Presidential Election Reform Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. LOUDERMILK. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend, Ranking Member Davis, for yielding me the time.
I will address something that I heard just a few moments ago from my colleague from Wyoming listing off a number of conservative commentators about how great this bill is, and that is why we should vote on it. Well, see, that is the problem of why we are here right now. None of those conservative commentators are responsible for casting a vote for something that will affect the future of this country.
You see, we are here now making a decision on this issue when we should have been included in this process all along. I am not calling into question whether this bill is good or whether this bill is bad. What I am saying is we have not been involved in this process, and we are being told to just take the word of someone because they call themselves a conservative commentator.
It is those of us here who have been elected by the people of this Nation that are given the responsibility to analyze these things, to work together in a bipartisan manner to come up with what is the best solution for this Nation. That is not where we are.
A partisan-run committee is the one who has rushed this bill to the floor, and we are being told that we need to work on it and that it is imperative we pass it now.
Don't get me wrong, I agree that we ought to take a closer look at the Electoral College Act. I agree that we should clarify some of the mechanisms of the act, and I certainly agree that we should be working to prevent another breach of security of this Capitol as we saw on January 6.
With all that said, we can't afford a one-sided, no-compromises discussion crafted by a partisan select committee, which is what we are being presented with in this bill, at least from the perception that we have at this moment.
So, my question is: Why now? Why has the January 6th Committee chosen this moment to pursue this legislation instead of working together in a true bipartisan manner, engaging Republicans and Democrats together in a broader perspective?
You see, the American people are smart enough, and they know the answer to this question. The January 6th Committee has really wasted more than a year. Instead of looking into how the security of this building was breached, they have been looking for a year for evidence of some vast conspiracy on January 6, 2021, with nothing to show for it. They have spent days falsely accusing me and some of my other colleagues of wrongdoing in the days prior to the January 6 incidents without producing any substantial evidence to back up their claims. Why? Because it doesn't exist.
Now, with midterm elections looming and the prospect of a new majority in the House and the Senate, they feel they need to justify the time they have wasted by inserting themselves into what was once a bipartisan, bicameral discussion of the Electoral Count Reform Act.
In the meantime, House Republicans have taken concrete steps to promote confidence in elections at every level of government. We have introduced legislation that would reaffirm States' constitutional sovereignty over elections rather than trampling it. We have done this because the American people are tired of hearing about January 6.
The American people care about the growing cost of living, the declining economy, and the uncontrolled spending, which has caused mass inflation.
The American people want to be confident that their vote counts in every election, that they can trust the ballot box, and their concerns won't be ignored by lawmakers in Washington.
I will close with this. The American people don't need the January 6th Committee to tell them what is broken in this country. They look at their declining paycheck and the rising cost of groceries, and they see this body focused on the past instead of correcting their future.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. LOUDERMILK. Madam Speaker, they see that this body and its reckless spending is why we have record inflation in this moment.
For that reason, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Presidential Election Reform Act, and then let's work together on something that will work for the American people.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source