On the recordJanuary 18, 2022
let me start by thanking our colleague, the Senator from Oregon, Senator Merkley, for his leadership in working to restore the functioning of the Senate and to protect our democracy. We need both, and we need them now. It was just 12 days ago that we marked the 1-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on this Capitol and on our democracy itself. It was a violent attempt to stop Congress from certifying the Presidential election of Joe Biden and to overturn the decision of the American people. It was inspired and instigated by the former President. While that assault did not succeed in stopping us from counting the vote that day, the Big Lie did not die. In fact, the Big Lie has metastasized. It has spread, and its poison is seeping across the country. It is now taking the form of Republican-controlled State legislatures enacting laws that erect new barriers to the ballot box. Let's be clear. They are erecting barriers specifically designed to make it harder for people of color and younger voters to cast their ballots. As we saw in a Federal Circuit Court case a number of years ago with respect to North Carolina, the court found that the State legislature had targeted African-American voters with surgical precision. Dr. King observed that voting is ``the foundation stone for political action.'' He also observed that when the right to vote is impeded, a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic tradition are betrayed.…
