No Coffee Tax Act

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, today is the anniversary of the election of President Trump in 2024, and, today, the shutdown of our Federal Government is officially the longest it has ever been--36 days--because we can't come to agreement between our parties and our Chambers. In fact, the House isn't even at work and hasn't been for weeks because Republicans won't work with us to ensure access to healthcare.

We are in a dangerous and unsettled place here at home, but we are also in a dangerous and unsettled place abroad and around the world. My role in appropriations in this Congress is as the senior Democrat on the subcommittee that funds all of our defense and intelligence. Given that role, wherein I have worked with Senator McConnell, the chairman, to write the bill that we should be moving forward that would fully fund the security apparatus of the United States, I wanted to come to the floor for a few minutes today and talk with my colleagues and our Nation about what it is that actually keeps us safe at home and abroad.

For my entire life, we have relied upon the U.S. military. We will soon celebrate Veterans Day next week, and all of us should thank those who have served or who are serving. We have relied on them to be something that we often take for granted--nonpartisan, nonpolitical, an all-volunteer, professional, career military. For that to be sustained--for the folks to continue to step forward, to raise their right hand, and to swear to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic--we need a nation that supports our warfighters; for it is our warfighters who answer the call to serve and to defend no matter what party is in charge, to respect and obey the chain of command and to execute all lawful orders.

I think we rely on the best equipped, the best trained, and the most professional military in the world and, in partnership with them, a global network of alliances. We are the envy of the world not only because of our weapons--the most advanced and sophisticated weapons systems--but because we have the best trained, the best respected, and the most supported military in the world. That additional factor is something stronger than envy, which is respect.

I have traveled over my 15 years here on the Foreign Relations Committee to dozens of countries on literally every continent and have seen directly the respect that other armed forces around the world have for our military--for its civilian control, its professionalization, its training, and equipment.

I grew up in the shadow of the Vietnam war. It was raging as I was a young man. I still remember being in elementary school, with classmates who had older brothers in combat. I still remember, as Saigon fell, when I was in middle school, and as the POWs, including our former colleague, John McCain, were released from years of imprisonment, being shocked at the way some returning veterans were treated--disrespected-- and at how there had been a real loss of a sense of respect and appreciation for those who served.

Over the years, our Armed Forces have earned their way back to a place of deep and broad respect in the hearts of the American people. Over the years that I served as county executive, I went to ceremony after ceremony as units of the Delaware National Guard deployed over and over, and then, often--9 months or a year later--as we would welcome them home at wonderful homecoming celebrations, I saw deep and broad support and respect for the men and women of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Tragically, I have also had the opportunity, along the flight line of Dover Air Force Base, to welcome home America's fallen, to get to know the families grieving over their loss, and, this year, to be joined by Members of the House and Senate as we have welcomed home our fallen heroes who died serving us overseas. The difference in tenor, in respect, in affection for the men and women of our Armed Forces over the arc of my lifetime--from the 1970s during the Vietnam war to today--has been striking.

Today, as I rise to speak on the 1-year anniversary of President Trump's election, I just wanted to look back and reflect on how, in that year, he and Secretary Hegseth have set us on a course that risks losing again all of that accumulated good will, all of that respect. I want to talk about how they have weakened our alliances, politicized our military, dulled down our military readiness, and brought us closer to needless, even dangerous, wars of choice--all of that leaving us weaker and less safe as we confront the most dangerous world since the end of the Cold War.

President Trump is a master of distraction. So you don't ever have time to step back and look at the bigger pattern. It is amazing how many times a day the topics change. Are we talking about the tearing down of the East Wing or the planning of a new ballroom or the renewed threat to invade a country in Africa--apparently, Nigeria, this week? It is a constant, unending smorgasbord of tweets and greatest hits designed to prevent us, with its blizzard, from ever seeing any pattern. One year after his election, I wanted to take a few minutes and show that pattern to you today.

In his first 10 months as President of the United States, President Trump has fired or pushed out more than 15 of our most senior admirals and generals, starting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Chief of Naval Operations--fired because they were somehow considered DEI hires or too woke, which is something I find to be utterly without foundation in their service or in the opinions of others who served with them in the Armed Forces.

He hijacked the 250th anniversary parade to celebrate the history of the U.S. Army and turned it into a birthday parade for himself.

More recently, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth gathered all of our most senior military leaders from around the world for a speech here near Washington, at Quantico, which was a massive national security risk, just so they could give political speeches about grooming and about using the military against the enemy within--pulling these decorated and seasoned men and women from core jobs, literally around the world, of protecting America against our adversaries on the frontlines, to be props for a highly political speech.

