During a House Rules Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-IA) spoke about non-citizen voting, which is already illegal for federal elections.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The gentlelady yields back to your thanks, the gentlelady recognizes the gentlelady from
00:04Indiana for questions, and I hope you will give Chairman Stile a chance to respond to
00:08some of this.
00:09Sure.
00:10Actually, I would love for Chairman Stile to respond, and then I'd be happy to go into
00:16some of my questions.
00:17Well, I think what's so important is that we're making sure that people are participating
00:22in our elections.
00:23And what we have seen time and again is the integrity in our elections increase, people
00:28are more likely to participate.
00:30It's actually the reason when we introduced a series of election integrity bills, that
00:35we did that in Atlanta, Georgia, because I think a lot of people remember the lies that
00:39were spewed about the election integrity legislation in the state of Georgia.
00:44In fact, President Biden made statements that even the Washington Post called out is earning
00:49Pinocchios for being so misleading to the American people about what the state of Georgia
00:54was doing when they were implementing their voter integrity legislation.
00:57You may recall Major League Baseball bought into those lies, they moved out the All-Star
01:02game out of Atlanta.
01:04But what we can do now is go back and look at the empirical data of the 2022 election.
01:09And what we saw is high voter participation, and the University of Georgia did a robust
01:15study analyzing the elections after they took place.
01:19And what the University of Georgia found is that people actually were very supportive
01:23of how the elections were run, and across all key demographic groups, in particular
01:28blacks in the state of Georgia, had a very positive view of how those elections operate
01:32in direct contrast with the misleading statements, and in fact lies, by some on the left of what
01:39the bill would actually do.
01:40And so what we see time and again, and the empirical evidence shows this, is that when
01:45we actually increase the integrity of our elections, more people are likely to participate,
01:51and that's a good thing.
01:52And so when we look at this legislation, this is an opportunity to further enhance
01:57the integrity of our elections, and actually increase total voter participation of US citizens.
02:06On Joe Biden's first day in office, he issued a myriad of executive orders.
02:10Some of those I will highlight here, one repealed a previous executive order by President Trump,
02:17which had secured the southern border, took all that away.
02:21All of those policies that were keeping the border secure were undone by Joe Biden on
02:28day one.
02:29Another executive order on day one stopped funds from being directed toward border wall
02:35construction.
02:37And then another executive order allows for non-citizens to be counted in the census data
02:44for electoral college and congressional apportionment.
02:50Now, under President Biden, we've seen millions of illegal aliens being released into the
02:57interior of the United States, two million known gotaways.
03:02The Biden administration's failure at the southern border has been well documented.
03:07It is a complete and total disaster.
03:11In addition to the executive order President Biden signed on day one, he also made an executive
03:19order that said, it was the executive order on promoting access to voting that requires
03:24federal agencies to expand opportunities to register to vote.
03:28So all of these things are pointing in a direction, at least pointing in a direction that I believe
03:34is wrong for the United States of America and it undermines our system of democracy,
03:41which is why I support the SAVE Act.
03:47The failure to secure the southern border is one thing, but in what we've heard today
03:52in this committee and from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that they
03:58unbelievably think that we're somehow diminishing the vote or the opportunity to vote of American
04:05citizens by requiring proof of citizenship for someone to vote.
04:10How does, or does that, Mr. Stile, Chairman Stile, does it diminish the opportunities
04:18for U.S. citizens to express their viewpoints at the ballot box by allowing non-citizens
04:27to vote?
04:29Every non-citizen that vote cancels out the vote of a U.S. citizen.
04:34And so when we look at the instances of non-citizens voting, and again, there's ample evidence
04:39of non-citizens voting in U.S. elections, each person who has voted illegally as a non-citizen
04:46is canceling out the vote of a legal U.S. citizen.
04:51And that's why there should be such concern.
04:53And then you correctly note what this administration is doing.
04:55I think that's really important, Ms. Houchen, is you correctly lay out that on day one,
05:00the Biden administration comes in and unwinds the secure border policies of President Trump
05:05and we see a massive rush of individuals enter the country illegally and then enter
05:09throughout the country.
05:11You combine that then with the President's executive order, which you also noted, 14-019,
05:17which is weaponizing federal agencies in the engagement of a partisan get-out-the-vote
05:22effort.
05:23And in fact, inside that executive order, the administration required each federal agency
05:28to come up with a strategic plan.
05:31But they won't give that strategic plan to me or to the American people, and that should
05:35be incredibly concerning, that this administration has weaponized federal agencies to develop
05:41a secretive scheme to use federal agencies to drive forward a partisan agenda as it relates
05:48to elections.
05:49And you couple that with the open border policies of this administration, it should give great
05:53concern to Americans across the board.
05:55And when we look at an opportunity here to simply say, what we want to do is make sure
06:00that U.S. elections are for U.S. citizens, to make sure that we're not allowing the NVRA
06:06to be used as a block from checking whether or not an individual is a U.S. citizen.
06:11This legislation gives us an opportunity to make sure it's U.S. citizens who are participating
06:16in U.S. elections.
06:19And it's interesting that not only do our colleagues on the other side of the aisle
06:22not want to require U.S. citizenship as a matter of who should be voting in this country,
06:29but they also do not support voter I.D. laws to make sure that it is one person, one vote.
06:37Chairman Stile, the ranking member has made some claims that requiring proof of citizenship
06:43creates a hardship for citizens.
06:47I'd like you to just, and you've done this somewhat, but I'd like you to just provide
06:51a counter to that.
06:54In your view, articulate why the ranking member is wrong in his claim that there's some sort
07:01of a hardship for citizens simply by requiring them to prove that they're U.S. citizens to vote.
07:08So we offer a series of opportunities for an individual to provide documentary proof
07:13of citizenship.
07:14So obviously the passport, it was referenced by my colleague that that is one opportunity.
07:19We could look at real I.D. for those real I.D.s that have U.S. citizenship denoted on it.
07:27More states should take advantage of that inside real I.D. so that it can be utilized.
07:31But again, today, under current law, states aren't allowed to even validate the individual
07:36who checks the box to say they're a U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen.
07:40So many states didn't put that in their requirements.
07:42It's a huge opportunity when we clean this up after this bill passes to make sure that
07:46real I.D. has that opportunity.
07:49Other states can then quickly validate that.
07:51That's going to be a huge opportunity.
07:53And then we look at the EAC to put forward guidance to states to address some of the
07:58concerns that have been brought up to make sure that an individual who has a name change,
08:03et cetera, has that opportunity to not be burdened as they go to vote.
08:07But again, under current law, states aren't even allowed to review whether or not an individual
08:13is a U.S. citizen.
08:14This bill not only gives the opportunity but requires it, which I think is essential to
08:19make sure that it's U.S. citizens that are participating in U.S. elections.
08:22Well, thank you.
08:23Thank you for your leadership on this issue of election integrity.
08:26It's extremely important, and I yield back.