By Ted Cruz: WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of today's Senate Rules Committee hearing on Democrats' radical "For the People' Act, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today penned an op-ed for Real Clear Politics outlining the dangerous provisions of the bill, which if signed into law will overhaul state election laws, destroy election integrity, and cement Democrat control for decades. In the op-ed, Sen. Cruz wrote: "Democrats call this bill the For the People Act, or HR 1, but a more appropriate name would be the Corrupt Politicians Act because it's designed by the politicians, of the politicians, and for the politicians." [...] "It undermines Americans' voting rights by expanding illegal immigrants' and felons' access to the ballot box. The bill mandates registering nearly everyone in the country to vote, regardless of their eligibility, prevents states from maintaining the integrity of their voting rolls or removing dead people, and requires that felons be allowed to vote. It will effectively repeal state and local election laws put in place by the people through their representatives and allow for potentially millions of felons, non-citizens, or illegal immigrants to decide who runs our federal government." [...] "This bill is not designed to protect the right to vote. Instead, it's a dangerous and brazenly partisan power grab designed by the Democrats to corruptly turn their current razor-thin majority into a much larger and permanent majority so they can enact the Green New Deal and other items on their deeply unpopular progressive wish list. And allowing millions of illegal voters to cast votes robs you of your constitutional right to vote." Read the full op-ed here and below. "Corrupt Politicians Act' Rigs Elections for the Radical LeftReal Clear PoliticsSen. Ted CruzMarch 24, 2021 Fresh off of ramming through a $1.9 trillion monstrosity of a stimulus bill stuffed with pork spending and liberal pet projects, Democrats are gearing up to try to radically transform our election system and lock in majorities at every level of elected government for decades to come. Democrats call this bill the For the People Act, or HR 1, but a more appropriate name would be the Corrupt Politicians Act because it's designed by the politicians, of the politicians, and for the politicians. Here are just a few of the countless reasons why this bill may be the single most dangerous piece of legislation we've seen in decades: It throws out state election laws and puts Washington in charge. This bill eliminates countless state election integrity laws, including Texas' and other states' voter ID laws, and replaces them with a set of new laws negotiated by Democrat operatives and radical left-wing activists. The fact is, Democrats are furious that, last fall, Republicans won control of legislatures across the country, so now they're trying to use control of the federal government to eliminate states' common-sense election laws. It undermines Americans' voting rights by expanding illegal immigrants' and felons' access to the ballot box. The bill mandates registering nearly everyone in the country to vote, regardless of their eligibility, prevents states from maintaining the integrity of their voting rolls or removing dead people, and requires that felons be allowed to vote. It will effectively repeal state and local election laws put in place by the people through their representatives and allow for potentially millions of felons, non-citizens, or illegal immigrants to decide who runs our federal government. It codifies voter fraud and mandates ballot harvesting. The bill requires states to allow universal, no-excuse mail-in voting while stripping states of the ability to ensure the integrity of these ballots. For example, states can't require IDs to vote and the bill makes it nearly impossible to challenge signature matches without the agreement of a Democrat. Moreover, it allows Democratic operatives to collect and submit unlimited ballots - opening the door to widespread fraud - and requires counting these ballots even if they arrive 10 days after Election Day. It funnels millions of federal dollars to Democrat campaigns and candidates. This law would be federal welfare for politicians; it provides a 6-to-1 public subsidy for grassroots, small-dollar donations. For every dollar raised by a politician, they get $6 from the federal government. So the $200 you donate to a qualifying candidate will actually become a $1,200 donation from the federal government. Democrats always talk a big game about getting small-dollar donations. Turns out that what they really want is a cut of federal spending for their campaigns. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 39% of Americans think the 2020 presidential election was rigged. That view is not held by just Republican voters. That belief was shared by 31% of Independents and 17% of Democrats. This is both tragic and dangerous for the future of our republic. And if the Corrupt Politicians Act is signed into law, things will only become worse. This bill would destroy the American people's confidence in our democratic system for the foreseeable future because it is designed to rig future elections for the radical left. I have no doubt that protecting the integrity of our elections and the voting rights of the American people will continue to be a major focus for elected officials here in Washington and across the country. And while there are common-sense proposals Congress can consider, it's the states that the Constitution entrusts with ensuring that our elections are safe and secure and protecting the voting rights of all law-abiding Americans. This bill is not designed to protect the right to vote. Instead, it's a dangerous and brazenly partisan power grab designed by the Democrats to corruptly turn their current razor-thin majority into a much larger and permanent majority so they can enact the Green New Deal and other items on their deeply unpopular progressive wish list. And allowing millions of illegal voters to cast votes robs you of your constitutional right to vote. Democrats did not write the Corrupt Politicians Act to strengthen our elections system or to restore trust in our democracy. They wrote it to expand voter fraud and try to ensure that they'll never lose again. We have to fight every step of the way to stop the Corrupt Politicians Act. We have to stand for free and fair elections and the rule of law, and not hand the future of our republic and our elections to the radical left.

