Washington, D.C. - Today, Congressman Tom Emmer (MN-06) issued the following statement on the passage of H.R. 1:
"223 Democrats are permanently on record for sponsoring a bill that would erode state control of their elections and provide government funding for partisan campaigns. Instead of winning elections on their ideas or trying to address the issues Americans care about, House Democrats passed legislation that subverts the First Amendment and increases election vulnerability to foreign influence. For the rest of the 117th Congress, the American people will know what Democrat’s true priority was."
Watch Representative Emmer's remarks on the House Floor in opposition to H.R. 1 here.
Transcript:
"Thank you, Mr. Davis.
Madam Speaker,
For the second consecutive Congress, House Democrats have shown us what their priorities are.
Is their top priority, H.R. 1, about improving roads and bridges? No.
Is their top priority, H.R. 1, about improving access to health care? No.
Is their top priority, H.R. 1, about ensuring that our communities are safe? Absolutely not.
No, their number one priority is about themselves and their elections.
Instead of prioritizing these important issues, they’ve offered H.R. 1 to eliminate our state-based system of elections, codify practices like ballot harvesting, and establish a federal match for campaign contributions using public funds.
I guess federalizing our elections becomes the only option when your ideas - the very thing our constituents should be judging us on – are defunding our police and promoting government-run health care.
The American people have soundly rejected those ideas, but that hasn’t stopped our colleagues from finding a way to work around the will of the American people.
The bill we’re debating today, H.R. 1, is that work-around and, if adopted, will allow our colleagues to continue bypassing the issues most important to the people while guaranteeing their re-election to Congress.
The American people are smart and they will remember when they step into the voting booth next November that the top priority for House Democrats was not to address the health or safety of the American people – it was to undermine our Constitution in order to win elections.
I urge everyone in this chamber to vote no on H.R. 1.
I yield back."