For the People Act of 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on an issue that is so important to so many of the people from my district, and that is election integrity.

I am confident in the integrity of our democracy, but the fact remains that over 59 percent of Americans do not have confidence in the integrity of our election process.

Time and time again, I have worked across the aisle with my Democratic colleagues to try to come together on commonsense reforms to address the issue of election integrity, and the issue that I am passionate about today is the question of voter ID.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Bishop) and I had an amendment that we asked to be considered and debated on this floor to say that funds under this bill would not go to States that did not have a voter ID law in place. A simple reform to make sure that we have voter ID cards issued across America is a simple, commonsense integrity measure for our election systems to make sure that our votes count and the people casting the votes are those individuals who are registered to make that vote.

We have IDs in America for simple things like buying alcohol, renting a car, and going into your grocery stores to get food stamps. We issue government IDs for EBT cards. There are simple ways to make sure that people have access to identification so that they could perform one of the most fundamental civic duties and fundamental rights that we have, and that is to vote.

To ask an individual to have an ID is a simple measure, and my Democratic colleagues did not allow us to have that debate and have an open, honest conversation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to vote ``no'' on these amendments and continue to work with us to ensure that the election integrity of our country is safe and secure.

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