00:00I rise today because democracy is under assault in my home state. California
00:17politicians, led by the governor, are throwing a grenade at our Constitution
00:22in order to strip power from voters and seize it for themselves. This fraud on
00:29our electorate compels action by Congress to protect the representative form of
00:34government that citizens of every state are due. That's why today I am calling for
00:40a prompt vote on House Resolution 4889. On three separate occasions, California
00:47voters have deliberately chosen to remove politicians from the process of drawing
00:52the lines for legislative districts. Voters have empowered an independent
00:56Citizens Redistricting Commission to set the boundaries of representation so that
01:01free and fair elections, not political manipulation, is the motive force in our
01:08democracy. This principle is so important, so vital to safeguarding democracy, that the
01:14Citizens Commission is enshrined in our state Constitution along with a number of
01:19principles to guide redistricting. Redistricting occurs once per decade after
01:23the census. The legislature is barred from participating. The members of the
01:28Citizens Commission may not run for public office. Districts are to be drawn in an
01:32open process based on extensive public input. Boundaries are to be set based on
01:36neutral criteria, like keeping communities together. District lines cannot be
01:40influenced by partisan considerations or drawn to favor or disfavor any incumbent or
01:46candidate. In one fell swoop, Gavin Newsom is blowing up all of these
01:51constitutional principles. His unprecedented mid-decade gerrymander tears up the map
01:57created by our Citizens Commission, replacing it with one drawn behind closed doors and
02:02adopted by politicians. One designed with explicitly partisan goals and zero public
02:07input. One that tears communities apart while doing special favors to Sacramento
02:12insiders. Do the voters want this? Do Californians want to overturn everything they
02:18have previously voted for? Emphatically not. Polling shows that two-thirds of voters, an
02:24overwhelming majority of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, favor keeping the
02:29commission. This would seem to be a problem for Governor Newsom, as his plan to push the
02:33commission aside requires voter approval. So to overcome this problem, to produce an
02:39artifact of voter approval for a proposition our voters strongly oppose, the
02:44governor has resorted to two strategies. Disenfranchising voters and defrauding them.
02:49First, the governor has called a sudden impromptu, off-year, low turnout special election, asking
02:57a partial electorate to overturn the will of our full electorate. To further suppress
03:01voter participation, he's thrown our election rules out the window in a hyper-accelerated timeline
03:07unlike anything our state has ever seen. Meaning fewer polling places, fewer
03:11notifications to voters, and at least at first a digital only voter guide. Second, the
03:17governor is committing outright fraud on the ballot itself, describing the proposition
03:21in terms designed to fool voters into thinking yes is no and no is yes. To try to justify all
03:28of this, to clothe naked political self-interest in some kind of principle, the governor and his
03:34enablers have treated us to one absurd paradox after another. We are told that another state
03:40is doing something so bad, so sinister, that we should do it too. We're told that banishing
03:46an independent redistricting commission somehow supports independent redistricting. We're
03:52told that we should fight fire with fire, even if that means the whole world burns. This
03:58perversion of federal elections simply cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress.
04:04We have a duty to protect the rights of voters in selecting their representatives in this
04:08body, and we have the authority to do so under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
04:14Pursuant to that authority, I have introduced House Resolution 4889 to protect the congressional
04:19map drawn by California's Citizens Commission, and to preserve the map of every state until the
04:25next census. This measure has bipartisan support. It will prevent a chaotic redistricting war from
04:31breaking out across America. It will allow us to focus on the real issues facing our country.
04:36Today, I am calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring this measure to a vote on the House floor.
04:42Gerrymandering is a plague on our democracy, wherever it occurs. That's why I've also called for a
04:48bipartisan commission to end the practice once and for all. While almost everyone agrees political
04:54division has become a serious problem in this country, it's especially harmful when we can't agree on
04:59the basic rules of the road. We need to find common ground when it comes to the basic parameters for
05:05our politics. We can then disagree vigorously within those parameters on matters of policy
05:11and our vision for the country. That is what democracy is about. I yield back.
05:17The chair recognized
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