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Video Transcript
Joined by a number of others, but we wanted to uh get going on time here. This morning. Um today every single member of the Senate Democratic caucus is introducing the for the people at the contrast, we are laying out for the American people could not be clear. This is a historic day for our democracy and it is not a day too soon. Our democracy is at a crisis point. Everyone knows it the American people know it and they are demanding that we do something about it For far too long, our politics haven't worked for the people. They work for the powerful. They work for the wealthy, for the well connected, for the one percent and for the big corporations. Special interests rule and the American people are shut out. If you got any doubt about that fact just look at the results on a couple of the key, important issues in their many others than just these that I'm gonna sip through here look at what this administration and the Republican Congress have produced or failed to produce look at the Between what the American people overwhelmingly want and what they get from the political system, we all know the American people want affordable health care for every American. What are they get sabotaged their healthcare system, a court case where they're asking them to do away with the affordable care act and action to stack the deck for big pharma. What do people want real and tangible action to fight climate change. What are they get cynical show votes from the majority leader handouts to the big polluters and an all out assault on environmental protections and the People want comprehensive immigration reform and what do we get a 35 day government shutdown to try and build a wasteful and ineffective border Wall that does nothing to fix our broken immigration system. This isn't, how democracy is supposed to work. The system is raked and to fix what ails our democracy we've got to accurately diagnose the problem access to the ballot is too hard. Our House Sir gerrymandered, beyond recognition, the ultra wealthy and the powerful corporations trying to buy elections with big money while they hide behind dark money and government officials use their office for personal gain. That all ends with this sweeping reform package and the for the people act puts power back into the hands of everyday Americans where it belongs. It. Answers the American people's call for reform, tackling three men Areas to UN rig the system making it easier not harder to vote, ending the reign of big money and making sure public servants are actually serving the public under Democratic leadership. The House of representatives have swiftly pass his swiftly pass this set of comprehensive reforms today we are seizing their momentum and the momentum of the American people now the ball is in senator mcconnell court. We know that the k Street lobbyists and the special interest in the big money donors are calling out the cowley to defeat Bill there are counting on their most loyal allies, senator mcconnell, to block this bill. The special interest are terrified of the for the people. I have and I think that means we've got ourselves a good bill. This should not be about Democrats versus Republicans. This is about people versus special interest and it's it this time in particular, that I have such fond memories of senator Mccain and where he would be on this issue. We need some Republicans like senator Mccain that would join us on this bill in the meantime I have a couple of questions for senator mcconnell. What what are the majority leader and his colleagues against why are they against every eligible voter registering and voting. Why are the more the majority leader and his colleagues against taking the politics out of redistricting and drawing districts through independence and an independent and impartial commissions. What are the majority leader and his colleagues against why are they against Asking dark money and showing the American people who's trying to buy there are elections. Why are the majority leader and his colleagues against protecting our elections from foreign interference and bad actors. These aren't just our questions folks. These are the questions of the American people and I believe this will be one of the defining issues in our election next year because you you see the alignment right now every single Democrat is on this bill Fighting for believing in it and wanting reform and we don't have uh a Republican joining us in that effort and with this uh we've also been joined. Uh by all these members have worked many years on this reform package and they're all going to speak in the order here of senator murphy, senator schumer. If we gets under schumer off the floor, he see her right here and globally. It senator clover char senator durbin whitehouse here we go okay okay I'm delighted to be here and Tom thank you for your leadership on the for the people act and reform and functioning of the Senate and of our democracy. The founding we the people vision of our constitution, has been corrupted by gerrymandering and dark money voter suppression and intimidation. We now have government by and for the powerful, rather than government by and for the people today we stand Together to end the corruption, if we fail, we will fail on health care. We'll fail on housing. We will fail on education. We will fail on infrastructure and jobs if we fail in this reform, we will fail to take on climate chaos. A threat that we must not fail on In this bill, we take on gerrymandering by requiring independent commissions, we take on dark money through disclosure of all the funding that goes into the system through honest ads. We take it on through small dollar donor grants. We take on voting at three critical stages. The first stage of registration. We adopt automatic registration as pioneered by my home state of oregon, we enable people Over the Internet to do same, day, registration, we take on