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STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Portman, Ms.
Sinema, Mr. Romney, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Warner,
Mr. Tillis, Mr. Murphy, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Young, Mr.
Coons, Mr. Sasse, and Mr. Graham):
S. 4573. A bill to amend title 3, United States Code, to reform the Electoral Count Act, and to amend the Presidential Transition Act of 1963 to provide clear guidelines for when and to whom resources are provided by the Administrator of General Services for use in connection with the preparations for the assumption of official duties as President or Vice President; to the Committee on Rules and Administration.
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By Ms. COLLINS (for herself, Mr. Manchin, Mr. Portman, Ms.
Sinema, Mr. Romney, Mrs. Shaheen, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Warner,
Mr. Tillis, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Cardin, and Mr. Coons):
S. 4574. A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to increase penalties for crimes against Federally protected activities relating to voting and the conduct of elections, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the months of bipartisan hard work that have gone into two bills that we are filing today: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--I repeat--the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--and the Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act.
I would like to commend my dear friend Senator Susan Collins for her leadership throughout this process. She has been shepherding this through and working diligently, as only she can do, and she does it so well.
We started these discussions back in January, when partisanship around here was at a fever pitch, a toxic environment that was absolutely not conducive to things that needed to be done. But for those who may not remember, we were in the middle of a heated debate over voting rights with both sides--Democrats and Republicans--equally dug in on their positions, and it was kind of hard to move people off of that.
The insurrection January 6 and the situation that has been going on since 1887 and should have been corrected and had not been--but no one ever felt that we would have what we had. So now, we needed to take care of it. And everyone stepped to the plate.
By January 19, my Democratic colleagues were so frustrated that they forced a vote on repealing the filibuster to allow that bill to pass with a simple majority, along party lines. It appeared to many, both inside and outside of Washington, DC, that the Senate was fundamentally broken. But Senator Collins and I have worked together for a long time, and we never gave up. We were not convinced it was broken, and you just have to work a little bit harder.
They call us the most deliberative body. Well, to deliberate means to talk, to converse; and when that fails, then, basically, the deliberative body is no longer the deliberative body. And we were not going to let that happen to us.
We asked our colleagues and friends to come together to start trying to see if we could work together and find a pathway and find common ground. Well--guess what--they did. So I am here to thank those who sat down: Senator Portman, Rob Portman; we had Senator Murphy; we had Senator Romney, Senator Shaheen, Senator Murkowski, Senator Warren, Senator Tillis, Senator Sinema, Senator Capito, Senator Cardin, Senator Young, Senator Coons, Senator Sasse, and Senator Graham.
Now, that was truly a team effort when you think about it. And this has gone on for quite some time.
What we learned through those discussions was that there was bipartisan support for some important, commonsense reforms that would help restore Americans' faith in our democracy and how we basically apply our democracy, how do we select our representative form of government. Specifically, most of our group felt that we could and that we should:
Reform the Electoral Count Act to remove the ambiguity that we saw weaponized after the last election. We were all in agreement.
Enhance the protections for local election officials who were facing unprecedented threats and intimidations. These are people who volunteer, most basically. And it is basically a family handing down generation after generation, people who always believe that their civic duty is to be able to perform during election times.
We wanted to establish best practices for the U.S. Postal Service to improve the handling of mail-in ballots. Mail-in ballots have been so convenient to older people, shut-ins. And in the situation where we had this pandemic, my goodness, it was the only way that people could vote.
So reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission to help States improve the administration and the security of Federal elections.
The most important thing that we can do is that when that vote is cast and that vote is counted accurately, it has to be counted and reported accurately. And that is what we have to do and make sure that there is not even a shred of a thought where a person might think that count is not valid--it is not a valid count. And we have done everything we possibly can to make sure that we have cleared that up.
This is not everything that people on both sides of that wanted. Some on our bipartisan committee wanted a lot more, and some didn't want to basically interfere with the States' rights. So we were caught in betwixt and between. We worked back and forth on different things we could. We tried to put the guardrails on that gave guidance, and we think that we came up with a piece of legislation.
And when you have every Member I just mentioned all sign on, with the diversity of these memberships--we have almost 20; 20 Senators have been involved, coming equally between Democrats and Republicans, and able to come to an agreement--this is a bill that we should put forward.
I was proud to be an original sponsor of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and I still believe that we can and we must continue working to protect every American's sacred right to vote. But we also have an obligation to the American people to do the most good that we can right now--right now.
The confusing and antiquated language that we have on the books today from the 1887 Electoral Count Act is a real and present danger to our democracy. We can fix that, and that is exactly what we intend to do.
The increased threats and attacks we are seeing across the country on poll workers and election volunteers--we can fix that, too. But even more important than the policy provisions contained in these two bills is the fact that we have Democrats and Republicans standing arm in arm proposing commonsense election reforms that can begin to restore Americans' faith in our democracy. That is our solemn commitment and promise.
When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the Constitutional Convention had given us a republic or a monarchy, he famously replied
``A republic, young man, if you can keep it.''
He qualified his answer because he understood a democracy is fragile and can be lost if we are not careful. And while today's introduction is an important step in this process, we do have much work yet to do.
I look forward to continuing our bipartisan effort to get this bill to the President's desk as quickly as possible and signed into law. And our journey begins.
And with that, I would like to yield to my dear friend from the great State of Maine, Senator Susan Collins.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my close friend and dear colleague Senator Manchin in introducing bipartisan legislation to reform the archaic and ambiguous Electoral Count Act of 1887, the important law that governs how Congress tallies each State's electoral votes for President and Vice President.