In unprecedented decisions in modern times, the President has federalized the National Guards from California, from Illinois, and from Oregon over the objections of Governors and has deployed them into cities over the objections of mayors who say: We can deal with the challenges of crime. If you want to send us Federal resources, we would welcome your sending us additional Federal law enforcement, like the ATF and the FBI.

This administration also mobilized the Marines to go into Los Angeles. All of this takes away our military from

their central missions and training for partisan political ends.

This brings us to a second key pillar of our national security--the best trained and equipped military in the world.

Secretary Hegseth, at the beginning of this year, supported a full- year continuing resolution for the Department of Defense for the first time ever. Senator McConnell and I, as the chair and ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, were struck at how much harm that does. We are on the verge of doing it again for a terrible second year.

Ask any senior military leader. It makes it impossible to plan, and nothing requires more stable, certain long-term funding than designing and building the next generation of fighter aircraft, building and deploying nuclear-powered submarines, recruiting and training the world's best military and then equipping them with things on land, air, and sea that make them the most lethal Armed Forces on Earth. We can't do that if Secretary Hegseth continues to support full-year continuing resolutions.

It is also important that our warfighters be respected because they know they have the support engagement of the American people on difficult and dangerous missions--something that is lacking when they refuse to fully brief, support, and engage the Senate of the United States--a challenge that is happening right now.

We need a plan, we need preparation, and we need clarity to Congress about what is going on in the Caribbean and what preparations are being made with regard to Venezuela.

I have no objection to the idea that we need to work together to strengthen the interdiction of drugs coming to the United States, but this body, given the Constitution and our role, deserves to be consulted and included so that we can build consensus, common agreement, to support a plan of action so that our warfighters, the men and women of our Armed Forces, know we have their backs. That is the best way to send them into harm's way.

All of this is built on another of President Trump's broken promises. He ran on lowering costs, making America healthy again, and avoiding new foreign wars. On the campaign trail, I often heard that was one of his most popular promises.

Since then, the threats to start new wars with friends and allies and foes alike have been dizzying--Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Panama, Colombia, and Nigeria. Our President tosses these things off casually, but in a meeting I had earlier in his term with leaders from Denmark and Greenland, they were alarmed, frightened, and concerned about how a trusted NATO ally could threaten to seize Greenland--a seemingly casual remark that was then reinforced and repeated over and over.

I am worried that we are now sleepwalking into a war with Venezuela and an effort to overthrow Maduro, all while leaving the People's Republic of China free rein to run roughshod over the Indo-Pacific, while they massively increase the scope and scale of their aggression.

Let's be clear. There is no love lost between me and Maduro--a brutal dictator--but we should have clarity about how and why we might use our Armed Forces.

Last, a key pillar to our security for the last eight decades, since the end of the Second World War, has been a remarkable global network of powerful alliances. I have long said that one of our key advantages over the People's Republic of China is our network of trusted and deep alliances.

China has nervous neighbors and client states. President Trump is putting all of that at risk. Our adversaries are increasingly aligning. Russians are using Iranian drones, North Korean soldiers, and Chinese technology and funding to help carry out their brutal war of aggression in Ukraine. Meanwhile, our alliances are fraying.

As I mentioned, the President threatened to invade NATO allies like Canada and Denmark and kicked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the Oval Office but rolled out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin; held up crucial arms deliveries and sales to nations that rely on us for their security--from Ukraine to Taiwan; and put at risk our commitment to article 5 and to collective security that have been at the heart of NATO since its founding.

The tariff deals our President has imposed on some of our closest and most trusted allies--allies that have free-trade agreements with us, like South Korea--have put them profoundly on the back foot as they look and wonder whether they can count on our security agreements.

All of this means that over the past year, President Trump has steadily hacked away at the pillars of our military that protect our Nation, making it less stable, making it more likely that the trust and confidence the American people have in our warfighters will crumble.

This is a critical and concerning, even alarming picture from which he is trying to distract us.

The Nation we had a year ago was strong, secure, and moving in a positive direction. Today, I am gravely concerned about the constant distraction and the threats and moves against our allies, our partners, and the ways in which we have undermined our warfighters.

