Urging Senate to Pass for the People Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. UNDERWOOD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge the Senate to pass the For the People Act, or H.R. 1.

This urgently needed legislation would fight corruption and the overwhelming influence of money in politics by strengthening ethics rules and reforming our campaign finance system.

It would protect the foundation of our democracy, the right to vote, at a time when it is under attack in many States.

I am proud that my home State of Illinois is not one of them. In fact, our legislature recently voted to expand ballot access. But for those who aren't lucky enough to live in Illinois, H.R. 1 is a much- needed defense against widespread voter suppression.

As the Senate considers these long-overdue reforms, I rise today, here in the House of Representatives, to insist that representation matters.

That is Congress' role in our representative democracy: to represent the American people. If the Members elected to this Chamber don't represent the diversity of the American people's backgrounds and their experiences, we can't do a good job of representing their perspectives and advocating for their needs.

Consider that women make up just over a quarter of the 117th Congress, and that is the highest percentage it has ever been. We see the effects of this lack of diversity in the way our government works for women, or, rather, the fact that it doesn't work for women.

Women have been hit harder than men by job loss during the pandemic. This is partly because women still do more childcare than men, and the pandemic triggered a childcare crisis. But this doesn't come out of nowhere. It is a result of chronic failure to address areas that disproportionately impact women.

Because women haven't had a seat at the table, our needs have been sidelined. As a result, everybody loses, not just women. All Americans are part of an economy that depends on childcare to function.

It is no coincidence that the Biden-Harris administration's bold plan to invest in human infrastructure comes just months after our first female Vice President was sworn in. This is just one of many instances in which everybody benefits when different perspectives and life experiences are represented in our elected leadership.

When we talk about candidate diversity, we are talking about growing our economy, improving childcare, and strengthening our infrastructure. Good policy starts with good representation.

H.R. 1 will give Americans the government we deserve by enabling us to elect people who truly represent us.

One of the most important provisions in the bill for improving representation is the creation of a small-donor public financing program.

In the States and cities where it is already in use, public financing is popular because it empowers candidates to get their message out to voters, even if they don't have deep pockets or corporate connections.

But the Brennan Center for Justice found that public financing doesn't just increase the socioeconomic diversity of candidates for public office, it also boosts racial and gender diversity.

That is why I introduced an amendment to H.R. 1 to include an assessment of the impact on candidate diversity in the required report to Congress on the new public financing program, and I am grateful that my colleagues voted to pass my amendment.

This is personal for me because I firmly believe that we can have a Congress that looks like America if we just give people a fair shot.

I became the first woman and the first person of color to represent my district because I refused to be counted out as unelectable in my own community. I know that women and people of color are electable everywhere. No seat in Congress should be deemed out of reach for certain types of candidates.

When everybody has a fair shot, all candidates are electable, and small donor public financing gives people that fair shot. Small donor public financing and the other crucial reforms in H.R. 1 would make our representative democracy both more representative and more democratic. In other words, it would make America more American, aligning our system of government with our highest national values.

So I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass the For the People Act with the small donor public financing program intact and help America live up to our values.

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