Let me be perfectly clear. We all agree that it is important for
citizens to verify who they are during the voting process, but this
bill is not about voter ID.

                              {time}  1250

  It is so extreme that even a valid driver's license would not be
enough to register to vote.
  This bill is about one thing and one thing only: making it harder for
Americans to vote and easier for Republicans to win.
  Here are the facts: Rampant voter fraud is a myth. It does not exist.
It is already illegal for noncitizens to vote in Federal elections. In
fact, under current law, noncitizens would face up to 5 years--5 years
in prison for attempting to vote in Federal elections, and they would
even risk being deported.
  That is why the fact of the matter is that noncitizens voting is
roughly 0.0001 percent according to the Brennan Center.
  This legislation is an egregious attempt to solve a problem that is
not based in reality. The solution to this nonexistent problem is not
to prevent eligible voters from voting and accessing the ballot box.
  Mr. Speaker, roughly half of all Americans do not have a valid
passport. In my home State of Alabama, that number is even higher. More
than 72 percent of Alabamians do not have a passport. To get one, most
Americans would have to pay an application fee of $130.
  Mr. Speaker, this is nothing more than a modern-day poll tax.
  There are also 69 million women who have changed their last names
after getting married. Those women would not be able to vote using
their birth certificate.
  Under this voter suppression bill, up to 21 million eligible
Americans would be blocked from exercising their right to vote.
  The SAVE Act also requires States to purge their voter rolls on a
consistent basis without requiring commonsense measures, like requiring
officials to notify voters before removing them from the voter roll.
That means that eligible voters would risk learning that they had been
removed from the polls on election day.
  Mr. Speaker, keeping voter rolls accurate is important, but it must
be done by using quality data and best practices to ensure that
citizens are not inadvertently removed from the voter roll.
  In my home State of Alabama, an effort was made to remove noncitizens
from the voter rolls using data from the State's department of labor.
The data was highly incorrect, and what we found is that 93.8 percent
of the voters removed were U.S. citizens--U.S. citizens being removed
because my State thought that they were using something accurate in
removing voters from the voter roll.
  Let me say that again: 93.8 percent of the voters removed were U.S.
citizens.
  Mr. Speaker, this is very personal to me. I am a proud daughter of
Selma, Alabama, and the Representative of Alabama's voting rights and
civil rights district. It was in my hometown 61 years ago where
hundreds of foot soldiers like John Lewis shed blood on a bridge for
the equal right of all Americans to vote. They marched. They bled. They
prayed, and some even died for the right to vote. The so-called SAVE
Act makes a mockery of their legacy.
  As America celebrates its 250th birthday, we in Congress should be
working to make voting more accessible, not less. Our democracy
functions best when every citizen is given an opportunity to
participate in our elections.
  I urge all my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question,
``no'' on the rule, and to oppose any efforts by President Trump and
Republicans to suppress the voting rights of Americans.
  Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as
I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, one of the key provisions of this rule is the National
Defense Authorization Act. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation
that has passed every year for the last several decades and passed out
of committee with a strong bipartisan vote.
  I encourage the American citizens to understand this with regard to
our national security and our national defense and how important this
piece of legislation is. Up until 2022, in order to launch a satellite,
the United States was buying rockets from Russia.
  Mr. Speaker, 2022 is the last time we purchased rockets from Russia
to launch satellites, and 2024 is the last time we actually used a
Russian rocket to launch a satellite.
  We have to invest in our defense industrial base so that we are not
dependent on the enemies of the United States of America to provide for
the security of the American citizens. The National Defense
Authorization Act, in a very bipartisan manner, does exactly that.
  Mr. Speaker, this rule needs to pass. We need to ensure that we are
not dependent on our adversaries for our national security, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I remind the gentleman and others that we already spend
more than six of our nearest competitors in terms of military spending
combined. We are talking about $1.5 trillion--trillion with a t--going
to the defense budget this year.
  I have to tell you that I really think we ought to have a debate in
this Congress about the definition of national security, and I think it
ought to include things like healthcare. My Republican friends cut $1
trillion from healthcare. People are losing their healthcare left and
right, but if you don't have healthcare, you don't feel very secure.
  The definition of national security also ought to include the quality
of education we provide our young people.
  It ought to include things like ending hunger in this country. We are
the richest country in the history of the world, and we have 48 million
Americans who don't know where their next meal is going to come from.
  It ought to include housing and whether people can afford housing. We
have an affordability crisis right now that we tried to address in a
bipartisan way, but Donald Trump had a meltdown.
  It ought to include supporting our veterans and cleaning up our
environment.
  It ought to include things like investing in our workforce.
  All of those things are sources of our national strength that are
getting shortchanged here, so forgive us if we are not getting excited
about this massive increase in military spending at a time when the
average American is getting screwed.
  Enough. Enough.
  When you go back to your districts and you talk to people in coffee
shops, they are not worried about whether we are spending $900 billion
or $1.5 trillion on our military spending, most of which goes to
defense contractors. What they are worried about is whether they can
afford their groceries, whether they can afford their rent, and whether
they can afford the gas for their car.
  Those are things that are real. Whether they can send their kids to
college, all of those things matter.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode
Island (Mr. Magaziner).
  Mr. MAGAZINER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, 8 million Americans have lost their health insurance
over the last year. Again, 8 million Americans lost their health
insurance.
  Millions more have seen their health insurance premiums go up by
hundreds and thousands of dollars. Hospitals and community health
centers have shut down all across the country. Why? It is because our
Republican colleagues passed the big, ugly bill last year that cut
funding from healthcare in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires and
big corporations.
  That is not all. They also cut money from SNAP.
  Mr. Speaker, 1 million children--children--lost their SNAP benefits
over the last year. Children are going hungry. People who are sick and
hurt are not able to go to the doctor because they can't afford it
anymore.
  I see our Republican colleagues. They don't understand why their bill
isn't more popular. They don't understand why the American people
aren't grateful to them for cutting their healthcare and cutting their
food aid in order to pay for tax cuts for rich people who don't need
it.