So what should we do from here? Pass our bipartisan appropriations bills. Put on this floor, pass, and get to the President the Defense appropriations bill that I have worked so hard on this year and all the other appropriations bills and move us out of this cycle of rescissions, reconciliation, and continuing resolutions and back to reliable, steady, bipartisan support. Strengthen our alliances. Reassure our nervous partners. End this recklessness with tariffs that is an on again-off again regime where these taxes, these tariffs, add to Americans' bottom line in a disastrous way and destabilize trust and confidence from our partners and refocus on training and preparing for real wars, not culture wars. This is how we keep our Nation safe.

Just a few days ago, I was up in my father's hometown of Boston and drove through Lexington and Concord, where 250 years ago this year, our forefathers took up arms against the Crown and began what was a long- shot fight, a revolution for liberty and independence for our Nation. We have to remember all who have taken up arms and served our Nation.

I am from a family of veterans. My brother, my sister-in-law, my father, my uncles, my great-great-grandfather, and back to the Revolution, members of my family have stepped forward and served.

For all who have done the same, who have signed on the dotted line, up to and including their lives, committed their willingness to sacrifice, we owe them nothing less than the full measure of devotion that says we will support them. That support requires engagement and trust from this body, engagement and trust with our allies, and the support that our service men and women deserve.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I want to thank Ranking Member Padilla and Senator Blumenthal, Ranking Member Padilla of the Rules

Committee, and Senator Blumenthal for organizing a group of my colleagues for coming to the floor today and for their leadership on this issue.

We are focused on, as we saw last night, Americans turned out in droves to vote, to exercise their constitutional right and, really, their duty to vote. And we want to make sure that people can continue to stand up, to show up, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, to protect voting rights and ensure that every eligible American can make their voice heard in our democracy.

I also want to thank the State and local election administrators, secretaries of state, poll workers, and everyone else in States like Minnesota, Virginia, California, New Jersey, and more who made sure that yesterday's elections went smoothly.

It takes a lot of people and a lot of planning to do that. Yesterday, millions of people exercised that sacred right. According to preliminary data, Minneapolis saw its second highest turnout for a municipal election with more than 147,000 people casting a ballot in an off year, and in Virginia 3.3 million people voted this year, the State's highest ever turnout in a non-Presidential election year.

As Congressman John Lewis once said, voting is the most powerful tool we have to create a more perfect Union.

In recent years, from the January 6 insurrection to election conspiracies to threats against polling sites in New Jersey, we have seen an alarming rise in dangerous rhetoric and threats against election workers and polling places. Sometimes it is from other countries trying to do harm, regardless of the political outcome, but wanting to mess around in our democracy.

Sometimes it is people trying to influence an election from either side. We have also seen repeated attacks on access to the ballot box from this administration.

The Justice Department has turned away from its mission of enforcing the Voting Rights Act, and the President has issued an unlawful Executive order to overhaul our Nation's elections that would purge American citizens from voter rolls and make it harder for the men and women of our military to vote.

Just as the President overstepped his authority by implementing the across-the-board tariffs, I was at the Supreme Court oral argument today, along with Senator Lee and Senator Markey. I will say it was a well-argued case with pointed questions from the Justices. I am very impressed by some of the arguments that were made against these tariffs by both the States and the lawyers for the small businesses, as well as some of the Justices' discussions when it came to the tariffs about Congress's right under the Constitution, under article I, our authority to assess taxes--not an unconstitutional delegation or an overreach by the administration.

And so we have seen this overstep with regard to the tariffs, which is having calamitous effects on my constituents, small businesses, farmers, ranchers. One soybean farmer told me it was the perfect storm of ugly.

But we have also seen this overstep when it comes to the Constitution and people's right to vote. The White House recently confirmed that the President intends to continue his unlawful attacks on voting rights by issuing a new Executive order targeting mail-in voting.

Mail-in voting is nothing new. It dates back to the Civil War, and the President himself has said that voting by mail, voting early, and voting on election day are all good options. I agree. And Americans across the country agree.

In Minnesota, we have made it easier, not harder, for all eligible Americans to vote, including by giving everyone the chance to vote by mail. We have people who vote by mail. Some of these States like Utah and Oregon, they have almost the vast majority of people vote by mail. We are not actually that. We are kind of a mix. We have the highest voter turnout in the country nearly every election in the country.

I go into a hardware store or a cafe, and I know that 70, 80 percent of the people have voted. Sometimes they will come up to me and say: Well, I didn't vote for you, but I did like this one thing you did or I have an idea for you. That means something in a democracy.

But that is because we make it easier to vote, not only with the mail-in voting and the drop-off ballots, but we also have it with same- day registration, which when you look at States that have that, whether they are red or blue or purple, that is probably the most defining thing about if you are going to have high voter turnout. And when you have high voter turnout, believe me, my State has elected everyone from Jesse Ventura to Michele Bachmann to me.

