Source: United States Senator for Pennsylvania Pat Toomey
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Toomey released the following statement after voting in opposition to the so-called For the People Act:
“This highly flawed, partisan bill is not about ‘voting rights,’ or fighting disenfranchisement – it is about Democrats’ longstanding efforts to usurp states’ rights in order to tip the scales of future elections in their favor. Among its most egregious provisions, the so-called ‘For the People Act’ would effectively nullify state voter ID laws, mandate public funding of political campaigns, and transform the Federal Election Commission into a partisan body empowered to limit free speech.”
Background:
The For the People Act has a number of problematic provisions, including, but not limited to:
Providing public financing to political campaigns to the tune of 6:1 matching funds for certain small dollar donations
Campaign finance provisions that even the left-leaning ACLU has said would “chill” free speech
Turning the FEC into a partisan agency that could limit the free speech of its opponents
Effectively nullifying state voter ID laws
Lays the groundwork for D.C. statehood
Further, the idea that this legislation is in response to misguided claims about the 2020 election, or recently enacted state laws does not hold water, as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a nearly identical bill in March of 2019.