Floor Statements

Madam President, I have a profound reverence for life and an abiding respect for choice. I believe a patient's room is too small a place for a patient, her doctor, and the Federal Government. Healthcare decisions should be made by a patient in consultation with their doctor. It is important to me that every person, no matter race, gender, creed, or socioeconomic status, has access to affordable healthcare. This includes family planning and reproductive services. Regretfully, I was unable to cast my vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to Calendar No. 139, H.R. 3755, Women's Health Protection Act, on February 28, 2022. Had I been present, however, I would have proudly voted yes to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 3755.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Amen.

That is right. That is right.

Madam Vice President, we have been summoned here by history. This is not just another routine day in the Senate. This is a moral moment in America.

I recall the words of that great American patriot and prophet, Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday all of us just observed. As he agonized over the difficulty and complexity of that moral moment, Dr. King said: ``History has thrust something upon me from which I cannot turn away.'' We have been summoned here, all of us. We cannot turn away.

This is no time for politics as usual. The times cry out for moral leadership, for integrity, for empathy, and for care for one another, for deep investment in the covenant that we have with one another as an American people. ``E pluribus unum,'' out of many, one--what a grand doctrine, what a noble idea, which our country has been striving to reach with fits and starts with setbacks and comebacks since the day of its founding.

This is one of those moments. We cannot turn away. We cannot hide from history. And I am truly honored to stand here with all of you, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, in this moment. And on this, my 365th day as a Member of the U.S. Senate, the most consequential deliberative body on the planet, striving, again, for greatness.

I was elected from Georgia on January 5--what an honor to represent the people of the State of Georgia and what a great Nation, a kid from the Kayton Homes Housing Projects, the first college graduate in my family of 12. My folks are both preachers. They read the Scriptures: ``Be fruitful and multiply.'' But this kid who grew up in poverty is now serving in the U.S. Senate, only the 11th Black Senator in the whole history of our Nation. Also during that same time, Georgia also elected its first Jewish Senator, my brother Jon Ossoff.

I believe that somewhere, in glory, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel are smiling because they marched together. Rabbi

Heschel said that when he marched with Dr. King, he felt like his legs were praying.

So what a moment. I won after a hard-fought election, and the next morning, I was feeling pretty good. My mother, who grew up in Waycross, GA, picking cotton as a teenager, had joined with other Georgians in record voter turnout, and the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton helped to pick her youngest son to be a U.S. Senator. Only in America is my story even possible.

I was on several of the morning shows talking about what the people of Georgia had achieved, and I was feeling pretty good that morning. Man, I was on ``The View'' talking to Whoopi Goldberg. But by lunchtime, the news alerts on my phone began to buzz. Something was happening in the Capitol. And we all know the rest of that sad and tragic story: a violent assault on our Nation's Capitol driven by the Big Lie, ugly words, signs and symbols of racism and anti-Semitism, an effort to stop the legal certification of an election.

In spite of those who want to hide, sadly, January 6 really did happen, and we must face up to it. We cannot hide from history. January 6 happened. But here is the thing: January 5 also happened. Georgia, a State in the old Confederacy, sent a Black man and a Jewish man to the Senate in one fell swoop.

Our Nation has always had a complicated history, and I submit to you that here is where we are. We are swinging from a moral dilemma. We are caught somewhere between January 5 and January 6, between our hopes and our fears, between bigotry and beloved community. In each moment, we the people have to decide which way are we going to go and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to get there.

The question today is, Are we going to give in to a violent attack whose aim is now being pursued through partisan voter suppression laws in State legislatures?

Sadly, Georgia, the same Georgia that sent me and my brother, Ossoff, to the Senate--not the people of Georgia; partisan State politicians have decided to punish their own citizens for having the audacity to show up.

It isn't just about the restrictions around water and food distribution. The more fundamental question is, Why are the lines so long in the first place, and why is that the case in certain communities?

I know that some Americans listening to me right now don't know what we mean because that is not your experience, but it is the experience of so many of your fellow Americans. We need empathy, compassion, care for one another.

Why are local election officials working in Lincoln County, GA, to close all but one polling location for a county that is bigger than 250 square miles? Why is the second most powerful legislator in the Georgia State Senate working right now to pass legislation to eliminate all ballot drop boxes in Georgia in the middle of a pandemic? Why are State leaders in Georgia right now working to take over the local elections board in Fulton County, where Ebenezer Baptist Church sits?

There is a woman in Cobb County named Irish. She says she has tried repeatedly over the past 10 years to vote but could not because of long lines and changing polling locations--people playing games. She said that she has often had to decide if she will work or vote.

Another woman, Varana, from Cobb County says that she waited in line for 8 hours in the rain at her local library--8 hours--to vote.

I run into constituents all the time who tell me that they waited for hours to vote for me. I am honored that they voted for me, but I am sad that they should have to wait for 8 hours.

A student in Atlanta named Isabella says that she and many of her friends could not vote in the November 2020 election because they did not want to skip class to stand in line.

Why are State leaders in Georgia behaving as if giving voters these awful choices is normal or that voters like these Georgians don't exist?

Those are the facts of the laws that are being passed in Georgia and across our Nation.

So here is the question tonight: America, are we January 5 or are we January 6? Are we going to give in to the forces that seek to divide us by gerrymandering us, suppressing us, and subverting the voices of some of us in pursuit of power at any cost, or are we going to live up to that grand American covenant ``e pluribus unum''--``out of many, one''? I choose what Dr. King called ``beloved community.'' I choose America. I choose a nation that embraces all of us.

We have been summoned here. We cannot turn away. In just a few moments, all 100 of us, blessed with a sacred trust, will let the American people know where we stand on the question of whether the Senate will protect their voices, the voices of the very people who sent us here, or if we will simply surrender to the anti-democratic fervor and polarizing disunity spreading across our Nation.

In the meantime, let me say that I am glad that we are finally actually having a debate on the Senate floor. Imagine that. The Senate--what is that?--the most important deliberative body--is actually having a debate. It took us nearly a year to get to this point, and I want to thank my colleagues who worked with me and others over the last many months to keep this critical issue on the Senate's front burner.

Voting rights are preservative of all other rights. The democracy is the framework in which all other debates take place. We can strengthen our infrastructure and the infrastructure of our democracy at the same time. If we can change the rules to raise the debt ceiling, we can change the rules to raise and repair the ceiling of our democracy. This is our work.

So we have crafted a strong piece of compromise legislation that will address the rampant voter suppression and election subversion laws we are seeing passed in State after State after State--19 so far and counting. The Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act will restore bedrock voting protections established by the Voting Rights Act of 1965-- protections that have been eroded by the Supreme Court and are born from an era where Members of this body used to work together to solve the tough issues of our time. It will also set a Federal baseline for voting standards to ensure every eligible voter has access to the ballot, no matter where they live, and to protect elections from subversion by craven politicians.

Voting rights should be bipartisan; used to be bipartisan; passed this body the last time 98 to 0 and signed into law by George W. Bush, a Republican President.

