Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access Program Inclusion Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1396, I call up the bill (S. 3969) to amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to explicitly authorize distribution of grant funds to the voting accessibility protection and advocacy system of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the system serving the American Indian consortium, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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Ms. LOFGREN. 3969 in the Record.

I rise in strong support of S. 3969, the PAVA Program Inclusion Act.

The bill before us today is a bipartisan, bicameral piece of legislation that makes an important technical correction in the Help America Vote Act's Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access, or PAVA, program to explicitly include the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the system serving the American Indian consortium as eligible recipients of PAVA funding.

When Congress passed the Help America Vote Act in 2002, it made significant changes to the country's voting process, addressing needed improvements to voting systems and voter access identified in the wake of the 2000 election. Since its enactment, Congress has provided billions of dollars under HAVA to help States improve voters' access to the ballot, including hundreds of millions of dollars in election security funds over fiscal years 2018, 2020, and 2022 and $400 million under the CARES Act to help voters access the ballot during the COVID- 19 pandemic.

Amongst the numerous changes made, HAVA recognized the unique obstacles persons with disabilities face at the polls, authorizing funding for the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access program, otherwise known as PAVA. The PAVA program funds activities aimed at increasing access to the polls and the ballot for voters with disabilities, ensuring they have access to all aspects of the voting process, and awarding funding to eligible protection and advocacy systems across the country.

Since HAVA's enactment, the millions of dollars in funding allocated under the PAVA program allows protection and advocacy systems across the country to conduct activities such as disability training for poll workers, maintaining voting hotlines, examining polling places for accessibility, and even more.

There are 57 protection and advocacy systems across the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as well as the American Indian consortium. The P&A affiliated with the American Indian consortium serves Native Americans with disabilities in the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.

P&As are federally mandated and protect the rights of persons with disabilities through legally based advocacy. Unfortunately, HAVA's definition excluded the protection and advocacy systems serving the Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian consortium serving the Four Corners region. I don't think we intended that, and this bill fixes that.

Reintroduced this Congress by our colleague, Representative Ruben Gallego of Arizona, and our former House colleague, Senator Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, S. 3969 puts the P&As serving the Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian consortium on equal footing with all 55 other P&As. It does so without changing the program's overall authorization level or other elements of the program.

Fixing this oversight will help ensure all voters with disabilities, regardless of where they live, can fully participate in the electoral process.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter signed by all 57 protection and advocacy systems expressing support for the bill, as well as a letter of support from the National Disability Rights Network and a letter from the designated protection and advocacy systems in California and Illinois, all supporting this bill's package. January 28, 2020. Representative Zoe Lofgren, Chairwoman, House Administration Committee, Washington, DC. Representative Rodney Davis, Ranking Member, House Administration Committee, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairwoman Lofgren and Ranking Member Davis: The undersigned 57 Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems write today to express our support to amend the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to explicitly authorize the distribution of Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) program funds to the Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian Consortium P&As.

P&A systems are federally mandated, and pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies under all applicable federal and state laws to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. There are a total of 57 P&As operating in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). There is also a P&A affiliated with the American Indian Consortium serving Native Americans with disabilities in the Four Corners region of the Southwest.

In 2002, Congress passed HAVA acknowledging the unique obstacles people with disabilities face at the polls, and authorized funding for the PAVA program. The PAVA program allows P&As to advocate on behalf of voters with disabilities to ensure that they have access to all aspects of the American voting process. PAVA program funds allow P&As to conduct disability training to poll workers, distribute resources on how to conduct an accessible campaign, maintain voting hotlines, examine polling places for accessibility, and much more throughout the year.

PAVA program funding is currently awarded to ``eligible'' P&As across the country. Unfortunately, because HAVA includes specific language about ``states'' only 55 out of the 57 P&As are currently eligible for PAVA program funding. The Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian Consortium P&As do not receive PAVA funding since they are not considered states and therefore have been ineligible for PAVA funding since HAVA passed.

It was always the intent for all 57 P&As to participate in the PAVA program. Thus, we support Congress passing legislation that would provide a long overdue technical fix explicitly authorizing the distribution of grant funds to the Northern Mariana Islands and American Indian Consortium P&As.

Thank you for your work on this important topic and consideration of a technical fix. Sincerely,

AK, Disability Law Center of Alaska.

AL, Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP).

AR, Disability Rights Arkansas, Inc.

AS, Office of Protection and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.

AZ, Arizona Center for Disability Law.

CA, Disability Rights California.

CO, Center for Legal Advocacy d/b/a Disability Law Colorado.

CT, Disability Rights Connecticut.

DC, University Legal Services/Disability Rights D.C.

DE, Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.

FL, Disability Rights Florida.

GA, Georgia Advocacy Office.

GU, Guam Legal Services Corporation-Disability Law Center.

HI, Hawaii Disability Rights Center.

IA, Disability Rights Iowa.

ID, Disability Rights Idaho.

IL, Equip for Equality.

IN, Indiana Disability Rights/Indiana Protection & Advocacy Services.

