Future Forum
Floor Speech
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Mr. ISRAEL. What a coincidence.
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Mr. ISRAEL. What a coincidence this is.
I want to thank my friend from California for his leadership in the Future Forum, traveling the country, engaging young people and millennials on the critical issue of participating in government. I don't qualify as a millennial.
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Mr. ISRAEL. I am slightly older than most of the audiences that you engage. But I used to be a millennial. I used to be a young person. I grew up in Levittown, New York, on Long Island. I remember going to public school at Gardiners Avenue Elementary School and being taught civics, being taught what it takes to be a good citizen, and what our responsibilities and obligations were.
The principal responsibility and the principal obligation of a good citizen was voting. You could vote to the left, you could vote to the right, but vote. Now we are falling further and further behind on voting because it has become harder and harder.
There is a particular Republican candidate who talks about how we have to make America great again. Do you know what we are not so great at? We are not so great at voting. In fact, we are falling further and further behind the rest of the industrialized world. We are falling further and further behind most democracies in our voting participation.
Why is that well? One reason is because we reserve one day of the year to vote in Federal elections, and that is Tuesday. I don't know if my friend knows--here is a little history quiz, a little pop quiz, to put him on the spot: Why do we vote on that Tuesday? Do you have any idea why we vote on that Tuesday?
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Mr. ISRAEL. Here is the answer. In 1845, Congress decided that voting day would be on Tuesday in November. Why? Because at the time we were living in a mostly agrarian society, we were a farm economy, and Sunday was the Lord's day. The polling places were usually in the county seat, so Monday was the day that you traveled to the county seat. You got to your county seat on Tuesday, you cast your vote, you returned on Wednesday, and you farmed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. That may have made sense in 1845, but it doesn't make the same sense in 2016.
As a result of reserving this one Tuesday as voting day, most Americans report that they didn't vote because they just couldn't vote on Tuesday. Some people have two jobs, three jobs, and they are raising families. As important as it is to be a good citizen and to cast their vote, they are finding it harder and harder.
The solution is very simple. I am going to make another quick comment. The solution is very simple. Allow people to vote on weekends. Designate Saturday and Sunday for voting. You can do it on a Saturday; you can do it on a Sunday. But we ought to designate weekend voting.
There are other democracies in the world, other nations in the world, that have weekend voting, and their voting participation is much higher than ours.
If there is one thing the government should do to make it more convenient for middle class citizens and working families, it is make it more convenient to vote, and we can do that on weekends.
Let me make one other point if I could. I made a decision that I would not run for reelection. My decision was based on a broad range of personal issues and personal considerations, personal desires, to do other things. I have been here for 16 years. It is time to pass the torch.
But I will tell you what. One of the factors was that I could not stand to spend one more day asking one more donor for one more dollar.
We have a system that used to be dysfunctional. Now it is not dysfunctional. It is just beyond broken. It is a system that tells people around the country that their voices are drowned out. There is a sense--particularly among the young people that you have engaged across this country--that the only way you get heard in this place is if you have a super-PAC or a registered lobbyist with you. Most middle class families and most young people can't afford a super-PAC or a registered lobbyist.
I am concerned that we have a majority right now that has made Congress a gated community. We need to bring down those gates. The way to bring down those gates is to pass campaign finance reform; it is to pass the DISCLOSE Act, which Democrats passed when we had the majority, requiring that people know who are funding elections; that we pass weekend voting so it is easier for people to cast their votes and choose their democracy, so that their democracy is not chosen by literally a few hundred families, by passing something that our colleague, John Sarbanes, talked about earlier: citizen-funded elections.
If you want a stake in democracy and if you want to own democracy, you should have a share in that democracy. We ought to be encouraging citizen-funded elections, which are being done in States across the country--Republican states, Democratic States. They are embracing citizen-funded elections. We should be doing the same thing.
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Mr. ISRAEL. No. In fact, I did write a piece in the New York Times that went viral. I received responses on both sides of this aisle--on both sides--people saying: You are right, we spend too much time in call time. Instead of thinking about issues, instead of thinking about a robust foreign policy that is going to defeat our enemies, we spend too much time trying to figure out a robust fundraising policy to get reelected. Both sides of the aisle said that.
Not one of our colleagues enjoy fundraising. But, in my view, there is only one party who is willing to do something about it. Pass the DISCLOSE Act, support campaign finance reform, demand transparency.
The only way we are going to take this government back and make America great again is to engage voters across the spectrum by lowering the barriers that exist in this place. That is going to require the DISCLOSE Act, citizen-funded elections, greater transparency, and weekend voting.
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Mr. ISRAEL. I am very fortunate because I represent a district in New York that is blessed with universities and colleges. We have a wonderful infrastructure of university and college campuses, and I toured those campuses and heard what you have heard: Congressman, my voice doesn't count. Congressman, why should I vote when it makes no difference? Congressman, why should I get involved in a campaign when my $20 contribution, or my $3 contribution, gets drowned out by one billionaire who is writing checks for millions of dollars for the candidate that he supports?
I have said to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, it is bad for all of us when an entire generation gives up on us. That is just bad for democracy. That is bad for trying to accomplish anything.
I have also said--and people understand this, I believe, intuitively--no matter what issue is important to you, no matter what it is--more investments in education or infrastructure or national security or your paycheck or the environment--no matter what it is, it is all rooted in a system that doesn't allow progress on those issues because it is rigged against progress on those issues.
People say: Well, what can we do? What is the one thing we can do to get our voice back? Get this Congress to pass fundamental and meaningful campaign reform and we will make progress on every other issue.
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Mr. ISRAEL. Again, I thank the gentleman so much for his leadership.
If you would allow an aging 57-year-old to attend the Future Forum meetings, I would be happy to do so. I will bring my crutch, my cane, and all of the other things that I need.
On a serious note, I really do want to commend you for the work that you are doing, for the engagement. Through this engagement, you are giving people hope. You are letting people know that there are people who are listening to them. You go to those events without a super-PAC. You go to those events without billionaire donors. You are representing the best that the grassroots has to offer. I want to thank you for that.
Leave people with a sense of hope. For as long as we are talking on this floor about these issues, there is hope that something will be done on this floor on these issues, and the middle class and young people and millennials will make progress again.
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