I know that my colleagues and I have worked in good faith this past year, this entire year. We have worked hard to try to find some common ground with our Republican friends on this issue.

I have said to my colleagues: Let us bring these measures to the floor to debate. Let's reason. Let's deliberate.

I had hoped our friends on the other side would have allowed us to have a debate on voting rights legislation, but until today, that is what they have blocked three times in the Senate. They didn't block the bills; they blocked our ability to even have debate on the bills.

As a pastor, I understand the power and the possibility of coming together with those with whom we disagree to have a robust debate on the issues that are important to families and to our country. I share with many of you, I am sure, a vision of the Senate that collaborates and negotiates on the most important issues of our time.

I believe in bipartisanship, but when it comes to something as fundamental as voting rights, I just have to ask: Bipartisanship at what cost? Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship? And is liberty itself the cost? I submit that that is a cost too high and a bridge too far.

I am deeply saddened that our Republican colleagues chose not to join us in this effort. Democrats would prefer not to act alone, but, by all means, we have to act. Even if we don't get it done tonight, we have to keep working at it until we get it done.

Dr. King's words are as true now as they were back then: ``History has thrust something upon me from which I cannot turn away.'' He said: ``Justice delayed is justice denied.''

Now, I know that I have been speaking a lot over the course of the last

year about voting rights, and it is one of my--one of my--primary passions. But I am thrilled to work for Georgians to close the Medicaid coverage gap in our State; to create new, good-paying jobs in growing and emerging industries; to strengthen broadband across our State; and more. I am thrilled to fight for these priorities for Georgia because that is what Georgians sent me here to do, but they sent me with their votes.

How can we have productive conversations about the many issues affecting the American people--about lowering healthcare costs, about creating good-paying jobs, about fighting climate change, protecting reproductive healthcare--if politicians in States get to cherry-pick their voters and the people's voices are squeezed out of their democracy? How can we achieve real consensus on the issues that matter most if only some voters can be heard?

Taking action to pass voting rights legislation is not a policy argument; it is about the democracy itself. Voting rights is how we address the deepening divides in our country, by ensuring every eligible voter's voice is heard. We, as elected representatives, have an obligation to protect their voice.

So when it comes to the question of procedure and the filibuster, let me be clear: I believe that voting rights are more important than a procedural rule, and if taking action requires a change in the rules, then it is time to change the rules.

When the times changed, we have always changed the rules--160 times.

And as we consider the filibuster, the name of the Senator from West Virginia, Robert Byrd, inevitably comes up. His is an important perspective, but we shouldn't quote him as if he is Scripture. In fact, he didn't always get it right. He said his greatest regret was filibustering the 1964 civil rights bill. Robert Byrd learned from history. Will we?

As I continue on what may feel like a filibuster, some point to Senate procedure, while others recycle excuses we heard before. But as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, I also know that all of these arguments against taking the moral action we are called to take are distractions.

Consider this. There are some things you can do in this Chamber with just 51 votes: confirm a Supreme Court nominee, 51; pass trillions of dollars in investments for our communities, 51; pass massive tax cuts, mainly for the richest of the rich, 51; confirm Cabinet nominees, 51; raise the debt ceiling--we found a way to do it the other week--51. But it takes 60 votes to repair the ceiling of our democracy by passing voting rights legislation.

I am left to conclude that if the issue is important enough, the Senate feels compelled to act. Well, let me say that I believe that the democracy is at least as important as the economy. Recently, many of our colleagues have argued that legislation to protect voting rights somehow offends our Federal system of government and amounts, they say, to a Federal takeover of elections.

Some of the same voices, ironically, who have extolled Dr. King's life this week have, at the same time, been working vigorously against the legislation we are debating today to protect the right to vote, and many of them have been channeling old States' rights arguments.

Let the message go out. You cannot remember Martin Luther King, Jr., and dismember his legacy at the same time. You can argue whatever side you want, but you do not get to argue both sides. I will not sit quietly while some make Dr. King a victim of identity theft. You do not get to offer praises and plaudits in memory of Dr. King and then marshal the same kind of States' rights arguments that were used against Dr. King and against the civil rights movement.

Please know that as the pastor of Dr. King's church, this argument evokes, I say really respectfully--it evokes--some of the darkest moments in our country's long struggle for equality.

When the Supreme Court ruled that school segregation was unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, after a century of Jim Crow laws, Arkansas Governor Orval Fabus did not argue that he supported segregation at all costs. He, instead, claimed that obeying the Brown decision amounted to a ``surrender'' of ``all our rights,'' he said, ``as citizens to an all powerful Federal autocracy.''

When Senator Strom Thurmond launched the longest filibuster in the United States, against a bill to protect voting rights, he didn't argue explicitly that Black people didn't deserve to vote. He, instead, claimed that it was ``unlawful and unconstitutional'' for Congress to regulate the elections of the States.

And during the Senate's 60-day debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the closing argument of the bill's opponents--led and articulated by Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell--was that it would ``strike down and destroy many rights and powers which, since the foundation of our government have properly belonged to several States.''

Let's be very clear about this legislation. The States will continue to administer their elections. And, of course, States have certain rights. Do we genuinely believe that States have a right to discriminate, to suppress, or to block access to ballot boxes for so many Americans?

Although we are 50 unique States, we are also united as one Republic, and what happens in one State can affect us all. When we elect our U.S. Senators and our U.S. Representatives, and when we elect the President, we must represent all Americans; we need every vote to count to maintain the integrity of our democracy. And so we must do this work.

I support reforming the Electoral Count Act. That said, reforming the Electoral Count Act will do virtually nothing to address the sweeping voter suppression and election subversion efforts taking place in Georgia and in States and localities nationwide. It doesn't matter if your votes are properly counted if you cannot cast your vote in the first place.

And so, as I close, I want to appeal to all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, not just as a colleague but as a pastor and as a man of faith. The American people have sent us here, and history has summoned us to this moment. We cannot hide. Whatever the outcome tonight, I still believe in us. I believe in the U.S. I believe in us. I believe that democracy is the political enactment of a spiritual idea, that we are all children of God and therefore we all ought to have a voice in the direction of our country and our destiny within it. I believe that a vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children and that our prayers are stronger when we pray together.

A young Martin Luther King, Jr., struggled all those years ago, and he said: ``History has thrust something upon me from which I cannot turn away.'' Those of us who are students of Dr. King--I know I have-- often wonder: What would I have done if I were alive during the civil rights movement? I know we would all like to think that we, too, would have had just a small fraction--just a fraction--of the courage that it took for John Lewis to cross that Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Well, for those of us who are fortunate enough to have served in the U.S. Senate in this moment--in this moral moment--we do not have to wonder. My God, he faced troopers on the other side, crossing that bridge. We are talking about a procedural bridge. We don't have to wonder what we would have done. I submit that what we would have done back then we are doing right now. History is watching us. Our children are counting on us. And I hope that we will have the courage to do what is right for our communities and for our country, the courage to cross this bridge, to do the hard work in this defining moral moment in America for the sake of the communities that sent us here in the first place--for the sake of the planet, for the sake of healthcare, for the sake of jobs, for the sake of being able to argue for the things that we care about--the courage to fight for one another.