KS, Disability Rights Center of Kansas.

KY, Kentucky Protection & Advocacy.

LA, Advocacy Center.

MA, Disability Law Center.

MD, Disability Rights Maryland.

ME, Disability Rights Maine.

MI, Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, Inc.

MN, Minnesota Disability Law Center.

MO, Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services.

MP, Northern Marianas Protection and Advocacy System.

MS, Disability Rights Mississippi.

MT, Disability Rights Montana.

NA, Native American Disability Law Center.

NC, Disability Rights North Carolina.

ND, North Dakota Protection & Advocacy Project.

NE, Disability Rights Nebraska (formerly Nebraska Advocacy Services).

NH, Disability Rights Center--NH.

NJ, Disability Rights New Jersey.

NM, Disability Rights New Mexico.

NV, Nevada Disability Advocacy and Law Center.

NY, Disability Rights New York.

OH, Disability Rights Ohio.

OK, Oklahoma Disability Law Center, Inc.

OR, Disability Rights Oregon.

PA, Disability Rights Pennsylvania.

PR, Executive Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

RI, Disability Rights Rhode Island.

SC, Protection & Advocacy for People with Disabilities, Inc.

SD, Disability Rights South Dakota d/b/a South Dakota Advocacy Services.

TN, Disability Rights Tennessee.

TX, Disability Rights Texas.

UT, Disability Law Center.

VA, disAbility Law Center of Virginia.

VI, Disability Rights Center of the Virgin Islands.

VT, Disability Rights Vermont.

WA, Disability Rights Washington

WI, Disability Rights Wisconsin.

WV, Disability Rights of WV.

WY, Wyoming Protection & Advocacy System, Inc. ____ National Disability Rights Network, Washington, DC, May 11, 2022. Hon. Zoe Lofgren, Chair, Committee on House Administration, Washington, DC. Hon. Rodney Davis, Ranking Member, Committee on House Administration, Washington, DC.

Dear Chair Lofgren and Ranking Member Davis: On behalf of the nationwide network of Protection and Advocacy (P&A) agencies we represent, The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) writes today to strongly urge that the full House swiftly pass S. 3969, the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) Inclusion Act which passed the Senate unanimously on March 30.

P&A systems are federally mandated, and pursue legal, administrative, and other appropriate remedies under all applicable federal and state laws to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. There are 57 P&As operating in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). There is also a P&A affiliated with the American Indian Consortium serving Native Americans with disabilities in the Four Corners region of the Southwest.

In 2002, Congress passed HAVA acknowledging the unique obstacles people with disabilities face at the polls, and authorized funding for the PAVA program. The PAVA program allows P&As to advocate on behalf of voters with disabilities to ensure that they have access to all aspects of the American voting process. PAVA program funds allow P&As to conduct disability training to poll workers, distribute resources on how to conduct an accessible campaign, maintain voting hotlines, examine polling places for accessibility, and much more throughout the year.

PAVA program funding is currently awarded to ``eligible'' P&As across the country. Unfortunately, because HAVA included specific language about ``states'' only 55 out of the 57 P&As are currently eligible for PAVA funding. The Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian Consortium P&As do not receive PAVA funding since they are not considered states and therefore have been ineligible for PAVA funding since HAVA passed.

NDRN has expressed the crucial need for the enactment of the PAVA Inclusion Act on multiple occasions, including in written and spoken testimony before House committees. Additionally, all 57 P&As signed a 2020 letter of support for this legislation to both the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration. Most recently, in a Report of the Interagencv Steering Group on Native American Voting was published by the White House, calling on policymakers to ``consider revisiting that limitation, to ensure that these entities can also equitably access HAVA funds to serve voters with disabilities in their areas''.

It was always the intent for all 57 P&As to participate in the PAVA program. Thus, we support the House passing S. 3969, which would provide a long overdue technical fix to explicitly authorize the distribution of grant funds to the Northern Mariana Islands and American Indian Consortium P&As.

Thank you for all your work on protecting the rights of people with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Sincerely, Curt Decker, J.D., Executive Director. ____ September 19, 2022. Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Zoe Lofgren, Chair, Committee on House Administration, Washington, DC. Hon. Rodney Davis, Ranking Member, Committee on House Administration, Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McCarthy, Chair Lofgren, and Ranking Member Davis: On behalf of Disability Rights California and Equip for Equality, the designated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems in California and Illinois, we write to strongly urge that the full House swiftly pass S. 3969, the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA) Inclusion Act which passed the Senate unanimously on March 30.

In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) acknowledging the unique obstacles people with disabilities face at the polls, and authorized funding for the PAVA program. The PAVA program allows P&As to advocate on behalf of voters with disabilities to ensure that they have access to all aspects of the American voting process. PAVA program funds allow P&As to conduct disability training to poll workers, distribute resources on how to conduct an accessible campaign, maintain voting hotlines, examine polling places for accessibility, and much more throughout the year.

