On the recordJanuary 13, 2022
I am proud to help bring this bill to the floor and to push for its consideration in the Senate. Pennsylvania--and Philadelphia, which I represent--is the birthplace of our democratic Republic, but it is now ground zero in the battle for the soul of our Nation. A decade ago, when the last redistricting occurred, the Pennsylvania legislature launched an attack on election rights, which has only escalated over the years. Voters have had to battle in court to get fair districts and to overturn discriminatory voter ID laws that threaten to disenfranchise more than half a million eligible Pennsylvania voters. And in the last 2 years we have seen these threats multiply as the former President and his far-right allies have tried over and over again to make it harder to vote and to throw out the legal votes of Pennsylvania's eligible voters. This bill is not a takeover of State elections, it is a response to attempts by State legislatures, like Pennsylvania's, to make it harder for Americans to express their most essential freedom--voting--by exercising our duty under Article I Section 4 of the Constitution to protect that right. I urge all of my colleagues, no matter what party, to support this legislation.