But what all of us have in common is that we had extraordinarily high voter turnout when the people got elected, and that makes people feel like they are part of the franchise. That makes them feel like, wow, we are part of this democracy. We are not left out of it. And that alone is worth something in a democracy, regardless of who gets elected.

In 2024, 36 States allowed voters to cast their votes by mail, and nearly one-third of the voters did, and that is post-pandemic. So instead of creating barriers to the ballot box, we need to expand access to the polls to ensure all eligible Americans can vote in the way that works best for them, regardless of their ZIP Code.

That is why I have led the effort with Ranking Member Padilla to advance commonsense bills to protect our democracy, including the Freedom to Vote Act. That bill will increase ballot access and reform our campaign finance system to ensure that our democracy is of, by, and for the American people.

And I would also note, with regard to some of the things that happened coming out of Texas, it also would make sure that we have a fair system when it comes to the House of Representatives and districts and what is going on there.

That is also why I also strongly voted to support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and strengthen key portions of the Voting Rights Act. And it is why I worked to give reliable Federal support to State and local governments, so that they can continue to administer safe, secure elections.

This is something we should all be able to agree on. We must support our local election offices and help them maintain their election infrastructure to keep pace with new technology and combat cybersecurity threats.

We should also be able to agree that we should stand by our election workers, including volunteers, who face a barrage of threats and intimidation.

I remember hearing, when I chaired the Rules Committee, from the election officers in places like Pennsylvania, where a Republican election official was threatened simply because he upheld the election results. His entire family was threatened. Or secretaries of State who have the voicemails of the recordings of their families being threatened or their homes being threatened.

And you think about these volunteers, particularly in rural areas, or election officials where they don't have the police there nearby to protect them.

That is why I led the Election Worker Protection Act--legislation to provide States the resources to recruit and train election workers and ensure their safety. Protecting election officials should not be a partisan issue. The security of our elections is directly tied to the security of our election workers.

Nothing is more fundamental to our democracy than our free and fair elections. Voting is how the American people make their voices heard and ensure their elected leaders are held accountable. So while we continue to see attacks on our democracy, it is our duty to never give up hope.

Every election it is inspiring to see Americans, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike exercise their sacred right to vote however they choose.

It was quite a reminder last night how people are going to vote. And they are going to vote for their families and they are going to vote for their own economic security and they are going to vote because they believe in our democracy. Even in an off-year election, when no Senator is on the ballot, when no President is on the ballot, where not even a Member of Congress is on the ballot, but two Governors and some referendums about the judiciary and

some referendums about the elections and some local officials and mayors, people turned out, and they turned out in record number.

So I hope that makes people realize that our democracy is thriving, but our democracy only thrives when we make it so people can vote. And I have been so proud of my State over the years, and, again, we are a purple State. We have elected Republican and Democratic Governors in the last decades. We have elected Republican Senators in the last decades. We have a split legislature. One house is Republican, the State house; the State senate is Democratic.

There was an election last night. On that front, we have an evenly split congressional delegation--four and four--because we don't have gerrymandering, and we have actually competitive elections.

A number of years in these congressional seats, and there we are with the one or two highest voting turnouts in the Nation. Why is that? Because people feel like they are a part of it. That is what we want to have happen in this Nation.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, let me begin by thanking my good friend the Senator from Connecticut Senator Blumenthal for his partnership not just on these issues but in a lot of matters before the judiciary, generally.

But we and others have come to the floor today to celebrate yesterday. Yesterday, Americans in States across the country came out to participate in a tradition as old as the Nation itself: casting their ballots in a democratic election.

And while ballots are still being processed and final results will come in the coming days, it is safe to say that, thanks to the hard- working and unsung heroes known as election workers and volunteers across the country, these elections largely went off smoothly and successfully. Because of their work in States like Virginia and New Jersey, we saw a record turnout. Because of their work in cities like New York, we saw the highest turnout there since 1969 in a municipal election.

From a race for State supreme court justices in the State of Pennsylvania to a statewide proposition in my home State of California, Americans showed up in overwhelming numbers to say in one loud and clear voice that they have had enough.

The question after an election is always: So what message did the voters say? What was the mandate when it comes to a high turnout in an election with larger than expected margins?

The takeaway is this: Enough of the Republican chaos, enough of the power grabs, enough of the corruption, and enough of Trump's billionaire assault on working families.

