Mazie Hirono: “I also want to thank Senators Udall and Merkley for their extraordinary work on the For the People Act. We are…”

“I also want to thank Senators Udall and Merkley for their extraordinary work on the For the People Act. We are confronting a crisis in our democracy. We have a President who repeatedly invites foreign intervention in our elections, engages in widespread corruption, attacks the news media as part of a broader assault on the truth, and uses false claims of voter fraud to legitimize voter suppression across the country. These challenges to our democracy are not limited to the Trump administration, but this President has undoubtedly made things much, much worse. It is why I joined an overwhelming number of my Democratic colleagues of both Chambers of Congress in cosponsoring H.R. 1, the For the People Act. This crucial piece of legislation is the most expansive and serious attempt to strengthen American democracy in decades. Among its many provisions, this bill would root out corruption by attacking the dark money in our politics. The door was opened in the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. This bill would also secure our elections from foreign interference and restore voter protections that Republicans have spent decades attacking for their own partisan political benefit. Like many of my colleagues, I am particularly focused on combating the Republican Party's efforts to disenfranchise millions of minority voters.…”