I am still praying that we will cross that bridge, but, if not tonight, we will come back again and again and again.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to honor a friend, our late Senator from Georgia, my predecessor, Senator Johnny Isakson.

I mourn this great loss with the rest of Georgia and people all across our Nation, and since his passing, I know I have joined many of you in reflecting on the countless memories and moments that we shared with Johnny Isakson.

Without a doubt, Senator Isakson cared deeply for Georgia, and he cared deeply for our country. He was a patriot, a public servant, and there are members of my staff, I am proud to say, who used to work for Johnny, and they will tell you that he never hesitated to show up.

I often talk in my other job about the ministry of presence. Sometimes, half a job is to show up, and he knew how to show up for people, whether it was paying a visit to an ill patient, the ill parent of a staffer, or seeing a disabled veteran.

Senator Isakson dedicated years of service to our beloved State, to our veterans, our families, and our children.

He always made it a point to join us at the Ebenezer Baptist Church for the annual service and commemoration of Martin Luther King, Jr. I always smile when I consider the fact that he showed up. A lot of politicians showed up. He always stayed for the whole service, and, I will tell you, it is no short service. But Senator Isakson was there the whole time as we recognized and celebrated Georgia's greatest son, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Johnny Isakson was my friend. In fact, when this country elected its first Black President, he recognized the historic significance, although he was in a different party. He called me on the phone. He thought I might want to be there. So I witnessed in person the inauguration--the first inauguration--of Barack Obama as a guest of Johnny Isakson.

And then, a few years later, when we were at a flash point--a flash point of division in this country--and there were some, as we were approaching a State of the Union Address, who were saying we should not have the same kind of partisan scene where one side stands up and the other one sits down, that we ought to try to find the ways in which we are connected, and the folks who work here will all try to find somebody. You all might remember that. Johnny Isakson reached out to me, and I was his guest sitting in the House, witnessing for the first time in person a State of the Union address. And the very first time I stood on the floor of this Chamber, I came as Johnny Isakson's guest, as Chaplain of the day, opening the Senate in prayer.

He was my friend, which is why I was not surprised when he called me up and he said: Raphael, I am retiring. I want to say good-bye, and I want to come by your church.

So on a Sunday morning, Senator Isakson and his wife and other members of his family came by. We enjoyed conversation in my office, and then I shortened my sermon that morning so he could say hello to the people of Ebenezer. He left a gift to support our ministry to veterans because he was so committed to those who give so much for our freedom.

Johnny Isakson always showed up, and he was unafraid to work across ideological differences, political differences, in our State and our country. I will never forget that example of public service.

So this morning, with great appreciation and admiration for Senator Johnny Isakson--for a friend--I introduced a bipartisan resolution with Senator Ossoff, honoring the life and the legacy of Senator Isakson, that is cosponsored now by all of my 99 Senate colleagues.

He brings us together in death the same way he did in life. He is a model of public service, an example to future generations of leaders on how to stand on principle to make progress, while also governing with compassion and a heart for compromise.

I hope we can all remember the lessons of Senator Isakson's service, always looking for ways to make friends, to move our State and Nation forward, and, when that doesn't work, looking for how we can make, as he called it, ``future friends.''

I bring these lessons and other advice Senator Isakson gave me to my work for Georgia here in the Senate. I am already looking forward to next year's bipartisan barbecue which Senator Isakson started and we carried on this year in his honor.

I look forward to continuing to work with all of my colleagues--all of them--for the love of the people we serve and the spirit of our beloved friend, Senator Johnny Isakson. May my predecessor and friend live forever in our hearts and spirits. He was an upstanding elected official and an even better man.

Blessed are they who die in the Lord's sense of spirit, for they rest from their labors, and their deeds do follow them.

God bless his memory and bless his family with the peace of God that surpasses human understanding.

Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 484, submitted earlier today.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Sherif R. Zaki, an exceptional leader at the CDC who passed away on November 21, 2021.

Dr. Zaki, who joined the CDC in 1988, was the founder and branch chief of CDC's Infectious Disease Pathology Branch, IDPB. During his tenure at CDC, Dr. Zaki's vision and determination took the pathology laboratory to the forefront of the Agency's work in responding to public health threats posed by various infectious disease agents and established this team to be as one of the most highly respected infectious disease pathology laboratories in the world.

Dr. Zaki was an internationally recognized expert in infectious disease pathology, whose work over the past several decades transformed CDC's approach to the integration of pathology

as a core component of outbreak investigations. The rigorous and innovative laboratory work carried out by his team has advanced infectious disease experts' knowledge of many pathogens and their role in the human disease process. These included investigations of hantavirus, leptospirosis, West Nile virus, anthrax, SARS coronaviruses, avian and human influenza viruses, Ebola virus, Zika virus, and numerous transplant-associated infections, to name only a few. As an author of hundreds of publications and numerous textbook chapters, he is widely considered to be among the most influential infectious disease pathologists of his generation.

As chief of IDPB, Dr. Zaki is widely recognized for his personal leadership, scientific contributions, and commitment to CDC's public health mission. Among his many awards are the HHS Secretary's Awards for Distinguished Service, which he received nine times and is the highest honor at HHS. Known and respected for his humbleness, Dr. Zaki was uncomfortable with personal accolades and always quick to point to the efforts of his IDPB colleagues and others. Dr. Zaki was a generous teacher and mentor of younger scientists, friends, and former colleagues.

My prayers are with Dr. Zaki's wife Nadia, his two children, and friends during this difficult time. I am grateful for his dedication at the CDC, and I am honored to recognize his extraordinary contributions today.

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

Madam President, I come to the floor today after a long week of wrestling with my conscience. Before we left Washington last week, we in this Chamber made a change in the Senate's rules in order to push forward something that all of us think is important. We set the stage to raise the Nation's debt ceiling.

Yet as we cast that vote to begin addressing the debt ceiling, this same Chamber is allowing the ceiling of our democracy to crash in around us. The American people have been pushing for leaders in Washington to address voting rights.

Everywhere I turn, I have been hearing from my constituents in Georgia. They are deeply worried. I heard it all weekend. I have been hearing it over the last several months.

And I submit that they are worried for good reason. They know their history. They are witnessing what is happening to our democracy in real time, and they see the handwriting on the wall. They see the sweeping voter suppression proposals in 49 States and the dozens of new laws that have now popped up across the Nation, fueled by the Big Lie that seeks to delegitimize the voices of millions of Georgians and Americans who made their voices heard, made history, and, more importantly, made a difference last November and last January.

