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[Page H2510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS CONGRESS AND LAST CONGRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, let me point out an important difference
between the last Congress and this one.
Last Congress, under Republican leadership, our number one priority
was tax reform and jobs, putting more money into the pockets of the
American people who have earned it. That is why our bill, H.R. 1, the
Tax Cut and Jobs Act, was that first priority.
Even back in 1995, the first bill under Republican leadership was the
Congressional Accountability Act, to make sure Congress and its staff
had to abide by the same rules as the rest of Americans.
This Congress, under Democrat leadership, it appears their priorities
are much different. Their H.R. 1, supposedly, their most-prized bill,
hence, they give it the number 1 bill, is not a generational policy
reform to benefit Americans, but, rather, politics and rigging
elections; that is the Democrat priority; sweeping Federal mandates
that institute a 6-to-1 government match for small donor political
contributions.
That means 6 to 1 of your tax dollars going to match contributions
made for campaigns; $200 would yield $1,200 from the Federal Government
into a campaign.
In what world is it defensible for the Federal Government to be
forced to use your taxpayer funds, you to be forced for your taxpayer
dollars to support a candidate for office, regardless of whether you
support that candidate.
The bad news is it doesn't end there. Democrats want to take some of
the corrupt policies already implemented in my own State of California
and institute them nationwide.
For example: Ballot harvesting. Since its implementation in
California, this practice has opened up our State to endless potential
for election fraud. Just a couple of months ago, this exact practice
sent one North Carolina election into chaos, with every Democrat in the
State demanding a re-election. In the North Carolina one they were
using similar practices.
Ironically, this bill is completely silent on ballot harvesting. In
fact, Democrats blocked an amendment I worked on that would make ballot
harvesting illegal in all States, not just where it is convenient for
their elections.
In Orange County, California, 250,000 provisional ballots were
counted after election night, with people delivering hundreds of them
at a time.
Now, I am a staunch supporter of ensuring every voter has access to
the polls, but this bill isn't about that. This legislation only
undermines the security of our election system and limits the already-
lacking safeguards that are in place to ensure the integrity of our
electoral process.
How are the voters, the people, the citizens of America supposed to
have confidence in their election system when they see these games
being played?
To make matters worse, this bill will actually weaken voter ID laws.
It automatically registers everyone in the DMV database, no questions
asked, alive or dead.
When this issue has come up in California, we have seen numerous
problems in the DMV process. California voter rolls have little
integrity. We have tens of thousands of so-called voters that are
registered that may not even be eligible, may not even be citizens.
{time} 1030
This has also, in that process, made the REAL ID process in
California questionable as well, where the people are going to have to
go get their ID redone in order to be able to use the airports.
While some of my other colleagues on the other side of the aisle like
to peg voter ID laws as prohibitive, the National Bureau of Economic
Research published a study proving that is not the case.
We all support easy and fair voter registration, but it has to come
with sensible voter protections and fraud prevention safeguards. As we
saw in California this past election cycle, thousands of ballots
continued to be harvested even after election day. That is a huge
problem.
If this bill needed another nail in the coffin, even the ACLU has
condemned the legislation as unconstitutional. That is because it hurts
free speech and attempts to silence those who would dare disagree with,
in this case, Democrat priorities.
Just a few years ago, a California theater director was forced to
resign over harassment due to a political donation, just for advocating
for his own beliefs.
Democrats boldly dubbed this legislation the For the People Act, but
a more appropriate title would be ``Democrat Politicians Protection
Act.''
Once again, H.R. 1 under Republican leadership was the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act and, years ago, an accountability act. H.R. 1 under Democrat
leadership is an unconstitutional bill to force Americans to help
reelect more Democrats. That should paint a substantially contrasting
picture for the American people what the priorities are of the two
parties.
Mr. Speaker, I urge opposition to this terrible bill.
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