Let’s Be Clear: ‘For the People Act’ Would Benefit Leftist Politicians, Not the People

by Rep. Brian Babin: Almost a year after its initial passage, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives has once again passed HR 1, the For the People Act. However, there’s one major difference this year—this misleadingly named bill is no longer dead on arrival in a Republican Senate or White House.

Now that leftists hold the reins of power, Democrat leadership has doubled down on this anti-democratic bill, aiming to use its razor-thin majority in Congress to establish permanent and unopposed domination of our national elections.

HR 1, a bill whose number indicates the highest level of priority for Democrats, does nothing to address the numerous crises we’re facing. It is silent on the ongoing pandemic, the millions of Americans still unemployed, our unstable and unsecured southern border, and the multitude of children suffering at home because they’re not in school.

Instead, HR 1 is packed full of mandates to guarantee Democrats control future elections—all under the guise of “election reform.”

In reality, this bill undermines protections for free speech, destroys the nonpartisan Federal Election Commission, and nationalizes elections, paying no mind to the Constitution or the 10th Amendment. It would require states to automatically register voters, make it harder to verify voter information, and expand mail-in voting without safeguards in place to catch fraud.

In fact, HR 1 would silence all discussion about election fraud, voting irregularities, and the countless issues that left half of the country so dissatisfied with the execution and results of the 2020 election.

With all of this on the table, and absolutely no bipartisan input, can anyone honestly say that the goal of this bill is to actually benefit the people rather than politicians?

We need commonsense election reform that reaffirms the authority of states to create and administer their own election laws, not blatant federal overreach. We need rules that ensure all eligible voters can vote and certainty that those votes will be counted, not a road that leads to election fraud for the benefit of one political party.

That’s why I recently reintroduced HR 860, the You Must Be Alive to Vote Act, which would prevent people who are deceased from being automatically registered to vote, opening the door to ballot harvesting and fraud.

Likewise, in the House, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., has introduced the Save Democracy Act, which would restore public trust in our national elections by protecting voter registration, ballot casting, and ballot counting.

These are the types of reforms that would actually protect American votes and rebuild confidence in our government.

One of the quotes inscribed on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., says that our third president swore “upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Like him, I cannot stand idly by as our rights to free speech and free and fair elections are dismantled in Congress by a fanatical and unbalanced majority.

I can only hope my colleagues feel as strongly as I do and will fight against this bill in order to protect the American public from the tyranny of the left.
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Brian Babin is the U.S. representative for Texas’ 36th district. He is the ranking member of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.

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