The American people see what is happening in Arizona and in Texas and in Florida and in Wisconsin and in Iowa. They see what is happening in Georgia, my home State, where a new law, SB 202--passed right after I won--will make it harder for some voters to access their ballots by making it more difficult to vote by mail, allowing far fewer drop boxes, and only allowing for the use of those boxes--listen--during business hours. You can use the drop boxes during business hours, which sort of defeats the purpose of having a drop box. In fact, back home, the second most senior Republican in the Georgia State Senate announced recently that he wants to do away with election drop boxes altogether-- literal boxes where registered, eligible voters simply can drop off their ballots on their way to the night shift or on their way back home. It seems to me that they want fewer voters and more dark money in our elections, and that is the sad place we are in right now.

But what is even more disconcerting is that these politicians in the State legislature have already laid the tracks to take over local boards of elections, for almost any frivolous reason, to undermine the voices of local voters and local election administrators, control the count, muddy the waters, question or determine the outcome.

In the face of this crisis, the question is this: Has this Chamber risen to the occasion to take on the issue of voting rights, which I submit is the central moral issue confronting this Congress in this moment? What have we done to strengthen access to the ballot as bedrock voting rights protections have been shredded by our courts or to protect the sacred right to vote as partisan State legislatures have passed laws to dilute that right for so many people?

Well, some of us have acted. Democrats in this body have tried not once, not twice, but we have tried this Congress on three occasions to consider legislation to protect and expand voting rights so that more eligible Americans can make their voices heard and help shape the direction of our country. Each time--whether it was the For the People Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act or the Freedom to Vote Act--with just one lone exception, all of our friends across the aisle have refused to engage with us in any way to address the growing barriers to what is basic to American democracy: the ballot box.

Here is what we have said. We have said to our Republican friends: If you don't like this provision or that provision, let's talk about it. Offer some amendments. Come, let us reason together. Let us have a debate out in the open so that the American people can hear it.

Everybody talks about the divisions in America right now. Here is what folks on the left and the right agree on: There is something awry in our democracy. In this moment in which there is this debate happening on the outside, how is it that we refuse to even have a debate in the Senate? They don't even want to have a debate.

So here we are. Months have passed. No, that is not true--years have passed. Democrats have tried again and again to engage our Republican friends in a discussion on this issue--one that lies at the foundation of our democracy--and time and time again, because of a lack of good- faith engagement, the rules of the Senate have prevented us from moving that conversation forward.

We could not imagine changing the rules--that is, until last week, because last week, we did exactly that. Be very clear. Last week, we changed the rules of the Senate to address another important issue: the economy. This is a step--a change in the Senate rules--we haven't been willing to take to save our broken democracy but one that a bipartisan majority of this Chamber thought was necessary in order to keep our economy strong. We changed the rules to protect the full faith and credit of the U.S. Government. We have decided we must do it for the economy but not for the democracy.

I will be honest. This has been a difficult week for me as I pondered how am I going to vote on this debt ceiling question we are about to take. I feel like I am being asked to take a road that is a point of moral dissonance for me because while I deeply believe that both our democracy and our economy are important, I believe that it is misplaced to change the Senate rules only for the benefit of the economy when the warning lights on our democracy are flashing at the same time.

I happen to believe that our democracy is at least as important as the economy. Ours is a great nation built upon both free enterprise and free exercise of basic democratic rights. You cannot have good capitalism without freedom. Each is strengthened by the other, and together they make for a nation that is both prosperous and free, a nation where everybody can breathe and every child has a chance to live up to her highest potential.

So I stand here because of my children. I have two precious children, and I think every day what kind of country I want them to grow up in. I stand here today because we are in a place where we are dealing with the consequence of misaligned values and misplaced priorities, and that is, for me, a serious problem because I lead Ebenezer Baptist Church, where John Lewis worshipped and where Dr. King preached. I asked myself all weekend as I wrestled with how I would vote--I asked myself, what would Dr. King do?

I thought this week about Dr. King's speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial--no, not the 1963 ``I Have a Dream'' speech but the one he gave the first time he spoke in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1957, where he addressed

what he called ``all types of conniving methods'' that were getting in the way of the free exercise of the constitutional right to vote. His rallying cry that day in 1957 was ``Give Us the Ballot.''

In light of the conniving methods of voter suppression we have seen enacted into law since the January 6 attack on the Capitol, I come to the floor today to share with the people of Georgia and the American people the message that I shared with my colleagues over the weekend and earlier today during our caucus meeting.

I said to my Democratic colleagues over the last several days--No. 1--unfortunately, the vast majority of our Republican friends have made it clear that they have no intention of trying to work with us to address voter suppression or to protect voting rights. They have embodied by their actions the sentiments of conservative strategist Paul Weyrich, who dared say in 1981: ``I don't want everybody to vote.'' That is what he said. ``Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact,'' he went on to say, ``our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.''

The second thing I said to my Democratic colleagues today is that while we cannot let our Republican friends off the hook for not being equitable governing partners, if we are serious about protecting the right to vote that is under assault right now, here is the truth: It will fall to Democrats to do it. If Democrats alone must raise the debt ceiling, then Democrats alone must raise and repair the ceiling of our democracy. How do we in good conscience justify doing one and not the other?

Some of my Democratic colleagues are saying: But what about bipartisanship? Isn't that important?

I say: Of course it is, but here is the thing we must remember. Slavery was bipartisan. Jim Crow's segregation was bipartisan. The refusal of women's suffrage was bipartisan. The denial of the basic dignity of members of the LGBTQ community has long been bipartisan. The Three-fifths Compromise was the creation of a putative national unity at the expense of Black people's basic humanity.

So when colleagues in this Chamber talk to me about bipartisanship, which I believe in, I just have to ask, at whose expense? Who is being asked to foot the bill for this bipartisanship, and is liberty itself the cost? I submit that is a price too high and a bridge too far.

So I struggled this weekend. I talked to folk I believe in. Among them, I spoke with Reverend Ambassador Andrew Young, who was with Dr. King until the very end, about this vote. I talked to Ambassador Young, and I asked him: What do you think?

He said: I try not to worry, but I am worried about our country.

Then this 89-year-old, battle-worn soldier in the nonviolent army of the Lord drew silent on the phone, and then he said to me: Tell your colleagues that among your constituent are people who literally laid their lives on the line for the basic right to vote. They lost friends. They lost so much.

And so this is a real moral quandary for me, and it makes it difficult for me to cast this vote today. But after many conversations with colleagues, with Georgians, with experts who know the economy, with voting rights advocates, and civil rights leaders, I will, indeed, vote today with anguish. I will vote to raise the debt ceiling.

I am voting yes because I am thinking about the kids in the Kayton Homes Housing Projects where I grew up in Savannah, GA. I am thinking about the hard-working families pushing to recover from the pressures of this pandemic, those on the margins and those who are least resilient, for whom a collapse of the economy would be catastrophic. Ironically, many of these are the same people who are also being targeted by the voter suppression efforts I mentioned earlier. I am thinking of them and the people of Georgia as I cast my vote today to raise the debt ceiling.

But I am also thinking about what we need to do to keep our democracy and our economy strong today and for the next generation. Once we handle the debt ceiling, the Senate needs to make voting rights the very next issue we take up. We must do voting rights, and we must deal with this issue now.

