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Texas Congressman Colin Allred weighs in on paid family leave, voting rights legislation - YouTube
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the senate is headed for a showdown over
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democrats sweeping voting rights and
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elections bill today lawmakers on the
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rules committee will hold a markup
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on the for the people act to give
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members a chance to propose changes to
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the controversial legislation
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republicans fiercely oppose it calling
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the bill a federal overreach
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let's bring in democratic congressman
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colin allred of texas
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to talk more about this and other things
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so you were kind enough to join us
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not too long ago and we didn't get a
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chance to talk about something that is
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kind of a passion of yours so i want to
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start with that first before we get to
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the voting rights
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bill i want to talk about paternity
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leave you were
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uh you are said to be the first and only
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male congress member to take paternity
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paternity leave
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back in 2019 and now you're pushing for
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national
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paid family leave program you know the
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other day i was doing some reading about
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the slowing birth rate in this country
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and concerns about the population growth
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and there are many reasons but one of
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the reasons cited by young women is that
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there isn't enough
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support and they are concerned about the
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lack of paid leave and
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and what would they do how would they
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care for a child so i think it's a
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really important issue to talk about
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i want to hear from you though why you
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think it's important and do you see it
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you know getting bipartisan support well
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thank you for talking about this i think
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it's something we don't talk about
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enough even though
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all of us at some point in our lives
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will have something happen in our family
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where
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we're going to need some time off work
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whether that's having a new child
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like my wife and i did and i didn't know
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that i was the first member of congress
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to take fraternity leave
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um maybe i'd maybe others did but didn't
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say they did
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but i've done it twice now and i did it
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in part to dramatize and to talk about
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how important it is for
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men to take leave as well because we
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often talk about this
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in the context of its impact on women
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and we should because it
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does disproportionately impact women but
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the
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research is very clear that when men
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take leave they're better results for
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the child
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better results in the home the wife
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often makes more money and is more able
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to pursue their career
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and so it's something that everyone
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should have access to and something i
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hope
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we can get down on a bipartisan basis
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because polling tells us it's extremely
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popular
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is the 225 billion dollars laid out for
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national paid family and medical leave
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programs in the president's american
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families plan
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enough to address this issue
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we'll have to see and i think that when
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we look at the president's plan we have
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to understand that it's an opening offer
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subject to negotiation he has said in
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his address to congress and many times
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that he wants this to
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be bipartisan he wants to have buy-in
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from both parties and of course
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we need to make sure that whatever we do
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actually does meet the needs
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that we're trying to fulfill and the
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idea here is to give everyone
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access to paid family leave 95 of
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low-wage workers don't have access to it
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oftentimes in professional spaces
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whether it's attorneys or accountants
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that's already offered because it's it's
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a benefit that you have to offer in
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order
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to keep your employees and to not lose
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them to someone else
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but when we talk about folks who are
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working on an hourly basis who are
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working towards the bottom end of the
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spectrum
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this is not offered at all and what we
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see is you know people coming in to work
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when they're sick which of course
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in covid we realize we don't want people
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not being able to take care of a family
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member
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folks having you know a child and being
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back at work a week later you know that
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that's something that we don't want to
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see in this country we're the only
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major developed country that doesn't
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have some paid family leave system so we
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need to find a way to get this done
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so let's talk about what's happening
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today the senate will hold a markup
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shortly on the controversial voting bill
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called the for the people act
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it comes as several gop led states are
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advancing their own voting restrictions
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that president biden
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and other democrats have compared to jim
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crow era laws
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how significant is it for congress to
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pass
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a bill like this one well i want to take
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a little issue
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with the use of the word controversial
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there i was a voting rights lawyer and i
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can tell you that
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everything that's in the hr one as we
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call it the for the people act
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is really critical for our democracy and
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if it's controversial it's because there
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are folks
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who don't have either given up on our
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democracy or who disagree
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that we should be expanding and
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protecting the right to vote
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we're seeing that here in texas
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certainly where our state legislature
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right now is working on very creative
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ways
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to add to the already extremely
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restrictive laws that we have in place
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and you know this is a real crisis for
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our democracy and and i
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you know i'm someone who i don't have
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engage in a lot of hyperbole but i can
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tell you this is
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uh the worst uh spot of laws we've seen
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coming forward to try and restrict the
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right of right to vote
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since the jim crow era and so we have to
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have a federal response because if we
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don't
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what we're going to see is that we're
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going to have dramatically different
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aspects of our democracy in different
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states in some states
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you know you'll be you know able to vote
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pretty freely have access to vote by
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mail and others
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i see every restriction possible put in
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place and you know that patchwork system
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is one that we used to have in this
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country in which some states didn't even
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allow
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americans like me to vote and we are we
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moved away from that we passed the
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voting rights act we've made so much
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progress
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we can't go backwards
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so republicans unanimously oppose this
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bill they argue it amounts to a federal
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takeover of state-run elections how do
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you respond to that
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we need to have national standards
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around what's acceptable and what should
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be available
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to all americans so what are we talking
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about in in this bill
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it's setting national standards for
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access to vote by mail
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national standards support early voting
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setting standards around voter
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registration
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so that our democracy isn't radically
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different from state to state