On January 6 of 2017, I was amused to learn that I had received one electoral vote for Vice President of the United States, an office for which I obviously was not a candidate. But on January 6, 2021, I realized that my unearned vote from 4 years earlier was really not funny at all. Rather, it was an indication of deep structural problems with our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for President and Vice President. These unfortunate flaws are codified in the 1887 Electoral Count Act.
In four of the past six Presidential elections, this process has been abused, with Members of both parties raising frivolous objections to electoral votes. But it took the violent breach of the Capitol on January 6 of 2021 to really shine a spotlight on the urgent need for reform.
Over the past several months, Senator Manchin and I have worked with a terrific, bipartisan group of Senators who are united in our determination to prevent the flaws in this 135-year-old law from being used to undermine future Presidential elections.
I want to express my gratitude to my friend Senator Manchin and to all the members of our bipartisan group for their hard work, their constructive work, to craft this legislation. Specifically, I want to thank Senators Portman, Sinema, Romney, Shaheen, Murkowski, Warner, Tillis, Murphy, Capito, Cardin, Young, Coons, and Sasse for their work over several months. I also want to thank Senators Klobuchar and Blunt, who head the Rules Committee, for their advice and counsel throughout this process, and Senator Lindsey Graham for his insights and for joining as a cosponsor.
The legislation that we are introducing--the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act--will help ensure that electoral votes totaled by Congress accurately reflect each State's popular vote for President and Vice President.
Our bill includes a number of important reforms, but I want to highlight just a few.
First, it reasserts that the constitutional role of the Vice President in counting electoral votes is strictly and solely ministerial. The idea that any Vice President would have the power to unilaterally accept or reject or change or halt the electoral votes is antithetical to our Constitution and basic democratic principles.
Second, our bill raises the threshold to lodge an objection to electors to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Currently, only a single Member in both houses is required to object to an elector or a slate of electors.
Third, our legislation will ensure that Congress can identify a single, conclusive slate of electors by clearly identifying a single State official who is responsible for certifying a State's electors; requiring Congress to defer to the slates of electors submitted by a State pursuant to the judgment of State or Federal courts; and providing aggrieved Presidential candidates with an expedited judicial review of Federal claims related to a State's certificate of electors. Let me be clear that this does not create a new cause of action. Instead, it will ensure prompt and efficient adjudication of disputes.
To help promote the orderly transfer of power, our bill also includes clear guidelines for when eligible Presidential candidates may receive Federal resources to support their transition into office. And I want to particularly thank Senators Portman, Coons, and Sasse for their hard work on those provisions.
We are also introducing a second bill--the Enhanced Election Security and Protection Act--to address other issues pertaining to the administration of elections. In the interest of time, let me just quickly note the major provisions of this bill. It would reauthorize the Election Assistance Commission and require it to conduct additional cyber security testing of voting systems, a concept put forth by Senator Warren. It would improve the Postal Service's handling of election mail. It would enhance current penalties for violent threats against election workers; and increase the maximum penalties for tampering with voting records, including certain electronic records, that was the work of several members, including Senators Romney, Shaheen, and Sinema, among others.
We have before us an historic opportunity to modernize and strengthen our system of certifying and counting the electoral votes for President and Vice President. January 6 reminded us that nothing is more essential to the survival of a democracy than the orderly transfer of power.
And there is nothing more essential to the orderly transfer of power than clear rules for effecting it. I very much hope that Congress will seize this opportunity to enact these sensible and much-needed reforms before the end of this Congress.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, while my dear friend is here, I want to tell her, you know, 6 months ago--we have worked on this for 6 months. It started in January, and it was 14 Senators who came at that time. We just started talking, and 14 Senators--with all of your support, Mr. President, also--we had support from everybody saying something had to be done. But as delicate as this was, knowing that some might think we are picking on one side or the other or supporting or defending one side or the other, there was only one thing we were concerned about: How do we defend this country and the Constitution and this wonderful Capitol that we have so this could never happen again?
January 6 is a black mark on the history of the United States of America. And if you want to erase it, you better do what we did for 6 months, bringing people together to find a pathway forward so that type of opportunity--for some looking for an opportunity--to degrade our government and our country and our form of governing ourselves could never, ever encourage them thinking they could do something here at this Capitol and disrupt us.
When that day happened, the thing I was most proud of, we were all down in a secured room--and Senator Collins remembers--and it went on; we didn't know what the extent of this was going on. We knew one thing: They didn't come for a friendly visit. But we were down there talking; and, all of a sudden, someone said: Well, let's just conduct our business down here. Remember that? And to a T, everybody in that room says, No, no, no. They are not going to run us out of our body here. And we all came back here later that night and finished our business.
What we did--and Senator Collins has led this admirably--is make sure that we are finishing our business. We are just starting it now to protect this democracy. This form of democracy that we have is a representative form and the Republic that we are responsible for. And I am just so proud to be part of it. And she is my dear friend. We worked many, many years together, and we will continue to.
But I just want to thank the Senator for the hard work--our staffs worked together. I am very proud of all our staffs that they worked together for the betterment of our country.
So when people think that bipartisanship is not capable of happening in Washington, I want to say: Watch, we have proved them wrong. We have done so many things together, and we will continue to. Again, I say thank you to all those who participated for just hanging in there. It took us 6 months to get here, but we have just begun.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I, too, want to salute all of the members of our group who worked so hard over many months. As is always the case when you delve into a complicated issue, it turns out that there are far more nuances and complexities than you would think when you first look at the issue. But everyone continued to work for the common good to strengthen the procedures, to update this archaic and ambiguous law that was written in the language of another era. And we have accomplished that. And I really hope our colleagues will all join together and that in the end we can have an overwhelming vote.
Finally, I, too, want to thank our staff members for their extraordinary work. They worked literally night and day to work through the many thorny issues and to help bring us together. So my thanks not only to the Members but to their staffs as well.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 120
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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