The publication is reproduced in full below:
VOTING RIGHTS
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now a quick update on voting rights. Last week, several of my colleagues introduced the Freedom to Vote Act, a powerful new bill that would tackle head-on voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, and the scourge of dark money.
The legislation also responds to recommendations from election officials and includes new provisions to boost confidence in our elections, including critical anti-election subversion reforms, a flexible voter ID standard, and commonsense voter list maintenance requirements. This legislation will promote greater confidence in our elections, and I believe all Senators--Democrat, Republican, and Independent alike--should support the package.
At the end of last week, I moved to place the Freedom to Vote Act on the legislative calendar, enabling me to schedule a vote on this bill in the immediate future.
This week, my colleague Senator Manchin, who helped craft this legislation and relied on many of the good practices in West Virginia to do so--Senator Manchin, this week, is making an effort, a good-faith effort, to reach colleagues on the other side of the aisle to win support of the Freedom to Vote Act, and, in fact, he has been meeting with a number of Republican colleagues.
We are committed to finding common ground, if there is common ground to be found. We look forward to hearing what changes Republicans might want to make. And if Republicans engage earnestly and honestly, we will work with them. The voting rights working group I convened earlier this year is prepared to help in that effort, but we need to move quickly. Time is of the essence.
As Senator Manchin said earlier this year regarding congressional action on voting rights, ``Inaction is not an option.'' I agree with Senator Manchin in that regard.
To that end, it is my intention to hold a vote for the Freedom to Vote Act here on the Senate floor. If Republicans are unwilling to move forward, Democrats will have to move on our own. Inaction from Republicans on voting rights is not an excuse to do nothing. We are going to take action to make sure we protect our democracy and fight back against the disease of voter suppression, partisan gerrymandering, and election subversion that is metastasizing at the State level.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 163
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