Let me be clear. I am so proud of what we did with the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the major economic investments we are putting the finishing touches on that will close the Medicaid coverage gap and deliver historic relief for Georgia farmers and expand broadband access and so much more.

I have to tell you that the most important thing that we can do in this Congress is to get voting rights done. Voting rights are preservative of all other rights. They lay the ground for all of the other debates.

So to my Democratic colleagues, I say, while it is deeply unfortunate, it is more than apparent that it has been left to us to handle alone the task of safeguarding our democracy. Sadly, many of our Republican friends have already cast their vote with voter suppression.

So the judgment of history is upon us. Future generations will ask when the democracy was in a 9-1-1 state of emergency, what did you do to put the fire out? Did we rise to the moment or did we hide behind procedural rules? I believe that we Democrats can figure out how to get this done, even if that requires a change in the rules, which we established just last week that we can do when the issue is important enough.

Well, the people of Georgia and across the country are saying that voting rights are important enough. I think that voting rights are important enough so we cannot delay. We must continue to urge the party of Lincoln not to give into the very forces of voter suppression that Dr. King described in that 1957 speech while standing in the shadow of Lincoln. But even as we do that, we cannot wait. We cannot wait on them. With uncanny and eerie relevance, Dr. King's words summon us to this very moment. He said:

The hour is late. The clock of destiny is ticking out. We

must act now before it is too late.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, today I have the distinct privilege and honor to recognize Kobye Noel for over two decades of faithful and unwavering service to the U.S. Senate.

Kobye, a native of the Old Line State, has held the line during 23 years of service to the Senate, always striving for equity, transparency, and diligence in all she does. From her time on the Democratic Policy Committee supporting the work of Leader Harry Reid that would lead to our country's most recent budget surplus, to her work as a staffer on the Senate Budget Committee supporting the committee's work to pass the Affordable Health Care Act, ushering in a new era of healthcare in our country, Kobye has never wavered in her commitment to this body or to helping the American people.

When not working on committee, Kobye has served a host of Senators including Senator Doug Jones of Alabama, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Senator Ossoff of Georgia. I am especially grateful Kobye and her wealth of experience has been able to serve on my staff as mail manager for the past 10 months. In her time overseeing our office's correspondence, we have sent over 200,000 correspondence messages to Georgians, updating them on the issues and legislation critically important to their lives.

It is written that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. I congratulate Kobye on retirement with such distinguished service and wish her a bountiful harvest for all of her labor on behalf of the U.S. Senate and the people of Georgia.

Mr. President, as a proud son of the great State of Georgia and a voice for our State here in this Chamber, I am deeply honored to join my colleagues here today to introduce this important legislation in honor of one of Georgia's and America's most influential public servants.

I am grateful for the comments of Senator Blumenthal, and I want to thank Senator Leahy and all of my colleagues for their leadership in introducing this bill that carries on the legacy of Congressman Lewis's pivotal

work to protect the sacred right to vote.

John Lewis was my parishioner, and as I stand in support of this legislation named in his honor, I think of the many conversations I had with him over the years. I think of the Sunday mornings we boarded a bus, taking souls to the polls because I believe that voting, as he did, is a sacred undertaking. At root, it is about people's voice. And in that sense, it is about one's humanity.

I learned so much from Congressman Lewis and the lessons from his lived experiences working deep in the trenches to defend and advance voting rights. He laid it all on the line. When President Johnson took his pen and signed this legislation, making it law in a real sense, what he etched had already been affirmed in blood--the risk that John Lewis took, the ultimate sacrifice that others made as they lost their lives fighting for the vote, the voice, the humanity of every child of God.

And one of the most important tools that came out of that activism, that came out of that human sacrifice--one of the most important tools in this legislation is the process of preclearance. This process required that jurisdictions with a proven history of voting rights violations get approval from the Department of Justice or our Federal courts before making changes to local voting administration.

And, for decades, this was the tool that helped enfranchise countless voters, ensuring that they would have access to the ballot to exercise their constitutional right, and it kept some of the worst voter suppression efforts at bay.

And then, in 2013, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, asked the Congress to update the coverage formula that determines which States are subject to preclearance. The Supreme Court said that this preclearance formula had somehow been outdated and Congress ought to bring it up to date. That is what they asked us to do in 2013.

Since then, Congress has been unwilling to act. Preclearance has been allowed to atrophy. And we have seen the results not only in Georgia, but in Texas, in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, all across our country. Earlier this year in Georgia, State leaders enacted a voter suppression law that will undoubtedly make it harder for some people to vote. If the tool of preclearance were in place right now, SB202 in Georgia likely would not even be on the books.

I think of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion. When that decision came down, she said:

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is

continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like

throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are

not getting wet.

We threw away our umbrella, and we have found ourselves in the midst of a torrential rainstorm. Voter suppression laws are mushrooming all over the country. We are witnessing right now what happens to our democracy without the protections of preclearance and the other vital provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The lack of robust voting rights protections has ramifications for every American, as we have seen efforts ramp up this year at passing sweeping, State-level voter suppression laws--not laws that only impact Black people and people of color, to be sure, but also students, seniors, whomever certain politicians are afraid of will somehow get in the way of their craven march to power.

And so this bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is about Congress finally doing its job--finally doing what the Supreme Court asked us to do in 2013. It should have been done a long time ago.

The updated Voting Rights Advancement Act we are introducing today restores the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It strengthens our democracy by reestablishing preclearance, and it makes it better by updating it to also protect against specific practices we know suppress the vote, like polling place closures and new types of voter roll purges happening not only in the South, but all over the country.

Our bill also restores Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect minority communities from discriminatory voting practices after the Supreme Court diminished Section 2 earlier this year.

Mr. President, just like the Freedom to Vote Act me and many of my colleagues introduced just a few weeks ago to set national standards for voting so every eligible voice is heard, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act we introduce today is designed to meet future challenges and address additional antidemocratic efforts aimed at suppressing the vote all over our country.

Since I was elected on January 5, since that terrible day on January 6, when this very Capitol was assaulted, we have seen more than 400 proposals in 49 States. So the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act builds for us a fire station to protect against future fires, but the house of democracy is already on fire. And so we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but we also need the Freedom to Vote Act. We have got to put out the fire. We have got to build a fire station for future fires.

Mr. President, I know there is a lot on our plate, but we can't waste any time getting these bills passed. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

John Lewis walked across a bridge in order to build a bridge to a new American future. We already had infrastructure. He understood that the infrastructure of our democracy was in trouble, and so he walked across a bridge in order to build a bridge.

So the House has already passed a version of this act. And I know my friend, Senator Joe Manchin, has been having conversations about the Freedom to Vote Act with our friends across the aisle. We are happy to talk to anybody on both sides of the aisle. A similar version of this legislation has been voted up by this Chamber repeatedly in the past with strong bipartisan support. Some 16 Republican Senators who were either here or in the House when it passed in 2006 98-0 are here today, and I ask them: What is the difference?

