The right to vote is one that citizens of all stripes have worked hard to win throughout our nation’s history. Given all those sacrifices others have made in the past, it is unconscionable that red tape and access to information could become obstacles between American citizens overseas and their right to have a say in their nation’s affairs. My bill would infuse new enthusiasm, innovation, and resources into outreach to this American community.

Yesterday, I opposed H.R. 3773, the RESTORE Act, because of serious flaws in the bill that would weaken the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a key tool of the Director of National Intelligence in the fight against terrorists.

This bill falls far short of giving our intelligence community what it needs to do its job — while at the same time infringing on our civil liberties by creating and maintaining a single database listing all Americans identified in foreign intelligence information. This act is flawed and would significantly damage the intelligence community’s ability to effectively protect us from foreign threats. Read the rest of this entry »

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, and we must do all we can to protect the right to vote. That is why I have introduced the Provisional Ballot Fairness in Counting Act of 2007, a bill that would close a major loophole in the Help America Vote Act.

The Help America Vote Act sought to enfranchise voters by mandating that voters who are told they are not on the registration rolls be given provisional ballots. It was assumed that those citizens determined to be eligible would have their votes counted. It didn’t, however, establish standards for how and when those ballots would be counted. In fact in many instances those ballots in many districts simply were not counted. My bill would ensure that votes cast correctly would be counted, even votes cast for the correct race but in the wrong precinct. Read the rest of this entry »

When immigrants illegally cross the border they show disregard for our country and our laws. Rewarding them with drivers’ licenses or any form of state identification not only undermines our laws, but more disturbingly, our national security. As a nation, we must come to terms that immigration is a critical issue for our entire country – not just border states. It cannot be dealt with in an ill-advised, piecemeal fashion that will allow illegal aliens from New York any form of identification that would disguise their illegal status in other states like Mississippi.

The more I know about the Google-DoubleClick merger, the more I realize that that the personal privacy of computer users doesn’t seem to be much of a priority.  Google is an information colossus already, but add on DoubleClick’s marketing power and you produce a single commercial entity that can know more about you and me than nearly everybody but mom and the IRS. It looks like the old saying, “I know where you live,” is only the start. They’ll know where we go, who and what we see, and what we buy, too. And they’ll know it forever. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, the Department of Justice demanded more information from Florida about changes the state made to its voting rules before approving, or “preclearing,” the law. This move was an all-too-rare exercise of the DOJ’s responsibility to enforce the nation’s premiere civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act, which requires certain states and counties to submit changes in election law to the Department for approval. Those states and counties are usually those with a history of discrimination; five Florida counties are covered (Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Monroe), so statewide changes need to be approved by the Department.

States are required to prove that the changes they make will not have a “retrogressive” effect on minority voting rights-that is, that they will leave minority voters no worse off than they would have been without the change. After states make their submission, the DOJ has sixty days to preclear the law, object to it, or ask for more information. The DOJ’s letter will trigger another sixty-day period to preclear or object to the law, running right up to December 29-a few days before the new law is scheduled to go into effect on January 1. Read the rest of this entry »

Torture runs counter to America’s moral values and is inconsistent with the rule of law. More importantly, torture is not an effective interrogation method. For these reasons, I convened a hearing of the Judiciary Committee subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on Thursday to investigate the effectiveness and consequences of what the Bush Administration has called “Enhanced Interrogation.� Some of what has gone on, despite this administration’s penchant for secrecy, has become public.

Since news of the mistreatment, and possible torture, of detainees in U.S. custody first surfaced, Congress has debated, and legislated, on the subject of the legal and moral limits on interrogation. We are only starting to get to the bottom of what our government has been doing and to what extent we have gone beyond the bounds of acceptable behavior. Read the rest of this entry »

This legislation would increase the pressure on states to stop issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Driving is a privilege, not a right. That privilege should not be extended to those that have shown a disregard for federal immigration laws. As the former Secretary of State of Michigan who streamlined both the voting rolls and driving files, we cannot allow illegal aliens to continue to obtain driver’s licenses or vote in our state.

The integrity of our voting process is inextricably linked to a clean driving file. Michigan has been a state that rewards illegal aliens by giving them driver’s licenses and state ID cards, a situation that I worked diligently to change. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful at persuading the Legislature to change the law, which is why I made it a priority when I came to Congress. I was deeply involved in crafting the Real ID legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that mandates states to stop giving these identity documents to illegal aliens. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently the Governor of the State of New York announced that illegal immigrants to the United States would soon be allowed to obtain New York State drivers’ licenses. According to news reports, the only required documentation an illegal immigrant would have to present to obtain the driver’s license is a “valid foreign passport.�

New York is at least the fourth state in the nation to issue drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens.

While I have long been a supporter of legal immigration, I have been and will always remain opposed to illegal immigration. And, I am greatly concerned about the impact of this policy and the message it sends.

The strain caused by illegal immigration on America’s social programs is an issue that cannot be ignored. Oftentimes, illegal immigrants literally make the difference, from a cost standpoint, as to the levels of service that can be offered by state and local governments. Read the rest of this entry »

Two years ago, Army Specialist Kendell Frederick, a 21-year-old Maryland resident, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq while en route to be re-fingerprinted for his United States citizenship application. Spc. Frederick, a native to Trinidad, had been trying for more than a year to obtain citizenship, but his application was delayed multiple times due to government miscommunication and misinformation—including information regarding his fingerprints, which were already on file with the military from the time of his enlistment. Sadly, he was not alive when his mother finally received his citizenship documents.

Taking up arms to defend our nation and help secure our freedom is an act of service that is made even more meaningful when the sacrifice is made by soldiers not born in the U.S. When people are willing to fight relentlessly on the battlefield to protect our great nation, they should not also be forced to battle through a drawn-out citizenship process full of unnecessary red tape. There is absolutely no excuse for allowing men and women to risk their lives without also allowing their requests for citizenship to be processed expeditiously. Read the rest of this entry »