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within that and within those national
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standards the states will still have the
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ability
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to administer the elections the way they
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always have but this is also one of the
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arguments that we heard
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uh during the jim crow era that we can't
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have a national
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the federal government coming in and
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telling the states how to run their
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elections well what they were doing
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in the south was making sure through
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either terror and violence or through
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the law
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making sure that african-americans had
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no access to the ballot and we've moved
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away from that
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and what i am seeing and what i think a
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lot of folks like me who worked in the
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voting rights space to see
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is an attempt to maybe not go back to
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that but to go back to an era in which
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we have actual discriminatory laws on
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the books that we know are
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discriminatory
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that are introduced in order to be
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discriminatory and really the basis for
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this
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as we have to all remember is the big
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lie that the last election was stolen
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the last election was fraudulent and
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that's just not true
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so your home state texas has become uh
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one of the latest republican dominated
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states to advance these
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you know their version of new voting
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limits
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the governor says he's very eager to
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sign the law it passed in the state's
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house
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i'm wondering what the options are that
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democrats have certainly this for the
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people act
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is one option but do democrats have any
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other options to
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slow these efforts that we're seeing
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across the country
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you know we don't have a lot of options
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at the state level where you have full
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control
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of the legislature and the governor and
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they're saying this is a priority even
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though 11 million
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texans voted in the last election and
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they couldn't find any incidents of
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you know major fraud but what we can do
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aside from hr1
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is to restore the voting rights act we
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have a bill that's going to be coming
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forward in the house
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hr 4 the john lewis voting rights act
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to restore the aspects of that law that
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were carved out by the supreme court a
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few years ago back in 2013
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and this really led to this kind of
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nationwide bonanza
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really of voter restrictions ever since
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that part of the voting rights act was
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struck down we've seen
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just an explosion of these laws so we
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can restore that
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and of course we have the courts where
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we can try and you know make our case in
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the courts but
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as we've seen over the last four years
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you know a lot of folks been put on the
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bench whether it's
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the district court level or at the
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appellate court level or even at the
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supreme court
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who have been pretty hostile to voting
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so i don't have a lot of
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faith that the courts are going to be
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our backstop here i think we need to
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have
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legislation i would like it to be
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bipartisan because in the past
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voting rights has been bipartisan but if
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we have to do it
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we need to make sure we find some way to
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protect the right to vote in this
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country
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it's really fundamental there's no more
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fundamental aspect of our democracy
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than people being able to engage and
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make their voice heard
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i guess the issue for some uh
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congressman is
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what you said earlier which is that a
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lot of these
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restrictions are coming into place based
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off of the big lie right where
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you have states for example like florida
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where the governor has bragged that uh
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his the elections in that state were all
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done well the secretary of state in
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florida has bragged that
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uh that florida was a modicum of success
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when it came to
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elections and then yet they're putting
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in these restrictive
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voting uh regulations and rules and into
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place and so
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and so if if the premise is already
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flawed
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how can you find any sort of daylight
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you know what i mean if like
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it would be one thing to suggest that
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there was a problem and that needs to be
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fixed but there were no problems
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other than the the the the lies and the
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misinformation that the former president
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has spread with regards to the election
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so you're already starting from a flawed
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premise
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yeah we are and there's no basis for
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these laws
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and when you have you know policies like
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this that are really
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just trying to fulfill either a campaign
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promise of some kind or
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or to you know try and support their
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show their support for
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the former president that is not a
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rational basis
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for making voting laws in this country
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or in any state
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i mean and these are going to impact
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republican voters too which is one of
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the things that i just don't understand
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the rationale behind this in the last
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election republicans did very well down
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ballot in the state of texas you know
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donald trump still won by over five
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points
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uh our the senate candidate won by ten
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points you know
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they did very well down ballot so in the
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same election where they're saying
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we did so well and we gained the seats
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in the house and on all of these things
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and
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that that in that same election there
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was so much fraud that occurred
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that they have to pass all these laws in
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all these states and it just doesn't
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make
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any sense at all and when you look at
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the laws when you look at them
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they are so explicitly intended to try
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and restrict
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the right to vote for certain people
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that it's almost laughable
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and embarrassing like in georgia where
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they first of all create laws that are
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going to create
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long lines and then they say but while
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we're you're in that
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line no one can bring you any food or
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water because if they did if they get
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grandma
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a sip of water or cracker or something
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like that then that is a crime
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i mean what are we talking about here
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this is the united states of america
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we're the oldest and most important
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democracy
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in the world every other democracy
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around the world looks to us
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and here we are having states passing
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laws like in texas
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where they want to allow poll watchers
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who are partisan poll watchers by the
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way they have to be appointed by the
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political party poll watchers to be in
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the polling place
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filming voters filming voters and
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challenging them
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while they're trying to vote that's just
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pure intimidation that's what we're
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talking about here these are not
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legitimate laws
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all right congressman colin allred great
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to have you sir as always we appreciate
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it
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thank you for having me
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