 63 wordsJust to cite one random hypothetical, one minute, you could see something debated and maybe passed on this floor recognizing, I don’t know, National Sofa Care Week or something like that that goes by sort of with a yawn, and then the next moment, we will be debating something more weighty, something more significant and more definitely relevant to the U.S. Government’s powers.Anecdote Claims · 147 wordsUnder article I, sections 4 and 5, this legislation that we have been discussing this evening, H.R. 7008, deals with a couple of core powers that Congress has, one of them involving the regulation of behavior and activities on the part of Members of Congress, Members of the House and the Senate.² In the second instance, you have the regulation of the casting of ballots for Federal elections--for elections for Federal office, elections for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. We certainly have authority to act in both of those two areas. There is not a lot of dispute--in other words, there is a lot of bipartisan consensus over the fact that it is time to restrict stock buying and selling on the part of Members of Congress.Unearned certainty It is stunning, however, that the voter ID component of H.R. 7008 is at all controversial. Positioning · 14 wordsThis one should be a no-brainer. For the American people, it is a no-brainer.Positioning Claims · 47 wordsDemocratic voters--71 percent favor voter ID requirements.³ When you add Republicans--so Democrat voters and Republican voters combined--you take it up to 83, 84 percent.⁴ If you poll Republican voters alone, we are talking in the mid- to high-90 percentile range for people who support voter ID requirements.⁵ Procedure · 9 wordsThe reason for this is simple. This is obvious.ProcedureUnearned certainty Positioning · 3 wordsIt is intuitive.Positioning Reasoning · 124 wordsIt is just as we have to prove who we are everywhere else we go where who you are matters and whether you are who you claim to be can make a big difference. Americans intuitively understand that whatever mild inconvenience might accompany having to provide documentation for who you are, when most of the time, that can be done with a simple card like a driver’s license, for example, a passport, something like that, something showing who you are that is issued by the government--we have come to accept as a society that that is just sort of the cost of living in our country. That is part of what it takes because if we didn’t do that, the alternative would be bad. Anecdote · 35 wordsYou don’t want to show up to your bank one day and discover that somebody else impersonating you, falsely claiming to be you, came in and withdrew all of your money. You don’t want that.Anecdote Claims · 11 wordsWe don’t allow people to board aircraft without a photo ID, Reasoning · 56 wordsand the reason is there are all kinds of things that can happen in the sky that are dangerous, and you don’t want to make it too easy for somebody claiming to be who they are not to board an aircraft and then carry out, you know, crimes of one sort or another--acts of terrorism, perhaps. Procedure · 19 wordsThese are just a couple examples of the myriad instances in which we have to prove who we are.Procedure Claims · 6 wordsIt is not an undue burden; Positioning · 12 wordsit is a momentary detour from what we would otherwise be doing.Positioning Claims · 35 wordsMost of the time, most people, when they show up to vote, already have their wallet with them, and in their wallet, they presumably have a driver’s license or another form of government-issued photo ID, Positioning · 36 wordsso why not require them to show that? We saw tonight my friend and colleague, the distinguished Senator from California, contorting himself into a pretzel trying to explain why it is we can’t pass this bill.Positioning Procedure · 5 wordsTo be clear, his objection, ProcedureClaims · 26 wordsas far I can tell, didn’t relate nearly as much to anything else in the bill other than the voter ID provision. That is the concern. The question · 47 wordsThe question is, Why is it that when 70 percent of Democrat voters and 83, 84 percent of all voters, Democrat and Republican combined--why is it that my Democrat colleagues are so adamantly opposed to this? Why do they care? Why do they want the status quo? Procedure · 14 wordsI am always reluctant to speak on someone else’s behalf because what they say--No.Procedure Aside · 9 words1, I don’t have the ability to read minds, AsideClaims · 46 wordsbut sometimes, what they say can give us an indication. We have had Democratic politician after Democratic politician part from their own Democratic voter base, which overwhelmingly supports voter ID, time and time and time again, showing up and saying: Oh, we don’t want voter ID. The question · 1 wordsWhy? Procedure · 5 wordsNow, they actually say this: ProcedureClaims · 11 wordsWe believe this would shut out a lot of our voters. The question · 1 wordsWhat? Positioning · 38 wordsIs that an admission that a lot of their voters aren’t who they claim to be? that a lot of their voters perhaps aren’t U.S. citizens and aren’t eligible to vote? This ought to be concerning to everyone.Positioning Claims · 155 wordsIt ought to be concerning especially to Democrat voters, especially in States that have elected a Democrat Senator who is now opposing any and every sort of voter ID requirement. A few months ago when we had the SAVE America Act on the floor for, I don’t know, 10 blessed days--should have been longer, but it was on the floor for about 10 days.