Leaders and what the President and Congress have been giving them pull after polls shows that the American people want affordable health care. You have to Republican leadership and this President have tried time and time again to take away health care rights and health care protections poll after poll shows that the American people want good paying jobs. You have to Republican leadership in this President give a massive tax cut windfall to the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations and poll after Shows that the American people want clean air and clean water. They want Congress to tackle climate change. They want to protect our public lambs, yet for years the Republican leadership has done the opposite and the trump administration is dismantling environmental protections and sabotaging our efforts to fight climate change poll after poll shows the American people support common sense gun safety laws. We have for decades the Republican leadership has refused to take any action whatsoever on even Basic safety laws like universal background checks and poll after poll, shows that the American people want dreamers to stay in our country. They don't want children separated from their parents. They want comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken system and yet the Republican leadership has opposed these priorities for many years and now this President moves forward with his divisive and hateful immigration policies so it's no wonder that trust and government is so low According to a recent survey, just 19 percent overall trust the government to do what is right, root canals, famously had a higher approval rating than Congress We are a representative democracy, yet the people are not being represented there will has been stymie the situation has gotten dramatically worse under this President and there's no doubt about that. But these problems preceded this. President and they will live much longer than his time in office and less. We act because to put it bluntly, some of our most basic Democratic institutions are broken. Our voting rights system our campaign, finance system, our ethics rules the American people know in their gut that the system Is rigged and that's why the drug companies get what they want and people pay through the nose that's. Why the millionaires and billionaires get more tax cuts and the working people get left behind. That's. Why the polluters get off Scott free and the rest of us get dirty air and contaminated water. UN dragging this system requires reform. Real reform so we bring power back to the hands of everyday Americans and out of the hands of the special moneyed interest the rule Washington, so let's Talk about how we do that for years I've stood with others in this chamber to call for a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens, United for independent nonpartisan drawing of House districts for closing the revolving door in Washington in the past. Some Senate Republicans were independent of their leadership and support of these ideas the President and even promised to drain the swamp on fortunately We all know by now that promise was empty, but with the change in leadership in the House of representative Congress is now making progress to enact the reforms that the American people want. The House will soon pass hr one the for the people act. A major reform package to fix our broken system. It will be up to the Senate to follow suit so Next week, my Senate colleagues and I will introduce our own for the people at a comprehensive set of reforms to move this effort forward. I hope we'll have bipartisan support, but I was disappointed to hear the Republican leader deride. This essential reform bill as the Democrat politician protection act. This is not only warped a warped political common but it is also cynical and totally misses the point, especially when You consider that the American people overwhelmingly across party lines, support these kinds of reforms, it's the special interest who oppose them because they are threatened by them. If the Republican leader feels the same way about this bill as the special interests to perhaps the bill is not the problem. Every member of the Senate will have a choice. Do they support reform where our ideas Policies can compete on a level level playing field or do they choose to side with the special interest to do their bidding in return for their protection and money during election season. I've known plenty of Republicans who opposed the system, senator John Mccain, was one of them. Senator Allen Simpson, as another senator cochran was a cosponsor of my constitutional amendment no party To side with the big money and special interests, it is a choice it's a choice we must make together to return our democracy to the people to read our system of corruption. This bill will do just that. It will make it easier not harder to vote. It will bring an end to the dominance of big money in politics and it will ensure the politicians actually serve the public interest First, voting right for 50 years the voting rights act of 19 65 has stood as a bulk work against voter suppression tactics and in franchised millions of voters, but in 20 13 the Supreme court eviscerated it in it's shelby County versus holder decision unleashing a torrent of state laws designed to suppress the vote of minorities the court's 54 decision rendered the voting rights act pree clearance provisions ineffective and cleared the way States to engage in voter suppression since shelby nearly one thousand polling places have been closed across the country. Many in southern black communities, voter id laws have been tightened early voting has been slashed voter roles have been purged and House districts have been read wrong to dilute the minority vote. One of the many egregious examples is North Carolina less than two months after shelby that state enacted far reaching voter suppression requirements, North carolina's law Struck down by a federal court of appeals finding the law targeted African Americans and they this is in quotes by the court with almost surgical precision in quote, just this last midterm. We saw voter suppression tactics, surge for instance in North dakota the state Legislature passed the law right before the November election that took aim squarely at the native vote the law required Ids to list physical addresses and impossibility for many native American voters living on reservations, a federal court found that five thousand native American voters did not have the necessary identification. We have no choice but to respond and to restore the voting rights acts so States are stop from closing off the franchise that must also include the native American voting rights act to address voter suppression tactics in Indian country and to make sure the native vote is counted not discounted bills Store Los voting right protections have been introduced in both chambers. I hope the Senate majority will work in a bipartisan way to restore this landmark legislation and we shouldn't make it easier for voter and we should make it easier for voters to register not harder in a healthy democracy, automatic voter registration online voter registration and same day voter registration for eligible voters would be Non controversial voting should be easy too often for too many. It is hard, it's our duty to fix that and this bill will do that extreme political gerrymandering continues to skews state and congressional elections results from legislative races don't reflect. The proportion of each party's voters. Voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around Congress must Nonpartisan independent line drawing in each state to draw congressional districts and congressional districts must fairly reflects States. Racial compositions so that a representative government truly represents the electric there's. No other way to put it our campaign, finance system is broken. The Supreme court's 20 10 citizens United decision opened the floodgates for unlimited contributions and dark money and this Congress is negligence, has allowed the flood to drought Regular people's voices, Super pac's can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on candidates. The Super wealthy can and do try to buy elections, dark money groups can receive unlimited amounts of money from big corporations and wealthy individuals spend their unlimited sums to influence elections and never disclose their donors or what they wanted in return for their investment. one four billion dollars was spent on the last presidential race in 20 16. This midterms outside expenditures topped a billion dollars. The system is rigged right before our eyes. How do we reverse course and return elections to the American people for starters Congress need to shine a light on the dark money and require realtime disclosure Close loopholes that allow for foreign money and create a small donor public matching fund system for everyday contributions and, most critically, we must overturn citizens, United and related decisions. He Supreme court, the tech weights big money with speech puts campaigns for sale to the highest bidder. Once again, I will offer an amendment to the constitution to overturn citizens, United as I have since 20 16 Congress Has a long way to go to push our popularity above a root canal and to restore the public's confidence. We also need comprehensive ethics reform, elected officials and public servants should not reap huge personal profit from their public positions. We need to tighten the revolving door. We need to tighten the lobbying disclosure laws and we must require presidential and vice presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns beyond that President Vice presidents must divest of any and all assets that create a conflict of interest. Candidate trump promised to disclose his tax returns. He didn't. He then promised to disclose them after an alleged audit he hasn't. That is on acceptable. We know the President has business and financial ties with Russia, Saudi Arabia and this may well explain his strange closeness with Vladimir Putin And will hammon fan solver transparency and investigator are the only ways to avoid conflicts of interest and corruption. These issues go to the heart of what it means to be an America. Our democracy is supposed to exist by the will of the people by the consent of the government Congress has an amazing opportunity before it the House of representatives is starting debate on its comprehensive reform package. My colleagues and I will introduce our legislation next week to Republican Around the country don't fall for the majority, leader's cynical name calling. I know you love your democracy as much as I do this is not about protecting Democrats or Republicans it's about protecting Americans from a rigged system. Let us commit to work together to pass reforms the American people, hunger for. Thank you mister President, and I yield the floor