That is the power of democracy, that we are able to send that type of a message. The people sent that type of a message, that loud of a message, by exercising the right to vote.

But even after the success of last night, let's also be clear about this: One free and fair election does not guarantee the next one. We have to fight to ensure future elections. We have to keep asking ourselves, what do we do between now and next November to protect the next election? Because at this very moment, the President and his allies are doing everything they can to rig the rules of the game.

The reality is that at some point in the last couple of months, the President came to a harsh realization. We have known that his policies have been bad ones. We have known they have been harmful. He has figured out his policies are also very unpopular. Prices on everything from groceries, to housing, to energy bills are going up. Healthcare premiums are spiking. SNAP benefits are being cut. But for the billionaire class, things are just fine because Trump gave them the tax cut that they wanted, and somehow there is now funding for a ballroom.

Americans, though, are fired up. They are angry at a President and a party that are looking out for themselves rather than looking out for the country as a whole. But rather than change their policies that are causing such harm, instead of changing their policies before the midterm elections, President Trump and Republicans would rather change the rules.

We have a responsibility to sound the alarm before it is too late.

Let me revisit my home State of California, where voters came out in big numbers to pass Proposition 50 by a wide margin. Why? We are not celebrating a middecade redistricting. Proposition 50 passed because they have been waiting to respond to the madness because Donald Trump is the one who forced California's hand.

In between trying to pile a little gold covering to every square inch of the White House that he can that hasn't been demolished and pardoning billionaire criminals, President Trump has been making some phone calls. So has the Vice President. They called GOP State lawmakers to redraw congressional maps and to silence Democratic opposition.

It began when President Trump called Texas Governor Greg Abbott and told him to find him five more Republican seats.

When I first heard that, it sounded eerily similar to the call we all heard about from 2020 when President Trump called the secretary of state of Georgia and demanded he find him 11,000 more votes.

We knew what Texas was going to do--a midterm partisan redistricting.

Californians knew right away that enough was enough, and that is what yesterday was all about--leveling the playing field.

By the way, at any moment, Republicans can actually end this redistricting arms race altogether, because there is more than just chatter about Ohio, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and others. To end that arms race, I invite my Republican colleagues to join me--to join us in supporting true nationwide redistricting reform. Yes, we do have a bill to do just that--independent redistricting once every 10 years after the census, which is when it should be properly done. But, no, Republicans would rather try to cling to power by changing the rules of the game.

It is why just yesterday the White House issued yet another threat, this time a threat to issue another illegal Executive order to ban mail-in voting. It is why, as races were being called last night and Trump knew things were not going to go his way, the President took to social media to demand Republicans kill the filibuster and ban mail-in voting and other laws that are designed to keep our elections secure but make it easier for eligible U.S. citizens to exercise their fundamental right to vote, to cast their ballot and have their ballot be counted. That is what we are up against.

But wait, there is more. At the same time, the Trump Department of Justice has its hands full. Boy, do they. The Department of Justice has sent letters to at least 40 different States demanding information about their voter maintenance policies and practices. They filed lawsuits against eight States and probably growing--including California--that have refused to hand over the personal, private information of voters. It kind of reminds me of a game that kids sometimes play: Heads, I win; tails, you lose.

What the administration is saying is, you can give us your voter rolls so we can start systematic purging, or you can choose to protect voter information, but we will see you in court, and we are going to claim voter fraud anyway.

But wait, there is more. Donald Trump is also staffing up the White House with like-minded election deniers and conspiracy theorists, hinting at future actions that would disenfranchise even more voters.

Of course, the President has been slandering places like California and our election practices for years, and he did it once again just yesterday, on election day--his words, not mine. The President lies and shouts ``fraud'' without a shred of evidence. He didn't wait until election day; he started prior to because he knew he was going to lose.

The White House restated its threat to issue a new, even more illegal Executive order to ban mail-in voting despite the fact that the President himself votes by mail.

On top of all these brazen efforts, they are laying the groundwork for the nuclear option once again.

Think about what we have seen over just the last few months--troops deployed domestically into cities in response to pretend rebellions that exist only in Donald Trump's mind.

Going back to this Proposition 50 in California, I was there with the Governor and other State leaders when we first launched the effort. We held a rally to announce a new, legal, democratic ballot initiative-- small ``d,'' democratic--because ultimately it was going to be up to the voters to decide.

The day of that rally, the day of that kickoff--don't tell me it was a coincidence--who shows up at the doors and the perimeter of this building? Armed Border Patrol agents to try to intimidate people coming in to participate in the kickoff and the announcement.

