Bob Menendez: “what the authors of these bills forget is that in America voting is not a dream. It is not just another government…”

“what the authors of these bills forget is that in America voting is not a dream. It is not just another government benefit or program to be means tested. It is a constitutional right. And Americans should not be subjected to a Federal Government background check when they register to vote. But that is what these bills do. It turns the ballot box into an interrogation zone where Americans are guilty until they are proven innocent. And to show they are citizens, Republicans want the Social Security Administration and the INS to run background checks and share private information on American voters. Not surprisingly, Republicans want this test to be taken out where? In California, in Texas, in Florida, in Illinois and New York, States with large minority populations, especially Americans of Hispanic descent. We know already what they tried to do in the discredited Dornan investigation. We will not permit you to do that under the name of campaign finance reform. The right to vote in this Nation should not be subject to government intrusion, and Hispanic-American voters will not forget their continuing persecution of their rights. Lastly, the founders of the union movement battled corporate-sponsored, club-wielding thugs who tried to silence them with beating and violence. Today Republicans are trying to accomplish in a law what they could not accomplish with a billy club.”