early voting so everyone has a full opportunity to get to the polls. You have the right in this bill to vote by mail another strategy, engineered by the state of oregon and on election day. We end polling place predatory practices with polling place protections making sure that polling places are clearly announced appropriately located and appropriately staffed. We know Last November, six what happened at the voting places. We saw strategies like in Georgia when registrations weren't processed or in Ohio, where voting polls already voting no list were purged or in North dakota where they sought to prevent native Americans from voting or in iowa. Where they established an id strategy to keep College students from voting and state after state after state it was in was he That that we, honor Johnson President Johnson, who said the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man to breakdown injustice. Today we fight to breakdown injustice and to reestablish the vision. The we the people vision, the for the people vision of our constitution. We have taken an oath to our constitution. We must restore that vision and we take a powerful stride to do that today. Thank you and now I turn this over to our leader chuck schumer Well, thank you first. Let me thank all of my colleagues, senator utah limerick Lee, for their leadership and this bill is multifaceted and everyone here has had a significant input into a different part of this bill. The wellspring of our democracy. voting Equality each person has the same amount of weight in that democracy is at risk. What's happened is people of malign influence have figured out ways around the fundamental core principles of this democracy which is each person's vote. Each person's influence should be the same Our soldiers died for this since the revolution I'm 17 76 people have marched for this and gotten beaten up and brutalized and even killed And now, in seriously, these evil forces that seek to advantage special interest or a small few Are gaining ground now that's always happened. They always figure out ways to get around the core of democracy and what we are doing is so American it's restoring that democracy it's finding ways that if democracy is pointing out ways that democracy is eroded and fixing it and that's what the we the people act us I just find it stomach curdling what people will do to deprive minorities in voting and they explicitly say it or a power This idea that the first amendment means that a multi billionaire can put as much money into our political system is anyone else. Had nothing to do with the first amendment Until these rightwing think tanks thought that up and unfortunately, the Supreme court that's become much more political went along All of the things we talk about in this bill are simply restorative of this Grand democracy. We cannot let it erode. We cannot let it fade. We cannot continue to have people's faith that they have some say in how they're governed Diminishes so I really salute the authors, we'll ask our Republican colleagues. You know we're in the minority, but we're putting them on the defensive, whether it's health care or climate change or this the root of it all where do they stand where they stand on dark money cascading into our system where do they stand on making it easier not harder for people to exercise their right to vote where did they stand one cleaning up the swamp, yes or no and if you don't agree with us. What's your answer. They don't have one. They hide. We the people means they will hide no longer and we will continue to be foot soldiers in this Grand March to make this Union more perfect Alright, let's go okay. Do you hear what he just said. He said it's because I didn't read this Remember the rules Committee, um and, as someone um who is taking on this issue for a long time and someone who doesn't come from money but got into public office, uh by raising money in small amounts. My first race I ran. They had a hundred dollar limit in off election years 500 dollar limit during the election years um and then I got here and so when I am asked, like we were this morning by these advocates for doing sensible things when it comes to gun legislation, mothers of kids that have been killed, who know that the vast Majority of people in this country are with us when it comes to background checks. Why it isn't happen. This is the answer right because our constitution says that everyone has a vote well, that's not what's happening right now in America. The efforts to squelch the vote the efforts to use dark money to try to stop commonsense efforts when you see the administration come out against the affordable care act and say that people can get kicked off their insurance if they have a preexisting condition when those families are calling us, like they did yesterday and last night, yes, we tell them we'll. do Everything to fight but the fundamental thing we can do to fight for the people of America is passing. This bill because it literally this dark money. The gerrymandering the the limits on voting is exactly why we're not able to move on climate change or gun legislation or doing something further to protect people's health care. So Minnesota had once again the highest rate of voting in the last election guys sorry once again Over ceo headquarters ok well, this is we can say this about mostly which is interesting. Yes, we're one of the highest per capita, but yet we also have uh the highest rate of owning. Why is that we make it easier for people to vote. We have same day registration. We do all kinds of things because our parties on both sides through time have valued the simple idea that people should have a set so I'm very glad that uh my same day registration provision is in here uh the idea that we should register every kid when they turn eighteen to vote across the country, a bill I've been leading A few years is in here, the honest ads act and we started out with Center. You don't talking about John Mccain