The election deniers in the administration have been lobbying for the White House to declare a fake national emergency to try to seize unconstitutional powers over our elections.

So I raise all these examples as a shocking reminder of how quickly Donald Trump is moving to upend our free and fair elections, but the reality is, none of this should be surprising. I know it is not to me because he has done it before. It has been 5 years since Donald Trump first tried to steal the 2020 election, and since then, he has only grown more extreme.

We all agree it is important to protect the security and integrity of our elections, but even at a moment in history like this, I remind myself that American democracy was here long before MAGA, and it will be here long after MAGA Republicans are no longer in power. But it will not be by accident.

Members of Congress can and must stand up to every one of Trump's unconstitutional power grabs over State election authority. I am committed to doing my part. If the Trump White House tries to declare some fake national emergency to create a pretense for Federal intervention, I will force a vote here in the Senate to stop it.

But no matter what happens, voters cannot lose hope. That is what is most important. We need Americans to keep showing up each and every election and show up in overwhelming numbers--just as they did yesterday, just as they did for hundreds of years prior--and make clear that it will be the people and only the people who will determine the future of our democracy.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I appreciate the Senator from Louisiana yielding to me, and I am here with Senator Padilla because we are leading a group of colleagues to talk on the floor of the Senate about a right of the American people that was exercised in overwhelming numbers yesterday: the right to vote. And it was an enormously heartening and encouraging and inspiring example to us of good citizenship and interest in the electoral process.

But we are here because the right to vote is increasingly under assault by this administration--systematic, strategic, relentless assault by an administration that wants to discourage the exercise of that right to vote and to degrade the protections of it that many Americans take for granted because they are so ingrained in our system.

What this administration has done overall in seeking to impound election equipment, collect voter information, intrude on privacy, and discourage election workers by creating fear and intimidation, not to mention dismantling the election protection mechanisms in the CISA and voting rights section of the Department of Justice, the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Program--these kinds of measures create a real and present danger to our election process.

And it began, literally, with President Trump pardoning the January 6 rioters. Remember, they not only assaulted the Capitol, but their purpose was to stop certification of a lawful transition of power that resulted from the vote. It was an effort to undermine the vote.

In the face of many of these actions, we need to rely on the courts. They are the bulwark that, in many instances, will protect us. We are dependent on organizations that are willing to go to court, and we need to support them with resources.

One example, on March 25, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive order, 14248. Among other things, it attempted to impose on the States new documentation requirements for mail-in voter registration and voting procedures--just one example of this administration's assault on the right to vote--and it probably went under the radar so far as most public attention was concerned. But it was real. It was potentially destructive and damaging to the right to vote.

And, thankfully, Judge Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia knew our laws well enough that she, rightfully, held that this Executive order was so patently illegal, so flagrantly unlawful and a blatant violation of our Constitution's carefully crafted separation of powers that she struck down that Executive order. And she wrote:

The States have initial authority to regulate elections.

Congress has supervisory authority over those regulations.

[But] [t]he President does not feature at all.

And that is why Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that Trump's Executive order ``violates the Constitution by usurping power over federal election procedure that is vested in Congress and the States--not in the President.''

Sounds to me like the President of the United States might need a civics lesson or at least a reread of the Constitution. The Framers regulated elections in this manner on purpose, part of a carefully crafted compromise between State and Federal legislative power. They did it in this manner to serve a specific end, which was a balancing of responsibility that accorded States their proper sovereign control over elections cast in their borders.

They are sovereign. Our States remain sovereign, as they were then, and their electors are entitled to respect in State and Federal elections under rules that are set by sovereign States.

And that compromise is sound public policy, just as it was when our Framers propounded it. It is right that States and communities--not the President--should determine, in the best instance, how best to conduct elections.

And it is right that, in situations when uniform national election standards are necessary, those determinations are made deliberately by a large body of elected officials directly representing their local communities in Congress.

As the judge said, ``The President does not feature at all.''

More importantly, the Framers' diffusion of power over elections divided both among the States and within the branch of the Federal Government closest to the people--namely, the Congress--is one of our Nation's most powerful safeguards against autocracy. They were wary of an overbearing Executive. They had just fought to be free of a monarchy. They explicitly avoided giving any power to the President in the realm of elections.

The framework they created establishes a decentralized structure where it is difficult for any single individual or entity to unduly influence or wield unchecked power over elections.

``No King.'' That was their mantra, literally. They had just overthrown a King. No single authority to control elections and potentially bring to bear another authoritarian ruler.