By Ted Cruz: WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today penned an op-ed for FoxNews.com on why it's critical that the United States stand by our athletes and go to the 2022 Beijing Olympics amid calls to boycott. In the op-ed, Sen. Cruz wrote: "The worst thing we can do to stand up to China is to keep our athletes home. As anyone who has ever faced down a bully knows, when you decide to hide and not to fight, the bully wins. "Our athletes should go to Beijing next year proudly, bring home medal after medal, and show the world what it means to compete on behalf of a free society. We shouldn't give China an easy way to run up its medal count by preventing Americans from going to the Olympics. "American leaders also need to send our athletes a clear and unmistakable message: We stand with you." Read the full text of his op-ed here and below. Sen. Ted Cruz: Don't boycott China Olympics - US tried this before and here's who was hurt the mostFoxNews.comSen. Ted CruzMarch 15, 2021 There are young Americans who have spent most of their lives in training. Unlike others, they aren't assured a chance to compete, let alone a chance to win, in what they're training for. Many of them have to pay for their preparation themselves, and if they're lucky, they get a single shot to compete. They are training, of course, for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. And it's unconscionable that we would take away their right to compete next year in Beijing at the 2022 Winter Olympics. To be clear, I and many others hope that the International Olympic Committee comes to its senses and moves the 2022 Olympic Winter Games out of Beijing. As someone who was sanctioned twice by the government of China, I am flabbergasted that the IOC would ever give this human rights-abusing, free speech-repressing, trade-and-currency manipulating set of totalitarians who make up the Chinese Communist Party the honor of hosting the Olympic Games in the first place. Here's hoping that reason prevails and the Games are sent to any place but China. That said, we have tried this boycott business before, and it utterly failed. President Jimmy Carter threatened an Olympic boycott against the Soviet Union in 1980. Once he considered it, he fell deeper into it, even when it was clear that the boycott would fail. We all know how the movie ends - the Carter administration instituted a boycott, the Soviet Union didn't blink, and almost 500 American athletes had their Olympic dreams crushed. The Carter boycott was terrible policy, and it hurt the athletes and no one else. Leave it to Joe Biden to mimic Jimmy Carter within two months of his presidency, by suggesting another boycott may be on the table. The worst thing we can do to stand up to China is to keep our athletes home. As anyone who has ever faced down a bully knows, when you decide to hide and not to fight, the bully wins. Our athletes should go to Beijing next year proudly, bring home medal after medal, and show the world what it means to compete on behalf of a free society. We shouldn't give China an easy way to run up its medal count by preventing Americans from going to the Olympics. American leaders also need to send our athletes a clear and unmistakable message: We stand with you. Further, floating the idea of a boycott shows that the Biden administration does not have a China strategy and, in their fumbling, they would use American athletes as pawns to look tough on China instead of actually getting tough on China. What we really need from this administration is for them to pursue policies that will hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its censorship, espionage, propaganda and human rights abuses. We need to crush the Chinese Communist Party, not the dreams of American athletes. American leaders also need to send our athletes a clear and unmistakable message: We stand with you. Some have callously suggested that the athletes will move on, or get over it, or that this sacrifice is small in context. I disagree wholeheartedly. Many athletes and their families have built their entire lives around the possibility of Olympic competition. A boycott is no small matter to them, and we cannot casually cast aside their views. It is our responsibility and duty to make sure that our athletes go to Beijing, compete confidently and safely, and return home triumphantly. Nothing would be worse than sending them with a half-hearted public commitment, which is what the Biden administration has done by not firmly closing the door on a boycott. Athletes need to know that we are proud of them and their efforts. The scars from 1980 did not heal quickly, and we cannot and should not inflict those same wounds on this generation of American Olympians. Our athletes must go to Beijing and win.