Voting rights are not just another issue. Voting rights are a preservative of all other rights. Voting rights are about the foundation of our democracy. And I believe that if the world's greatest deliberative body can't find a way forward to get this done, history will judge us harshly, and rightly so.

Reinhold Niebuhr said that humankind's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but our inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. This work, this assignment, which we have right now, is both possible and necessary. We can do it, and we must do it. It is the most important thing we can do this Congress, and I hope we will do it now.

Mr. President, as a proud son of the great State of Georgia and a voice for our State here in this Chamber, I am deeply honored to join my colleagues here today to introduce this important legislation in honor of one of Georgia's and America's most influential public servants.

I am grateful for the comments of Senator Blumenthal, and I want to thank Senator Leahy and all of my colleagues for their leadership in introducing this bill that carries on the legacy of Congressman Lewis's pivotal

work to protect the sacred right to vote.

John Lewis was my parishioner, and as I stand in support of this legislation named in his honor, I think of the many conversations I had with him over the years. I think of the Sunday mornings we boarded a bus, taking souls to the polls because I believe that voting, as he did, is a sacred undertaking. At root, it is about people's voice. And in that sense, it is about one's humanity.

I learned so much from Congressman Lewis and the lessons from his lived experiences working deep in the trenches to defend and advance voting rights. He laid it all on the line. When President Johnson took his pen and signed this legislation, making it law in a real sense, what he etched had already been affirmed in blood--the risk that John Lewis took, the ultimate sacrifice that others made as they lost their lives fighting for the vote, the voice, the humanity of every child of God.

And one of the most important tools that came out of that activism, that came out of that human sacrifice--one of the most important tools in this legislation is the process of preclearance. This process required that jurisdictions with a proven history of voting rights violations get approval from the Department of Justice or our Federal courts before making changes to local voting administration.

And, for decades, this was the tool that helped enfranchise countless voters, ensuring that they would have access to the ballot to exercise their constitutional right, and it kept some of the worst voter suppression efforts at bay.

And then, in 2013, the Supreme Court, in Shelby v. Holder, asked the Congress to update the coverage formula that determines which States are subject to preclearance. The Supreme Court said that this preclearance formula had somehow been outdated and Congress ought to bring it up to date. That is what they asked us to do in 2013.

Since then, Congress has been unwilling to act. Preclearance has been allowed to atrophy. And we have seen the results not only in Georgia, but in Texas, in Arizona, in Pennsylvania, all across our country. Earlier this year in Georgia, State leaders enacted a voter suppression law that will undoubtedly make it harder for some people to vote. If the tool of preclearance were in place right now, SB202 in Georgia likely would not even be on the books.

I think of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion. When that decision came down, she said:

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is

continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like

throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are

not getting wet.

We threw away our umbrella, and we have found ourselves in the midst of a torrential rainstorm. Voter suppression laws are mushrooming all over the country. We are witnessing right now what happens to our democracy without the protections of preclearance and the other vital provisions of the Voting Rights Act.

The lack of robust voting rights protections has ramifications for every American, as we have seen efforts ramp up this year at passing sweeping, State-level voter suppression laws--not laws that only impact Black people and people of color, to be sure, but also students, seniors, whomever certain politicians are afraid of will somehow get in the way of their craven march to power.

And so this bill, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is about Congress finally doing its job--finally doing what the Supreme Court asked us to do in 2013. It should have been done a long time ago.

The updated Voting Rights Advancement Act we are introducing today restores the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It strengthens our democracy by reestablishing preclearance, and it makes it better by updating it to also protect against specific practices we know suppress the vote, like polling place closures and new types of voter roll purges happening not only in the South, but all over the country.

Our bill also restores Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act to protect minority communities from discriminatory voting practices after the Supreme Court diminished Section 2 earlier this year.

Mr. President, just like the Freedom to Vote Act me and many of my colleagues introduced just a few weeks ago to set national standards for voting so every eligible voice is heard, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act we introduce today is designed to meet future challenges and address additional antidemocratic efforts aimed at suppressing the vote all over our country.

Since I was elected on January 5, since that terrible day on January 6, when this very Capitol was assaulted, we have seen more than 400 proposals in 49 States. So the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act builds for us a fire station to protect against future fires, but the house of democracy is already on fire. And so we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but we also need the Freedom to Vote Act. We have got to put out the fire. We have got to build a fire station for future fires.

Mr. President, I know there is a lot on our plate, but we can't waste any time getting these bills passed. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

John Lewis walked across a bridge in order to build a bridge to a new American future. We already had infrastructure. He understood that the infrastructure of our democracy was in trouble, and so he walked across a bridge in order to build a bridge.

So the House has already passed a version of this act. And I know my friend, Senator Joe Manchin, has been having conversations about the Freedom to Vote Act with our friends across the aisle. We are happy to talk to anybody on both sides of the aisle. A similar version of this legislation has been voted up by this Chamber repeatedly in the past with strong bipartisan support. Some 16 Republican Senators who were either here or in the House when it passed in 2006 98-0 are here today, and I ask them: What is the difference?

Voting rights are not just another issue. Voting rights are a preservative of all other rights. Voting rights are about the foundation of our democracy. And I believe that if the world's greatest deliberative body can't find a way forward to get this done, history will judge us harshly, and rightly so.

Reinhold Niebuhr said that humankind's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but our inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. This work, this assignment, which we have right now, is both possible and necessary. We can do it, and we must do it. It is the most important thing we can do this Congress, and I hope we will do it now.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I first want to say thank you to Senators Brown, Bennet, and Booker for keeping a spotlight on this issue. I must admit, however, on this issue, when I say Senators Brown, Bennet, and Booker, I think about the multiple choice questionnaires we got in school, and I am wondering how a guy with a last name ``Warnock'' got to be a part of this effort, but I am grateful.

I want to get right to the point. There are many reasons to move this Build Back Better American package forward. We have to build back better. We have a historic opportunity to make landmark investments that will strengthen our families, our economy, our care infrastructure, including expanding Medicaid benefits to more than 4 million Americans. We have got 600,000 Georgians in the Medicaid gap. We have got to provide critical debt relief for small farmers who have taken a financial hit during the pandemic. All of these things are covered in this Build Back Better agenda.

But the other top priority of mine, and why we are all here today, is that we have a chance to extend the expanded child tax credit. We have already seen it making a difference in the lives of over 2.2 million children just in Georgia alone.

I want to be clear about who this tax cut helps because people who have no vision engage in division, and sometimes when we are discussing these policies, we need to slow down and make sure folk know exactly whom we are talking about.

Ninety-seven percent--97 percent--of American families with children would benefit from this tax cut. After we passed the American Rescue Plan, we significantly expanded the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

To put more money in the pockets of working families, I remember that Senator Booker--actually, Senator Bennet called me from his car. He was on his way back home. I had just gotten elected, and just a few short months after I got elected, we passed the American Rescue Plan because we won the majority and were able to do this. Senator Brown said to me: Raphael, this is one of the best days of my career because we were able to pass the American Rescue Plan with all of these amazing provisions, and this provision alone is transformational. Experts have said that this investment that we made earlier this year would cut child poverty in half nationwide. Think about that. One provision. Just giving ordinary people, hard-working families, a break cuts child poverty in half. This is good public policy.