that's a bill that he and I introduced with senator Warner last year that simply says hey social media companies. You got to abide by the same rules that newspapers and radio and Tv do which is to have disclaimers and disclosure so people know who's buying the ads and what they are and then finally, election security backup paper ballots, something that senator langford and I uh and a number of others have been pushing for now for the last few years. We were stymied by the White House and senator mcconnell and get About that's in here, these are bipartisan provisions that are in this bill, so I am very excited about this effort and I will end with where we began in 20 eighteen, which is that the people understand this. Now they see the connection between the limits and the efforts to squelch them and their healthcare. My favorite ad of the last season was a woman name angie Craig who ended up beating incumbent Republican uh in the southern suburbs of the twin cities and her best With an ad of people speaking in front of bales of hay, she is rural parts of her district as well, and their words were coming out of their mouths. But you couldn't hear what they were saying and the point of the ad was these special interests are stopping your voice from being heard. The solution is this bill. Thank you with that senator durban I think we preface these remarks by bragging about our States so they don't know it leads the nation in pumpkin production. I just want to put that on the table. I didn't think you were gonna go towards the voting thing that I think's good history tells us the following. It takes a significant scandal to create significant political force for significant reform, so what do we do in a situation where we've become so used to scandalous behavior in our political campaigns that there's just no outrage factor anymore the people instead of become cynical, cynical about us, cynical about what we Do for a living, cynical about our country and our government and that said, the voting uh turn out in many places it's still disappointing. Uh despite our best efforts to bring out the vote and I think it shows a certain skepticism if not cynicism about this process. If you ask people a very basic question, do you think campaigns are too long, not only yes, but hell. Yes, when you get off the television, do you think that campaigns cost too much money. There are too many ads on Tv was certainly there over doing it. I can't take it anymore knock on people's doors and they say don't say a word. I don't want to hear another word about Pain that's going on you know that to me is an indication that the people are Fed up. One of the proposals that I have included in this bill as one that's been around for a long long time. It was a time honored uh solution for this issue a decade or two decades ago, public financing of campaigns it's voluntary. It basically would change the contour of the campaign completely, when a candidate says that's it I'm going for small donors. I'm gonna try to show that I have enough support locally in my state for example, for senator Uh to become a viable candidate at the end of the day, I can get matching funds if I get enough individual contributions and under the bill that we're proposing here get a break when it comes to radio and Tv advertising at the end of the day. As well. I think to me that is so radical and idea that it just might be acceptable to the American people. They would like to see a shorter campaign I'd like to see less money, spend more time on debate and less time uh social media, all of these things are part of what people are asking for the question is, are we listening Capitol, Hill, I'm glad the House of representatives under Democratic leadership was not only listening but did something. The obvious question is, is mitch. Mcconnell listening are the Republicans listening or do they care. The American people know where we stand, where do they stand The American people are mad. They're mad because they don't believe that Congress listens to them any longer and the American people are right Congress actually doesn't listen to them any longer. Statistical surveys have shown that the effect on Congress of the general public's views is zero Congress listens to big special interest and Congress listens to big special interest because big special interests have been given unlimited. An unprecedented power They have first the power to spend unlimited amounts of money Now who are you help me when you give the power to spend unlimited amounts of money in politics, you're helping the people who have unlimited money to spend and who want to spend it in politics. That is a very small group and it is probably the least deserving group of that kind of power Then you add to that that we allow them to spend that unlimited money anonymously. So that Americans can't even judge what the real story is. Who the real actors are behind the masks. We see television ads from groups with silly names like Americans for peace and puppies and prosperity and you don't know who's behind it That degrades the system further and powers, the special interest even further At the most basic recognition that the average American has but the Supreme court obviously does not have at this point is that when you give a big special interests, the power to spend unlimited money and the power to spend unlimited dark money you've also giving them the power to threaten and promise to spend unlimited money and unlimited dark money and those threats and those promises are always going to be private and secret and corrosive of democracy so We absolutely have to get a handle on this. We act absolutely have to shine a spot light into this dark money fog That Washington has turned into and I promise you when I was a kid, I was a foreign service officers kid. We lived in some Pretty off the grid places and if you went in the kitchen at night to get a glass of water and you turned on the lights, the cockroaches weren't