By Sen. Ted Cruz For almost a year now, our nation has been gripped by three simultaneous crises brought on by COVID-19--a public health crisis, an economic crisis, and an education crisis. In response to the public health crisis, the United States instituted Operation Warp Speed. This effort resulted in two different COVID-19 vaccines receiving swift authorization by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA), as well as the administration of over 60 million vaccine doses to the American public. Other vaccines with promise are in the pipeline and could be authorized by the FDA in short order. Despite these early successes in developing, authorizing, and administering vaccines, we need to ensure that enough vaccines are distributed and administered in a rapid and effective manner. The truth is that the United States has never undertaken the kind of ambitious vaccine program that will be necessary to distribute hundreds of millions of doses over such a short period of time. The responsibility to address this challenge will fall largely to President Biden's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). What our country needs in its next Secretary of HHS is someone with extensive healthcare experience who can continue the successful implementation of a nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program. Successfully achieving this goal is critical to ensuring that we eradicate this virus, and to get Americans safely back to work and children safely back into the classroom. Despite the gravity of the healthcare crisis facing our country right now, President Biden has nominated a trial lawyer--someone who lacks the necessary experience and skills to serve as Secretary of HHS. That nominee, Xavier Becerra, is not a medical doctor and he possesses no medical training. Mr. Becerra also lacks relevant experience, such as leading a federal, state, or local healthcare agency or system, a state Medicaid program or Children's Health Insurance Program, medical practice, clinic, or hospital. He has no background in virology or infectious diseases. He possesses no pharmaceutical, medical device, or health-supply and equipment experience, and does not even have logistics or distribution business experience. As we face this unprecedented global pandemic, voting to confirm an HHS Secretary with absolutely no medical or scientific experience is simply irresponsible. Science matters. As best I can tell, Mr. Becerra's only healthcare experience is suing the Little Sisters of the Poor. While confronting the challenges of this pandemic, the next Secretary of HHS will also be responsible for defending patient privacy. For example, we recently learned that China has been attempting to set up COVID-19 testing labs in at least five states. These labs would enable China to "collect, store and exploit biometric information' gleaned from American COVID-19 tests, raising concerns that China is exploiting the pandemic in order to "win a race to control the world's biodata.' Mr. Becerra's record on protecting privacy is abysmal. In the course of his career, he has consistently chosen partisan power over individual privacy. As Attorney General of California, he has demanded that thousands of registered charities annually disclose to his office the names and addresses of their major donors, even though California law does not require these disclosures. This demand would be intolerably invasive even if Mr. Becerra's office kept this information closely guarded, but it has in fact done just the opposite. His office published information from nearly two thousand organizations, subjecting donors and non-profits to potential harassment and abuse. This disregard for privacy has led numerous charitable organizations from many backgrounds to file suit to challenge or support challenges to Mr. Becerra's policy. Later this year, the Supreme Court will decide whether Mr. Becerra's invasion of privacy violates the First Amendment. The next HHS Secretary will also be responsible for upholding necessary conscience protections for healthcare professionals, and Mr. Becerra has demonstrated overt hostility to anyone who dares practice medicine consistent with their faith. His record is that of an extreme ideological activist, and it demonstrates harsh intolerance for dissent. For example, he aggressively defended a California law that forced pro-life groups to advertise for abortion--a law that the Supreme Court decided violated the First Amendment. Mr. Becerra's failure to defend the First Amendment does not end there. His enforcement of stay-at-home orders and unconstitutional restrictions targeting indoor religious services--restrictions that the Supreme Court recently ruled violated Californians' First Amendment rights--rightly raises concerns that he may bring similar restrictions nationwide. In the midst of a global pandemic, we need a Secretary of Health and Human Services with direct professional healthcare, medical research, or logistics experience--not a partisan lawyer. Mr. Becerra is simply the wrong person to lead the department. In the Senate, I've urged my colleagues to reject Mr. Becerra's nomination, and I encourage President Biden to nominate someone not only qualified to lead our nation's pandemic response but also someone who does not have a demonstrated hostility towards patient privacy and the First Amendment.