Republicans came back to Washington and made voting harder

After five weeks with no floor activity, House Republicans kicked off their return to Washington following August recess by pushing a non-binding resolution calling yet again for enactment of the SAVE America Act.

Even for President Trump’s Republican Party, that is remarkably tone deaf.

For five weeks, House Republicans were back home hearing from their constituents about the affordability crisis in America and the most corrupt administration in our nation’s history. They heard from families struggling with grocery bills, housing costs and everyday expenses. And then returned to Washington and made one of their priorities a non-binding resolution calling for enactment of a bill that has already passed the House.

It is embarrassing to even write that sentence. That is how determined Republicans seem to be to make Congress irrelevant.

And let’s remember what the so-called “SAVE America Act” really is.

A bill that would make it harder for married women and veterans to vote.

A bill that would essentially gut mail and online voter registration.

A bill that would force states to hand over voter rolls to Trump’s Department of Homeland Security.

That is what House Republicans chose to spend their time on.

Perhaps I should not be surprised. As costs skyrocket, Republicans are afraid to face their constituents at the ballot box. Instead of changing course or addressing the problems families are facing, they are making it harder for Americans to vote. They want bills like the SAVE America Act to disrupt election administration and keep millions of eligible voters away from the polls.

President Trump has issued illegal executive orders aimed at blocking ballot access for millions of Americans, including an unlawful attempt to weaponize the U.S. Postal Service and eviscerate vote-by-mail systems in states across the country. His administration has defunded and gutted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and its support for election administrators. And the president and his allies continue to spread misinformation and disinformation about the integrity of our elections.

House Democrats will continue to fight back. Because despite these continued efforts by the president and his allies, our elections are safe and secure. State and local election administrators, not the president, run elections across the country. They know their communities and their systems, and they do the hard work every day to make sure eligible Americans can vote and their votes are counted. The courts have also continued to reject unlawful attempts by the Department of Justice to force states to turn over their voter rolls. As of earlier this month, the department’s record in those cases stood at 0-23 .

House Democrats’ objectives are straightforward: every eligible American must have a meaningful opportunity to cast a ballot, and those ballots must be counted fairly and accurately.

A recent poll found the Republican Congress with a 15 percent approval rating. Fifteen percent of the American people approve of the job Congress is doing. Some might understandably think that number is low. After watching exercises like this, I am surprised it’s that high.

Would this symbolic resolution do anything to lower gas prices? Would this messaging bill make groceries cheaper? Would it do anything to hold the crooks in the White House accountable? The answer is simple: it would not.

Americans sent us here to solve our nation’s problems. They did not send us here to spend our time finding new ways to make it harder for them to vote.

Promises were made to the American people. They have not been kept. The American people deserve better than this.

Joe Morelle represents New York’s 25th District in Congress and is ranking member of the House Administration Committee