But I will tell you what would be bad public policy. It is bad public policy to cut child poverty in half one year and then go back the very next year and double child poverty. That is poor public policy. It is not right, and it is not smart.

The expanded child tax credit is helping Georgians. And do you want to know how I know that? I know because, as I am moving across the State, they are telling me. And it is no surprise, when you put an extra $200 or $300 in the bank account of ordinary people, working people, it makes a huge difference.

In my regular travels around the State, Georgians have told me how this tax cut for working families has made a difference in their lives, made their lives just a little bit easier, especially at the start of a new school year.

A few weeks ago, I was down in Columbus, GA, and I met with some of the hard-working families who receive this tax cut. And as I stand here, I think about Dante and Alicia, a couple I met down in Columbus, GA. Their daughter's name is London. And I asked them: What are you going to do with this monthly payment?

And they said it will help cover the costs of school clothes and brain-building extracurricular activities. They have a very active young daughter, very bright, London. She came to the meeting. And they said that: We wouldn't be able to afford these extracurricular activities, but this extra support, just this little lift, has made a difference in our personal economy, and it has made a difference for London.

I talked to Will, who works as a local hairdresser, and the monthly payment helps his 12-year-old daughter participate in karate tournaments, a development opportunity that family would not otherwise be able to afford.

In another conversation, I asked a Georgia mom of two young, growing boys: Where would this tax cut go?

I said: What are you going to do with this tax cut?

Do you know what she said to me?

She said: I am going to buy food and shoes.

You know, when you give ordinary folk a break, when you give them an extra $200 or $300 a month, you know, they go and buy extravagant things, like food and shoes and a coat for their kid.

They invest in extracurricular activities because they want to see their children do a little bit better than they did. And when they invest in their children, in a real sense, they invest in all of our children.

When you give folk who already have everything they need and then some, you give them that money, they hold on to that money. But when you give money to ordinary folks, they put that money right back into our local economies and into our small businesses.

Often the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. It creates jobs, helps all of us. And so the expanded child tax credit grows and bolsters our economy from the bottom up.

I agree with Senator Brown. I am just old enough to remember when folks were talking about trickle-down economics. And as a pastor, I have worked and conducted my ministry in these communities that have been hearing folks talk about trickle down for the last 40 years. The way to grow an economy is from the bottom up. The right thing to do is the smart thing to do.

The expanded child tax credit is changing lives right now, and we have a chance in this economic package we are working on to secure this investment for working Georgians and Americans into the future, and that is why I believe we should make it permanent, and I will keep advocating for that. But extending this critical tax cut right now is the right thing to do for working families. We ought to do it. We ought not just talk about it; we ought to do it.

The Scripture says, He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require . . . but that you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.

I see the face of God in the faces of our children.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am proud to stand on the Senate floor today with my colleagues Senator Klobuchar and Senator Merkley in support of the new Freedom to Vote Act that we just introduced. I want to talk about why it is so important, so urgent that Congress act right now to protect the sacred right to vote that is under assault across our Nation, but first I want to thank my friends who worked with me to get us to this point: Senator Klobuchar, who has worked on this issue for so long; Senator Merkley also; Senator Manchin; and Senators Schumer, Padilla, Kaine, King, and Tester. Our work is a testament to Democrats' commitment to protecting access to the ballot box for every eligible voter.

I think it is important to remind us that we were blocked from debating this issue in June. It bears repeating so that the American people understand that that is what got stopped in June--not the actual bill but the ability to debate the bill on the Senate floor. But I am proud that our group was able to come together. We decided that we were not about to let this fight to protect voting rights die in this Congress.

Passing voting rights is the most important thing we can do in this Congress because if we are going to lengthen and strengthen the cords of our democracy, that won't just happen. We will have to work for it. We will have to fight for it. We will have to stand up for it. And that is what we intend to do.

That is why we worked on this bill through the negotiations on the bipartisan infrastructure deal. That work is very important. I have often said regarding our infrastructure work that America needs a home improvement project; that that work is not only an infrastructure bill, it is a jobs bill desperately needed. We have to build back better and create infrastructure so that families can thrive, so that workers can be engaged in the work that grows our economy, creates more jobs. But even while that work was going forward during the August recess, we were focused on writing this bill.

The Freedom to Vote Act will improve access to the ballot for all eligible Americans by setting national standards for absentee voting, early voting, and in-person voting. It will make sure that the drop box is available for workers. It will enable the work that is so necessary to strengthen our democracy.

This bill will end partisan gerrymandering--yet another way in which the voices of ordinary people are squeezed out of their democracy--and it will advance commonsense reforms to secure our elections.

I am especially proud that this bill specifically addresses the wave of voter suppression laws we have seen take root in my home State of Georgia and all across this country since January. What kind of Congress would we be if we did not respond to all of these voter suppression bills that are mushrooming all over the country; a violent insurrection on this very Capitol, driven by the Big Lie, metastasized into a kind of voter suppression cancer all across the body politic?

This is our moment, and this is the work that we must do. So I am proud that this bill includes provisions from my Preventing Election Subversion Act that will prevent what we are seeing in places like Fulton County, GA, right now, where partisan actors will interfere with the work of local officials, taking over the election, subverting the will of the people even while the votes are still being cast.

It will also prevent a neighbor from leveraging baseless challenges to a voter's ability to cast a ballot and have it counted. Imagine that. And that is one of the provisions in SB 202 down in Georgia. Your neighbor can decide to challenge countless numbers of people and their right and legitimacy in casting their ballots--tie up the whole system with these kinds of baseless accusations. How will it be possible to certify any election?

Simply put, the Freedom to Vote Act is all about securing our elections and

making the ballot box accessible so that every eligible American can exercise that basic right, the right to vote, no matter where they live.

As we do this work, as challenging as it is, as disappointing as it was to have our beloved colleagues on the other side of the aisle block debate, I am not discouraged in this moment. I am encouraged by the voices and the legacy of those who committed to the idea of freedom.

John Lewis was my parishioner, and although he has transitioned to eternity, his advice still echoes in the Halls of this Congress.

Every Member of this Chamber ought to be able to get behind voting rights. It is the only reason we are here in the first place. I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will cosponsor and support the Freedom to Vote Act.

I look forward to talking with Democrats and Republicans about how we can get this done while we continue working on economic and infrastructure packages, because we have to walk and chew gum at the same time. We have to repair our country's infrastructure, but we also have to protect and repair the infrastructure of our democracy. It is not either/or; it is both/and.

We have always had infrastructure. We have always had roads and streets--important. We have always had bridges. John Lewis walked across a bridge in order to repair the infrastructure of our democracy, a bridge to the future.

I know that some of my friends on the other side of the aisle are already saying that they are not going to support this bill, but in the past, I remind them, voting rights legislation has passed out of this Chamber with strong bipartisan support.

