WASHINGTON—Rep. Scott Franklin (FL-15) today rejected Democrat attempts to undermine our Constitution and state’s rights by federalizing our election process. Democrats also manipulated parliamentary process to avoid Senate rules by hijacking a simple NASA bill to insert 700 pages worth of radical election policies. The bill passed on a straight party line vote with all Republicans opposing this egregious action.

“Today, the Democrat party engaged in a power grab bait-and-switch in an attempt to usurp Constitutionally protected states’ rights to ram their deeply unpopular election policies through Congress,” said Rep. Franklin. “These dirty legislative gimmicks are exactly why the American people are fed up with Congress. I will always stand up for the Constitution and against attempts to undermine our democratic process.”

Late Wednesday afternoon, Democrats included election policy provisions largely taken from other pieces of legislation into a completely unrelated NASA land-leasing bill. This effectively made the legislation a Trojan horse through which Democrats could avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate and force radical election policies into law. Some of the most egregious provisions of this bill include:

• Removal of state voter ID laws. This provision would require states to remove existing and new voter ID laws, and force them to accept signature verification to vote by mail. This would nullify voter ID requirements.
• Using public funding for election campaigns. This provision would give billions of taxpayer dollars to campaigns. For example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi could receive up to $22.7 million in public dollars for her reelection campaign, while Senate Majority Leader Schumer would receive $44.1 million, should the provision become law.
• Making the Attorney General a federal election czar. The Attorney General would have the power to change state election laws and circumvent state constitutional processes. This would be an unprecedented expansion of federal power over state election laws an an explicit violation of the Constitution. 
• Limiting states’ ability to conduct voter roll maintenance. This provision would impose restrictions on state efforts to keep their voter registration lists updated and accurate.