This is not an official government website.
© 2026 PLEJ LC. All rights reserved.
Congressional Daily Record
This section captures a floor statement or debate entry. It mentions members such as Richard Joseph Durbin.
Issued
June 23, 2026
senate side of the record
People
1
Linked members mentioned in this section
Legislation
0
No linked legislation in this section
Committees
0
No linked committees in this section
Senate Holds
0
No hold activity linked here
Source Document
Connected Data
People mentioned
Source Control
Reader mode is for comprehension. The linked government PDF is the official published source.
Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last week, I joined my colleague from California Senator Alex Padilla for a spotlight forum on the Trump administration's ongoing effort to undermine free and fair elections, particularly the upcoming midterm election, a few weeks away. I want to thank Senator Padilla for hosting that forum and his leadership.
efforts to counter foreign malign influence across various government Agencies, most recently at the Department of Homeland Security. She warned us: There are bad actors out there who will take advantage of the diminished Federal effort to prevent foreign influence in our elections.
She was specific. Particularly under this administration, the Trump administration, and DOGE—you will remember that exercise by the richest man on Earth, Elon Musk—they attempted to and did gut the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, known as CISA, and dismantled the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force.
threats to our elections, the President's cherry-picked so-called solutions to problems are nothing more than attempts to rig midterm elections and cling to power.
President's ICE and CBP funding bill as an amendment, but Democrats defeated it.
Now, the President is back at it. Last week, in one of his many social media posts, the President said: I will not approve a FISA extension without the SAVE America Act going along with it.
Republicans are blaming Democrats for holding up FISA. It turns out the President is holding it up to get his—
what I consider to be—unconstitutional measure adopted by Congress.
salute. You shouldn't. The bill would require all States to obtain proof of citizenship in person from people registering to vote. Most driver's licenses—the most common form of identification of most Americans—including most REAL IDs, would not be sufficient to register to vote. Instead, people would need to provide birth certificates or passports or similar documentation that denotes one's citizenship.
And what about passports? Well, just show your passport.
It turns out half of the people in America don't have a passport.
Well, OK, get a passport before the next election in November.
Oops, there is a filing fee—a $165 filing fee. So you have to pay a filing fee for a passport in order to get the right to vote under the SAVE America Act that the President wants?
Do you want to expedite it? You are afraid the passport won't show up in time for the next election. Add another $60 to the cost.
A $225 filing fee for an expedited passport—think about that as a poll tax.
their spouse's name, because their current legal name may not match the name on that birth certificate that you found upstairs in the attic. These women would have to jump through additional hoops to amend their original proof of citizenship documents or provide supplemental materials or affidavits to register to vote. How much more complicated can we make it?
Well, it is a legitimate question. How many aliens—noncitizens—try to vote in the United States? Well, they did a survey over a span of 30 years. Millions and millions of people registered to vote, and they checked how many times they found out those people were ineligible because of their citizenship.
do you think this happened in America? Well, the survey that was done found that it happened—well, let's take a guess. Seven hundred thousand times out of millions? No. Seventy thousand? No. Seven hundred? No. Seventy-seven times out of the millions of registrations to vote, they found someone who was ineligible because of citizenship— 77 out of millions.
the way we register to vote in America, with a filing fee for passports of $225 or some other form of identification.
And the bottom line is this: It is a solution looking for a problem. It is not a problem. It is against the law for anyone who is not a citizen to vote, and they know it; and they pay a price if they are caught.
think about that—in a matter of 4\1/2\ months. It would wreak havoc in communities across the country, as voters are kicked off voter rolls and States scramble to implement drastic change.
that: a historically unpopular President—don't think they can win this election without a boost. That boost will mean keeping people from voting that they think will vote the other way. So they have resorted to voter suppression to create a fighting chance in November.
Don't believe me? Just ask President Trump, who claimed on social media: “The Republican Party will never win another election” without the SAVE America Act.
He is pretty blunt, isn't he? He doesn't beat around the bush. He says what he is thinking, whatever that may be, and that is clear. He believes the SAVE America Act is the only way to win in November. That means reducing registration to vote, reducing the number of voters, requiring identification that has never been required in the past.
scheme. The truth is the President has been laying the groundwork to sow doubt and distrust in our electoral process and disenfranchise voters for some time now.
office in Fulton County, GA, to seize the ballots in a past election? Why? Because Donald Trump just can't shake the Big Lie and admit he lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential election.
appointments to the Federal bench, appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. We asked them really stump questions, really hard questions, difficult questions.
Boy, that is a tough one. Only every eighth grader you ever met knows the answer to that question. But these nominees cannot say those words for fear that Donald Trump will hear them say he actually lost that election to Joe Biden—and he did. And so they squirm, and they wiggle. And they fret, and they perspire. And they want to get out of the place as fast as possible because they don't want to say the truth: Donald Trump lost an election.
They are afraid, if they do, he will yank their nomination. So they talk about what the Constitution really means and all sorts of other topics. That is the reality.
President Trump wants to justify interfering in this year's election. In fact, his weaponized Justice Department is seeking confidential voter roll data from States around the country to purge eligible voters. There is a ruling by a local court this week on that subject, saying they can't do it.
for Alabama Republicans to eliminate one of the State's two majority- Black districts as part of a plan to give Republicans an additional House seat in the State. It is not the only State that is going through this exercise to eliminate minority representation.
the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. I had been through it a few weeks ago. It is amazing. It restores your confidence in the Presidency and your belief that you can have a President who is admired and respected and follows the law. The feeling, of course, was multiplied by the fact that Barack Obama, who is a personal friend, who was a colleague of mine in the Senate and the first African-American President—to represent Springfield, IL, the home of Abraham Lincoln, and to stand on the inauguration platform with Barack Obama and watch him put his hand on Abraham Lincoln's Bible and become the first African-American President in our history was something I will never forget as long as I live. That was an amazing achievement. We moved forward toward equality in America, as it should be.
Sadly, we have to say the obvious: Under President Trump, we are headed in the wrong direction. Some of the things that are being done by members of his administration are impossible to explain other than their being the product of racial bigotry. For instance, some of the promotions that have been denied in the Department of Defense just don't make any sense other than using that as a basis. That is the reality of where we are today.
vote. I have trusted the outcomes of our Federal elections year in and year out. Even when I lost, I believed it was a fair election. I have said as much publicly.
Today, we are now facing a new challenge: Will this election in November deny Americans who are legally eligible to vote the opportunity to do so? If so, it will be one of the worst days in our constitutional history.
We need to make sure that we guarantee people's right to vote. That is why I am cosponsoring legislation entitled the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. I am proud to lead it with my colleague Senator Warnock of Georgia. Our bill would restore and strengthen the landmark Voting Rights Act that has been under attack by the Supreme Court.
join together in support of free and fair elections and condemn any attempts by this President or otherwise to undermine our democracy before it is too late.
I yield the floor.