PAVA program funding is currently awarded to ``eligible'' P&As across the country. Unfortunately, because HAVA included specific language about ``states'' only 55 out of the 57 P&As are currently eligible for PAVA funding. The Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian Consortium P&As do not receive PAVA funding since they are not considered states and therefore have been ineligible for PAVA funding since HAVA passed.

It was always the intent for all 57 P&As to participate in the PAVA program. Thus, we support the House passing S. 3969, which would provide a long overdue technical fix to explicitly authorize the distribution of grant funds to the Northern Mariana Islands and American Indian Consortium P&As.

Thank you for all your work on protecting the rights of people with disabilities to vote privately and independently. Sincerely, Andrew J. Imparato, Executive Director, Disability Rights California. Cheryl Jansen, Director, Public Policy, Equip for Equality.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, language making this correction has passed the House twice this Congress in other legislation, and it should be enacted into law.

The Senate passed this bill by unanimous consent in March, and passing it in the House today will ensure that it will go to the President's desk to become law.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, it is a different day here on the House floor for a debate over a bill with Committee on House Administration jurisdiction. I once again agree with the majority that this is a good piece of legislation, albeit I was a little concerned when my colleague just mentioned that officials in California and Illinois support this bill. I had to take a step back and realize, well, maybe I will talk to my team about who those officials are before I offer my wholehearted support.

But in all seriousness, Mr. Speaker, as part of the Help America Vote Act created in 2002, Congress authorized funding for the Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access program to help ensure every eligible American, regardless of their abilities, can participate in the election process and cast their ballot privately and independently.

Funds for the PAVA program are currently allocated to only 55 of 57 legally established protection and advocacy systems across the country. The bill today makes an important correction to ensure that both the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian consortium are included as eligible recipients for the first time.

This bill, as mentioned by my colleague, sponsored by my good friend, Senator Roy Blunt, passed the Senate by unanimous consent, and Republicans on the Committee on House Administration are supportive of these changes and have no issues with the bill.

To be honest, I am somewhat disappointed that my colleagues in the majority on the Committee on House Administration have chosen not to pass this bill under suspension. For months, our staffs have been working together to pair the PAVA Program Inclusion Act with H.R. 8517, the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act, a noncontroversial bill brought forward by Subcommittee on Elections Ranking Member Bryan Steil.

Both bills make nonpartisan, noncontroversial amendments to HAVA. Mr. Steil's bill doesn't change Federal law or practice but simply provides a citation of convenience for existing law that gives the House authority to deploy official observers to watch the conduct of congressional elections in the States and territories.

Both Democrats and Republicans have long deployed House staff as election observers to monitor congressional elections. Sometimes, our observers have had access difficulties, including in a widely publicized event in Maricopa County, Arizona, 2 years ago.

So, we listened when many State and local election officials asked Congress to speak more clearly about this constitutional exercise so they can more readily provide access for our observers, which is why our committee staffs had agreed in principle to move both bills together.

That was until just a few weeks ago when the Democrats' staff said they had issues. But when my staff reached out, they couldn't say what those issues were and met my staff with silence.

We gave Democrats another opportunity to bring these bills up together during Rules Committee earlier this week when Mr. Steil offered an amendment to include his election observer bill, but it was rejected along party lines.

Now, we are here on the House floor talking about a bill that should have passed under suspension alongside Congressman Steil's commonsense bill to ensure integrity and faith in our elections.

While I will support the bill before us today, I urge my Democrat colleagues in the majority to quickly bring forward the Confirmation of Congressional Observer Access Act for a vote, as well.

I was encouraged by comments earlier this week at the Committee on Rules by my good friend, the chair of the Subcommittee on Elections, Congressman G.K. Butterfield, about Mr. Steil's good piece of legislation and continue to hope we can work together on a bipartisan basis to make it law.

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Ms. LOFGREN. I yield to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

This is the first time we have heard these concerns, on the House floor today. We have not had any discussion between our staffs. I would have loved to have worked through some of these.

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Ms. LOFGREN. Reclaiming my time. My staff indicates that there have been discussions. Obviously, that was at a staff level. But I have outlined what the concerns are, and I would at this point like to close so that we can let the House get to its other business.

To go on suspension, both sides of the aisle need to agree, and I think that is a very important provision of our procedures that will continue, whichever party is in the majority, and that was how this ended up. Because that bill really is not necessarily connected with this PAVA bill. I will talk about another bill that is not connected with the PAVA bill, and that is the venue bill I mentioned earlier this morning.

I forgot to mention, and I put it into the Record last night, that the Progressive Policy Institute, as well as the chamber of commerce, opposes that venue provision. I do think the fact that Senator Cruz, Senator Cotton, Senator Hawley, Mr. Buck and Mr. Gaetz are for it doesn't persuade me that it is a safe measure to move forward to, even though I very much support the Neguse bill. If this does not pass today, I am sure the Neguse bill will come back because we do need resources to enforce our antitrust laws. I am totally on board with that.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that we will pass this bill from the Senate that will protect disabled voters in the Northern Mariana Islands and the American Indian consortium, that they will have the same access to funding as all the others, and I urge support.

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