But, now, this President has moved us toward a totalitarian regime, and there is no more salient or significant aspect of his effort than the destructive assault on our election system.

A system where one person alone can decide how elections are run is the definition of ``tyranny.'' Russia has a Constitution. Other nations like Russia have constitutions, but elections are rigged. And whether it is China, Russia, Hungary--totalitarian regimes have one ruler. It may not be called a King, but it is a ruler who controls the election process. And lo and behold, 90 percent of the voters in the old Soviet Union, now in Russia, all decide that the guy in power is to be retained.

That is no accident. It is the result of totalitarian control over elections, and that is why this judge's ruling is so profoundly momentous.

The voters of California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York made their voices heard yesterday, and they were saying as well, no Kings. They exercised the right to vote in tremendous numbers.

In our State of Connecticut, towns where Republican first selectpeople or mayors were in power for decades saw a move from red to blue. What is more important than red to blue is overwhelming numbers of people came to the polls because they were angry and anxious about our democracy and about affordability, about paying the rent, affording groceries, paying for electricity, and, yes, health insurance.

They were looking at the open enrollment exchanges for whether they could afford health insurance. They saw premiums doubling and tripling. They were hit by that sticker shock, and it made them fearful and outraged about what was happening to healthcare, as well as everything else they were paying to afford. And they couldn't afford healthcare and everything else that they needed for their families, and that was a factor as well.

So this outpouring of anger and anxiety that we saw on the issue of affordability was an exercise of the franchise that this administration wants to undermine and undercut and, eventually, eviscerate.

So we need to elevate the judges. Let's name this one--Judge Kollar- Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Kollar-Kotelly is a hero in sustaining and protecting the rule of law, in preserving free and open elections, by striking down an Executive order that very simply egregiously overrides State sovereign authority.

Now, I will say States' rights used to be the province of Members of this body who sought to protect segregation. Maybe they were endeavoring to stop Federal law enforcement and the use of States' rights as a sword or a shield had limits and the courts limited them.

But in this instance, there is no excuse and no precedent that permits the President of the United States to take over our election system, and I call on my colleagues in this body to stop rubberstamping his usurpation of our authority. We are the ones, along with States, that have that responsibility.

Congress was specifically chosen to protect our election system when it came to Federal supervision because we are closest to the people, and we should zealously guard that authority because it is essential to our constitutional structure.

I know that a lot of this may seem abstract or opaque, but it goes to the core of our constitutional system, and I call on my colleagues to protect our authority and State officials to safeguard theirs because it is a matter of our democracy, our freedom, and our right to vote.

I note that my colleague Senator Padilla is here. I started this floor bloc, but I am proud that he and I have worked together on enlisting our colleagues. He is a major champion of election rights. He is one of the leaders in our body that has worked zealously to protect that right, and I am proud to be standing here with him in this cause.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I would have hoped that the basic operation of American democracy and particularly the basic integrity of America's elections would not be a topic that we would have to come to the Senate floor to worry about, but the character down the road in the Oval Office is making all sorts of threats to the cornerstone of America's democracy--our elections.

I will mention three. First, he nonstop lies about rigged elections. He can't bear to face the fact that Joe Biden beat him by millions of votes fair and square, and so he invented a story of rigged elections.

Well, as has repeatedly been shown, if any election has been rigged recently, it was Donald Trump's first election, where study after study, report after report showed that Russia had been messing around in that election, using covert influence operations to influence American voters and steer them towards their favorite--Donald Trump.

But the lying about rigged elections is a bit of a warning sign because the other thing we have learned about Trump is that his accusations tend to be actual confessions. The bad stuff that he intends to do he announces by accusing others of doing the same thing. So when people notice the mischief that he is up to, he says: Well, everybody does it. That doesn't make it anything other than a lie.

Then he has been out, bullying Republican States, to try to get him more seats in Congress by doing a midseason gerrymandering of their States. This succeeded, kind of, in Texas. When I say it succeeded ``kind of,'' it succeeded in the sense that they got the gerrymandered districts.

But here is the rub: When you gerrymander more Republican districts into a State, you make the freeboard--the win ratio--for each of those districts a little bit less.

And if yesterday was any message, Republicans need to worry about a wave election washing away Trump's poison and nonsense. In a wave election, those gerrymandered districts that you thought you had moved into the Republican column could get sunk in the wave.

In particular, we have already seen from yesterday's results--more analysis will follow--that it looks like Latino voters, important in Texas, are abandoning Trump. So it may be that Texas's gerrymandering blows up in its face, and wouldn't that be a nice turnabout?