scheduled for the corners You turn on the disclose act. You put the light on all of this dirty anonymous political spending and you will see a lot of scheduling and that Scotland will leave behind a better, a stronger, a more Democratic and a more honest America. Michael bennett, after that, I'm not sure where the cockroaches um it's such a privilege to be here with these folks have been working on this for so long leading the effort and Tom thank you for your leadership and we're looking forward to your last two years here. I'm not looking forward to leaving, but working with you um. I used to When I would land uh Denver international airport, having spent four days here, uh wish that I had a paper bag to wear over my head because I was so embarrassed about what was going on here and then I can and I wondered why anybody would want to work in a place that had a nine percent approval rating um and it turns out there's an answer to that. If you think you've been sent here to dismantle the federal government for the benefit of these large interest, that sheldon whitehouse was talking about uh a nine percent Suit you just fine because you can then go home and say, see how terrible they are see the fact that you know America thinks that you know we suck so badly that we're at a nine percent approval rating and the reality is America. Is angry at us because they know we're never working on their priorities were always working on someone else's priorities and in the case of this Congress, what that means is we do nothing day after day After day on that floor, across the Hall, nothing happens there are no votes taken almost except for judges that mitch, mcconnell is cranking through, but no work on health care. No work on climate. No work on reform and the reason for that is because we are caught in a corruption of inaction, so I would send the White House said they don't even need to spend the money they can just write the spend the money and that stops Everything Its hearings that are held in speeches that are given bills that are not introduced in a bipartisan way, even though there's vast bipartisan support for this legislation in the country climb it's the best example of that. But it's not the only example that amy clover char mention guns 96 percent of the American people think the problem with our politics is there's too much money in it Unfortunately, none of those people are on the Supreme court of the United States when they don't believe in this corruption of inaction. That we have when they don't believe that the appearance of corruption in our politics is causing people to lose faith in our democracy. But that is exactly what's happening and are exercising self government is at risk, as a result, and this bill contains a number of commonsense reforms from voting to the way campaigns are finance to gerrymandering that will at least give the American people confidence that we hear them and somebody here is trying to respond to them Doing nothing for the sake of protecting special interest is unacceptable to them. I just want to close by making two points about Colorado now I know who our competition is because we were second last year in voter turnout. So we're coming after you, Minnesota at the sec and the second and by the way, the reason is we made it easy for people to vote in a bipartisan way and second, we also have adopted the idea of a bipartisan Commission to end political gerrymandering uh in our state and I'm very pleased that that's part of this legislation as well, just as pleased to Chris van Holland from Maryland has been Part of this effort to so let me introduce you to him. Thank you. Much thank you very much. Um and let me start by thanking uh Tom uh and all of our colleagues, Jeff and the whole team here and all the folks in the room who are part of grassroots organizations have been working on this democracy project for many years and folks around the country uh who really want to take back our democracy and make sure we protect the integrity of our elections uh and refresh. Our political process It's one that works for people throughout the country. Uh rather than these big, powerful, special interests. Uh we've gotten to the shameful condition in America, where one party tries to win elections by subtraction. They literally wanted to deny access to the polls of people who have the right to vote. Instead of addition, uh which is something we should all be focused on trying to get more people out to vote and participate in their in our democracy, but when you have people throwing up barriers, it makes it more difficult Which is why this bill cares down many of those barriers. Uh. This is the for the people act. Uh I think a lot of folks. They say for the people and by the people, but instead of be why, for the people they think it's B u y the people and those are all those special interests that are spending tens of millions of dollars out there, including more and more secret money in politics as my colleague said And others, we see a growing number of people who want to hide what they're doing from the American people. They want to participate in our democracy and influence voters. But they don't want to tell voters who they are and so part of this bill is a very simple proposition that voters have the right to know the voters have a right to know who's spending gobs of money to try and influence their vote rather than hiding In the shadows and the darkness, so we saw the spectacle just yesterday on the floor of the Senate, mitch mcconnell playing political games with climate change again doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry. The House quickly passed a bill and gun safety reform haven't had a vote on that over here. What are they scared of nra money and of course, the House passed a bill very much like the one we're introducing today that gets to the root of the problem and tries to address the fundamentals of our democracy so uh we're gonna continue to call on