I hope that this day will be no different. I say, at least give this bill a chance. Come, let us reason together. Let's talk about it. Let's have the voting rights discussion that we didn't have in June. It is not too late. Let's have the discussion that the American people deserve. Let's have an open debate and input from both sides here on the floor of the U.S. Senate. That is why we were sent here.

There is a lot for my Republican friends to like in this bill. My Democratic colleagues and I stand ready to hear what you don't like. Together, we can try to find common ground. I hope my Republican friends will give this bill fair consideration and that we can get bipartisan support to get it over the finish line.

Mr. President, as I close, I want to remind all of us that the only reason we are here in this Chamber at all is because somebody voted for us. Voting rights is not just some other issue alongside other issues. It gets to the heart of who we are in the first place--a democracy. We will always disagree about a whole range of issues, but after politicians have argued their case about infrastructure, about taxes, about healthcare, about national security, the most powerful words ever uttered in a democracy are ``the people have spoken.'' Shame on us if we allow the people's voices to be silenced in this Chamber.

Voting rights are preservative of all other rights, and right now the right to vote is under attack. Our democracy is in a 9-1-1 emergency, and we must act now.

I know that for those who have been in this body for a while, there is a sense in which you know you offer up proposals and they don't always make it and you live and you fight another day.

When I look at what is going on across our country, I think that if we don't address what is happening right now, we will cross a Rubicon that imperils our democracy for years to come.

I am not about to sit here silently and allow that to happen. Too many people died. Too much blood was shed. Too many sacrifices were made. Too much is at stake, and it is beneath the legacy of the greatest deliberative body on the planet to refuse to even have a debate about voting rights.

I hope that my beloved colleagues on the other side of the aisle will come and reason together. Let's pass this out of this Chamber with strong support. We got some things done this year, but I believe that if we don't pass voting rights, history will rightly judge us harshly.

Folks who sent us here are counting on us. History is waiting on us. Our children are watching us. And the great cloud of witnesses--John Lewis; a white woman named Viola Liuzzo, who died fighting for voting rights; Abraham Joshua Heschel; Medgar Evers--a great cloud of witnesses are urging us on to march toward the mark of the High Calling, the High Calling about our democratic ideals, a nation where every voice is heard and every vote counts.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, before I begin, I want to take a moment to pause and remember an effective leader in the labor movement and a real champion for working families, Richard Trumka.

Richard Trumka believed in the dignity of work, and he also believed in the dignity of workers and that they should share in the prosperity they provide for others.

His family is in my prayers as we remember and honor his legacy as a vital leader in the labor movement and in the larger quest to make us a more just society, providing opportunity for all of us.

Healthcare

Madam President, I am back on the floor of the Senate because I believe that healthcare is a human right, and it is certainly something that the richest Nation on the planet can afford to provide for all of its citizens.

I have come to the Senate floor with the same message week after week because I think it is vital and important. With all of the incentives on the table for my home State of Georgia to expand Medicaid, it is past time for Georgia and the other 11 nonexpansion States to finally expand Medicaid.

My home State of Georgia has the opportunity to provide affordable healthcare to 646,000 people who could qualify. Instead of allowing Georgians to continue to suffer and be cut off from care while politicians are playing games, I introduced the Medicaid Saves Lives Act. This is legislation that would provide people in States like mine that have not expanded Medicaid an alternative path to health coverage.

In the richest country in the world in 2021 and amid a once-in-a- century pandemic that has both illuminated and exacerbated the consequences of longstanding disparities in healthcare, too many Georgians are still struggling to get what they deserve and what is already available if we would just expand Medicaid.

And for far too many, access to affordable, reliable, and continuous healthcare is quite literally the difference between life and death.

We do policy here, but we can only do policy in an effective manner when we keep in front of us the human faces behind the policy we would create or the consequences for real people when we fail to do what we were sent here to do.

So I want to share the story and remember the life of a Georgian who fought to expand Medicaid. She and other Georgians live in the coverage gap. She advocated for herself and others like her.

This is Lorie Davis and her husband Bob, both from Covington, GA. Lorie was one of our heroes. She spent much of her life serving her neighbors as a trauma nurse at the Grady Memorial Hospital. I have been to that hospital time and time again as a pastor and now as a Senator. I have seen firsthand the important work that they do.

She was a trauma nurse there at Grady, and while working as a healthcare professional in Georgia, Lorie was diagnosed with pelvic adhesive disease. The chronic pain associated with this condition eventually pushed her to leave the nursing profession.

After that, while also working to manage her own chronic condition, Lorie struggled to maintain steady employment in the restaurant industry--a

healthcare professional no longer able to serve in her profession as a trauma nurse, working as hard as she can, as hard as she could in the restaurant industry.

She believed in working. She understood the dignity of work. But while working, she could not afford health insurance. She made too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford other insurance plans. And while in this limbo, Lorie had to wait many years for her Social Security disability claim to be adjudicated. She finally qualified for benefits in 2017, but even then, she was unable to qualify for Medicaid because of her and Bob's combined marital income. This left Lorie in the coverage gap, unable to purchase coverage because it was financially out of reach.

Lorie went without health insurance for years, relying on her own medical training and free healthcare clinics to treat her chronic condition--a trauma nurse who had cared for others, unable to receive any care.

Then, in August of 2020, Lorie began feeling ill, and her condition got noticeably worse. Fearful of costs, she delayed seeking healthcare. Unable to follow the advice that she, no doubt, had provided to other patients: Seek healthcare early. Many things are preventable if you can get there earlier rather than later. She was not able to follow her own advice. But I want us to think about that. She put off seeking the care she needed because she was afraid she would not be able to afford it.

As Members of this body, we should be ashamed that in the richest Nation in the world, a country with all of our resources, with all of our medical technology, that some citizens would choose not to seek treatment even when they know better because they fear they cannot afford the pricetag of lifesaving care. That is Lorie's story.

The next month, in September of 2020, Lorie was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. And while there, she learned, sadly, that she had lung cancer, a treatable condition had she received an earlier diagnosis.

Put together, it was too much. On September 17, 2020, Lorie passed away.

This is the human face of our public policy. These are the tragic casualties of the games that politicians play.

As a pastor, I am praying for Lorie's family as they mourn her unspeakable and, perhaps, unnecessary loss and the legacy she left behind.

As a Senator who believes that healthcare is a human right, a sacred obligation, I refuse to stop fighting until Georgians, like Lorie Davis, have access to the care that they need when they need it.

Like Lorie, who advocated Members of this body for healthcare during her lifetime, I am committed to gaining ground in this fight to improve access to healthcare for Georgians in every corner of the State. She can no longer speak. We must be her voice.

She is not the only one. There are millions of hard-working people all across our country who went to school, played by the rules, and they don't have access to lifesaving care, costing them their lives and costing us more money.

So we need to pass the Medicaid Saves Lives Act. It is not just the name of a bill; it is actually true, Medicaid saves lives.

Until we get this done, I am going to keep lifting up Lorie's story and the stories of others who would benefit from this lifesaving legislation.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.