Maybe that is what Republicans in Indiana were thinking when they refused to gerrymander their State. They might well be looking at Texas and saying: You know, voters in Texas might actually have cared more about electric bills, about their homeowners' insurance crisis, about their cost of living, and wanted Texan legislators to do something about that, instead of going off on a partisan gallivant to redistrict the State. And those voters might just hold those Republicans accountable for choosing as their priority to use gerrymandering so that politicians can choose their voters instead of paying attention to the voters who want help with costs, who want their homeowners' insurance problems solved, who are concerned about their electric utility bills, and who are sick to death about what is happening with grocery costs.

The third avenue of attack on elections by Trump is that he is modeling government election interference in front of our faces right now. When you send the National Guard into American cities, when you deploy masked, plain-clothed, presumably ICE agents to yank people off the street and fling them into unmarked vans and disappear them, you are getting people used to images that Americans are not used to. You are inoculating Americans against that kind of abuse of both military and law enforcement capabilities so that, when it is election day and that kind of nonsense takes place around polling places to discourage voters, we have gotten used to it.

So the lying--the constant lying--about rigged elections, the bullying--the constant bullying--to force State legislatures to gerrymander even though that is not what their voters want, and the constant modeling of government interference in elections--all of that is a signal that we have to be on our guard to protect our democracy.

It is not just Trump. In doing this, Trump has allies. He has allies on the packed and captured Supreme Court--a Court that Republicans packed and captured specifically to help their big, creepy billionaire donors acquire more power in American democracy. And, boy, have we seen enough creepy billionaire power in American democracy: dark money--the secret, sneaky dark money floods that are poisoning our elections, that allow billionaires to channel multimillion-dollar contributions into races by hiding behind front groups and screens and super-PACs so that voters can't do their duty as citizens of figuring out who is telling them what because the loudest and noisiest and most prolific messages are coming from behind masked entities.

It was one of the dirtiest deeds ever done to our democracy, and it was done by the Roberts Court: voter suppression, making sure that White legislatures could discourage Black and Latino voters by changing the rules for when you can vote and how you can vote. We passed a Voting Rights Act in the Congress to stop that kind of behavior, and this Supreme Court--the Roberts Court--has been diligently pulling out, piece by piece, those Voting Rights Act protections.

When they do, what happens? Instantly, those southern legislatures go to work to make it harder and harder for minorities to vote. Hundreds of bills get filed.

Third, when they were confronted with partisan gerrymandering-- distorting Americans' right to vote by letting politicians pick voters, instead of voters picking politicians--they said: Oh, well, that is all fine. We are not going to look into any of that. Courts are not allowed to look into whether gerrymandering is legal or illegal, constitutional or unconstitutional.

Those three decisions of flooding our elections with corrupting dark money, letting State legislatures make it harder for certain people to vote whom

they don't want voting, and gerrymandering districts against the will of the public--people hate gerrymandering--those three things have collectively done immense damage to our democracy, and those bad decisions are going to play out in this coming election.

I will close with a point about all three of those cases.

The Citizens United case that let filthy, unlimited dark money pollute our elections, the Shelby case that tore down an essential element of the Voting Rights Act, and the Rucho case that allowed uncontrolled, partisan gerrymandering--all three of them share a very important characteristic in common, and that is that they hang on a false fact. To get where the Court wanted to go, those Republican appointees had to make up a false fact that the decision hung on.

In Citizens United, it was that all the unlimited money would be transparent. Well, we know that was false. Every billion dollars in dark money that falls into our elections proves that was false.

In Shelby, it was that things have changed. You didn't need to worry about southern legislatures trying to keep Democratic voters from showing up. But you saw that that was false because all of those laws were immediately passed to suppress voters.

And in the Rucho case, it was that courts can't figure out gerrymandering stuff; it is just too complicated. But, in fact, courts were figuring it out. It is not even that hard to figure out. The Court just made up, falsely, that this was too hard.

When a court is making up false facts to get to an outcome that it wants, that is not a sign of great integrity in those proceedings.

So we have a lot to worry about, and we have more to worry about after yesterday because last night showed that voters do not like what Trump and his Republican cohorts here in the House and the Senate are doing to our country. This was a small wave, and with any luck, it is building to a bigger wave. Instead of adjusting to popular opinion, what we know they are going to do is to try to use even more tools to corrupt democracy, corrupt elections, and defeat our ability to have the American people decide who they want to lead them at the polls. That is the predicament we are in, and it requires us to be on high alert.

I yield the floor.