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Chairman Steil's full opening statement as prepared for delivery:
Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution grants states the power to regulate the “time, place, and manner” of federal elections.
However, the Constitution also gives Congress the power to make or alter those regulations at any time.
Federal election law was last updated in 2009.
In the years since, voter confidence has dropped.
The Biden Administration’s failed immigration policies resulted in over ten million illegal aliens pouring into our country during that time period.
Some states send every registered voter a ballot.
Fourteen don’t require a photo ID to vote.
This is why Congress must implement commonsense election integrity reforms.
That’s why I introduced the Make Elections Great Again, or MEGA, Act.
Here’s the topline:
Elections should end on Election Day.
You should need a photo identification to cast a ballot.
You must be a citizen of the United States of America to vote in a federal election.
We need auditable paper ballots.
And we shouldn't be sending ballots to people that don't request them.
These reforms alone will improve voter confidence, strengthen election integrity, and continue to make it easy to vote, and hard to cheat.
This is a product of years of work and collaboration.
We’ve sought feedback from state and local election officials.
We continue that dialogue here today.
Delays in election results weaken voter confidence.
Thousands of ballots can’t arrive days after Election Day, which is exactly what I witnessed when I was at Los Angeles County Central Count days after the November 2024 election.
Noncitizens on voter rolls weakens voter confidence.
We cannot allow someone to say they are a citizen simply by registering to vote by simply checking a box – without any verification.
For example, that’s exactly what Ian Roberts, an illegal alien, did when he registered to vote in Maryland.
Stories like this undermine Americans’ trust in our elections.
We’re here to fix that.
Today you may hear Democrats make outlandish claims about these commonsense policies.
Former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently called these proposals "Jim Crow 2.0."
Leader Jeffries has repeatedly referred to these policies as “voter suppression.”
Those statements are false.
And the insult the intelligence of the American people.
They're also the exact same arguments were made when Georgia passed their election integrity law in 2021.
As you may recall, major corporations took out full page ads in national newspapers decrying the bill.
Major League Baseball moved the All Star game out of Atlanta.
President Biden called the Georgia law, you guessed it, "Jim Crow 2.0."
Stacey Abrams, the twice failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, never hesitated to call it voter "suppression."
They were wrong then, as Democrats are wrong now.
But in Georgia, the law passed.
Georgia has held two statewide elections since.
What does this tell us? We can look at the empirical data and the data tells a far different story than the Democrats would like us to do.
Let’s take a minute and review what's taken place in Georgia.
Without objection, I’d like to insert three news articles into the record:
“Voting is surging in Georgia despite controversial new election law,” from the Washington Post - yes, the Washington Post.
Axios: “Record breaking early voting in Georgia Senate runoff.”
And Valdosta Today: “University of Georgia post-election poll dispels voter suppression myth.”
All entered into the record - I encourage you to read them.
The independent Georgia survey referenced in the last article I think is really important to explore further.
The University of Georgia did a large and substantive review of the Georgia 2022 general election after the election integrity legislation was passed.
95% of voters reported an “excellent” or “good” in their experience in the election.
And that positive impression was across all key demographic groups - and that's important because, notably, 0% of Black voters reported a “poor” or negative experience in the state of Georgia statistically.
Additionally, 75% of voters waited less than 10 minutes in line to cast a ballot.
What does all of this mean?
The commonsense reforms House Republicans are proposing today will ensure it remains easy to vote, but hard to cheat.
Elections should end on Election Day.
You need a photo ID to cast a ballot.
You must be a citizen to vote.
You need an auditable paper trail.
And you shouldn't mail a ballot to people that don't request them.
These are commonsense, that’s why they’re popular.
It’s time we made them the standard in American elections.
Today, we have an opportunity to have this conversation and move forward on real and substantive election integrity in the United States.
I thank our witnesses for being here today and I look forward to our discussion.
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