⁶ During that time, I was on the floor a lot responding to arguments that they made, and I think I heard every single argument they made. The overwhelming majority of them--and I mean probably 95-plus percent of the arguments they made against the SAVE America Act-- weren’t even against the voter ID provisions of the SAVE America Act.⁷ Overwhelmingly, they were instead about the proof of citizenship issue. In fact, many of them, Democratic Senator after Democratic Senator, intimated one way or another that they are OK with voter ID requirements. The question · 6 wordsSo why are they opposing it? Procedure · 17 wordsYou have to ask yourself that question. In Latin, there is a word for this: ``Cui bono?’’Procedure Positioning · 41 wordsWho benefits? Who benefits from people being able to show up and claim to be someone they are not or from someone showing up who is not entitled to vote because they are not a U.S. citizen? Who benefits from that?Positioning Claims · 8 wordsI can tell you it is not Republicans. Positioning · 1 wordsWhy?Positioning Claims · 24 wordsWell, you don’t see a single Republican politician making the ridiculous, absurd arguments against voter ID and citizenship verification that these guys are making. Positioning · 14 wordsWho benefits from illegal voting? Their words seem to suggest that they are benefiting.Positioning Promise · 61 wordsThis issue isn’t going away. The SAVE America Act isn’t going away. Voter ID requirement demands aren’t going away. I will be back. I will be back day after day, week after week, until this passes because the American people deserve to go to bed every night knowing that their government is run by people they themselves elected, not foreign nationals. Claims · 45 wordsThey don’t want a government that has been chosen with significant foreign influence in our elections. There was a time when the Democrats in this august Chamber--a time not so very long ago indeed--spoke of little else other than their fear of foreign election interference. Reasoning · 14 wordsIf we don’t face the real challenge as to foreign election interference right now, Positioning · 32 wordsas long as we are not passing the SAVE America Act or its key components, it would appear that those who are against this are just fine now with foreign election interference.Positioning Reasoning · 57 wordsThe American people shouldn’t be because, again, it is not free. When somebody else votes who is not who they claim to be, when somebody else votes claiming to be a citizen and they are not a citizen, it robs hard-working Americans, actual American citizens, of their most sacred, their most fundamental right: their right to vote. Positioning · 8 wordsNo. No. We can’t look the other way, PositioningThe ask · 30 wordsnor do we, in my view, have any business taking a 6-week recess until such time as we have done everything humanly possible to get these reforms put into law. Positioning · 7 wordsThe American people deserve better than this.Positioning Claims · 82 wordsMost of them don’t have that luxury of doing that. Now, I know it is a time-honored Senate tradition. I know it is a tradition that has its roots back to long before the advent of modern air-conditioning and to a time when Washington, DC--you know, it is typically not the most pleasant weather in Washington, and this Chamber, I am sure, became suffocatingly hot and muggy, so for a long time, we had that August recess. Well, we have air-conditioning now. Positioning · 4 wordsWe can handle it.Positioning Claims · 32 wordsIt is true we frequently do take a recess in August, but it is not written in stone anywhere, it is not written in law anywhere that we have to do that. Positioning · 13 wordsI would be fine doing that if we had gotten our work done.Positioning Claims · 26 wordsI would be fine doing that if we knew how our government was going to be funded past September 30.⁸ Right now, we have no idea. The ask · 52 wordsSo when the government remains unfunded and we have no idea how we are going to secure an election system that, quite frankly, is recklessly, criminally insecure--we have no business leaving this Chamber for 6 weeks when we have no idea how we are going to take care of any of that.Unearned certainty Claims · 12 wordsThese problems are not going to solve themselves while we are gone. Anecdote · 213 wordsI remember 15 years ago when I was first sworn in.⁹ I was younger then. I had a full head of hair. I was only 39 years old.¹⁰ I was the youngest Member of the Senate when I got sworn in.¹¹ Right after I got sworn in, we were walking one evening around the Capitol. I was showing it to my family. My daughter Eliza was 10 years old at the time. She pointed to one of the little doors out in the hallway just outside the Senate Chamber. It is a door that is maybe 18 inches tall at the most. I later learned that it was installed when they built this wing of the Capitol in the late 1850s.