the Republican leader to bring this bill up uh, but We understand full well that, in order to get this done, we need to take this issue to the country and to the grassroots and we know the people are on our side on this issue. So I have great confidence that Justice will prevail in the end but we're gonna have a lot of work to do to get there so I wanna thank my colleagues for helping make that possible cute thanks Chris. I think we're ready for a little q and a please go ahead. oh Topic which is let's stay on topic, we love this top okay. You know what ok to fix also that's right. Um that's a good off topic question. Um it's completely outrageous. Um. We have had the special Olympics in Minnesota I've seen these kids I've seen the twinkle in their eye um, both uh Michael bennett and I have been Co chairs, along with um Number of Republican senators of the Olympics caucus um and uh see the value um when it comes to special Olympics. I'm shocked because we have a um uh administration, uh that likes to uh talk about uh their support for the disability community and then you see something outrageous. Like this so I think it is just once again what we see is not putting the people first. It was the disability community as we all know, that really stood up against the repeal of the affordable care act in a very big I still remember being in a small town parade with a mom with a stroller and she said this is what a preexisting condition looks like and she pointed to her two year old who had down syndrome and she said I would do anything to fight for him so this community stood up for their own people and now this administration is responding, like this it's wrong and it's another reason we need to pass this bill if I could just quickly say on the special ed uh cuts um Special ed cuts uh Congress did the right thing back in the 19 seventies when we said every child, including every child with a disability, has the right to a full education. Uh as of now Congress is way behind them, making good on its promise of a 40 percent share of the costs of idea under iaea and uh just yesterday, senator roberts and I introduced a bipartisan bill which we hope will have support to put the federal government finally, on a path to fully fund its obligations under idea and unfortunately, this administration, whether it's cutting special Olympics or what they're doing in special education is going in the other direction. You know, on the Positive side of this three of us here are the two on this left hand side are appropriate. Are you see these kinds of cuts and appropriation that come up there dead on arrival. I mean we've increased money to the arts we've increased money uh all across the board for many, many programs, so Congress is when it comes to some of these spending decisions that are so out there Congress is really making a difference on and just to relate it to because it's so on topic again People with disabilities, they don't have the big money. Okay. I always think about a Paul well stone would always talk about kids that can't write the campaign checks. Okay. These kids with disabilities they can't write those campaign checks and that's why it all comes back to this Particular, I see a lot of different forms of your one of them is not eliminating the electoral College. Senator warn some of the call for that we're looking for something You know I'm happy to look at this, but I think if we really want to change our politics, but we've got to do is get the dark money out of our politics and that's what this does and I think you see, strong unity in the Democratic party on this bill and so this is the bill that I think we should use um as our talking points across the country when people are running for President or running for Congress this is the whole collection of what we need to do from taking the dark money out to making it easier to vote You And also, I think, that's a I on yeah first of all, I, I think I said that the special interest k Street folks the lobbyist, they're terrified of this they've gone to senator mcconnell. My understanding is when, when it came over from the House, Don mcgann who left the White House and went to a big lobbying firm came to their caucus the next day as the bill the for the people act was headed over to worn every single Republican. We don't want you to get on this bill. Get near this bill vote for this bill and so It's about the special interest and and you I think you're asking two uh. How do we get a vote under the budget resolution. If they move forward with a budget resolution which is supposed to be part of the process that you have budget Committee hearings and you come forward. You get many many votes with a budget resolution on the floor and the final thing and amy is involved in this is this is going into the people at the National election. This will A defining moment in our democracy when you have all the Democrats in the House in the Senate and our presidential candidates, talking about reform and them talking about the status quote, yeah, please, Joe cole so, let's turn the clock back to 20 14. We had citizens United. We had the coke brothers deciding to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in Senate races across this country and certainly the coke brothers came to my race in oregon spent millions of But they also went to iowa and North Carolina. They went to Louisiana and arkansas. They went to colla Colorado and Alaska that moment of that dark money Powerful wealthy money being spent put mitch mcconnell in the role of majority leader, mitch, mcconnell would not be the leader of this body was it not for that dark money so his power is premised on the corruption of our constitution. No wonder he's a hundred percent against restoring the vision on which we were founded Look at the raft right ok. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now on the fight for this
Senator Tom UdallVideosSen. Udall and Senate Democrats Introduce the #ForThePeople Act