¹² That was their source of water. They had a pipe in there. The custodial staff at the time used it to get water so that they could clean the floors. I didn’t know that at the time. As we were walking around, my 10-year-old daughter Eliza asked me: Dad, what is that door for? Not knowing how to answer, I just said the first thing that came to mind. I said: Well, that is for the House elves. The House elves live in there. Of course, there are no House elves here, AnecdotePositioning · 72 wordsbut sometimes, we act as if we are relying on the House elves to not only clean the Capitol but also clean up the messes that we make and that we leave undealt with, unaddressed legislatively while we are gone. The cavalry is not coming. We are the cavalry. The House elves aren’t going to show up and do our work for us if we retreat into the sunset for 6 weeks.Positioning The ask · 5 wordsWe have to do this. Claims · 47 wordsWe had an opportunity tonight to make a meaningful dent in our election security problem. And it is tragic that the Democrats chose not to let this reasonable measure pass into law--a measure that 71 percent of their voters and 83 percent of all American voters support. Positioning · 20 wordsThey can’t handle it--apparently because they benefit too much when people vote illegally.Unearned certainty Shame on them for taking that position, PositioningThe ask · 12 wordsbut shame on us if we leave before the job is done. Procedure · 29 wordsLastly, far too much gets said around here about, Oh, we can’t do X, Y, or Z because we don’t have 60 votes. I get that that is said.Procedure Positioning · 10 wordsThat cannot become our anthem. That is an absurd suggestion.Positioning Claims · 189 wordsNow, I know it takes 60 votes to invoke cloture, but, you know, long before there even was a cloture rule--there has only been a cloture rule for 109 years.¹³ Before that time, we still had the filibuster, just no cloture. Remember, a cloture vote is just one way of breaking the filibuster. If a supermajority of Senators--under the current rule, three-fifths, 60 votes in the Senate--if 60 Senators want to force debate to come to a close even if some Senators want to continue debating, then the Senate can do so, ¹⁴but that is not the exclusive means by which you can break a filibuster. Other techniques are available--techniques that were available for nearly 150 years before the first cloture rule was even adopted in 1917. If you can’t break a filibuster and you don’t have 60 votes to bring debate to a close using cloture, you can put legislation on the floor, and you can debate it, and you can require any Senator wishing to filibuster to continue to show up and continue to speak to prolong debate. The filibuster is about speaking; it is about debating; Positioning · 17 wordsit is not about perpetually forestalling the passing of legislation until you have 60 votes for it.Positioning Claims · 52 wordsPassage in this Chamber, with rare exceptions not relevant here, is set at a simple majority, at 51 votes.¹⁵ And if the Vice President is with you, you can do it at 50 votes.¹⁶ The Vice President supplies the tie-breaking vote of 51, and then it is passed. We could do that. The ask · 73 wordsWe should be putting this measure on the Senate floor. We should be debating it for weeks on end, if necessary, cutting into weekends and long-scheduled recess time, if necessary, making clear we are going to keep debating it until it passes, and making clear that the minute those filibustering it fail to show up and continue to speak, we will call the question, and we will pass it with a simple majority. Claims · 4 wordsWe could do that. The ask · 4 wordsWe should do that. Claims · 4 wordsIt takes time, yes. Positioning · 6 wordsBut time is on our side.Positioning Claims · 9 wordsWe have got weeks in which to do this. The ask · 4 wordsWe should do that. Procedure · 1 wordsNow, ProcedureClaims · 35 wordsif we don’t want to do that, there are other mechanisms available to us. We could continue to attach it to other must-pass vehicles. We could also push something in the form of budget reconciliation. Procedure · 6 wordsNow, that is a little trickier.Procedure Claims · 78 wordsYou could bypass the need for cloture with budget reconciliation, but it has to be budgetary, and it has to meet a whole bunch of requirements. It has to be budgetary, which means it needs to manage changes in mandatory outlays or revenues; and it can’t, among other things, have budgetary features that are merely incidental to policy changes. But there are ways that we could capture some of the benefits of the SAVE America Act through reconciliation. Procedure · 26 wordsBut my point is just to say there are multiple ways of skinning this cat. I don’t care nearly as much which way to skin it.Procedure Promise · 17 wordsI would personally prefer to bring it up on the floor and debate it until it passes. Positioning · 10 wordsI think that is the cleanest way of doing it.Positioning Procedure · 18 wordsBut I am not a purist on that. I don’t insist it be my way or the highway.Procedure The ask · 16 wordsI am just saying we do have to do it. We can’t pretend this isn’t here. Claims · 8 wordsThis will not disappear simply because we leave. Positioning · 23 wordsThe cavalry is not coming. We are the cavalry. There are no house elves who will come and fix our election security problems.Positioning The ask · 28 wordsSo let’s get this done. And for the love of all that is sacred and holy, let’s not go on a 6-week recess with all of this undone. Positioning · 5 wordsThe American people deserve better.Positioning