{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5195", "Reps. Houlahan, Goodlander, Whitesides, Ryan Introduce Protect Our Polls Act, Blocking Armed Federal Agents at Polls", "2026-09-15", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "PA", "Chrissy Houlahan", "H001085", "houlahan.house.gov", "houlahan", "https://houlahan.house.gov/news/rss.aspx", "scraper", "\u201cAmericans should never have to walk past armed federal agents or military personnel to cast their ballot,\u201d said Rep. Houlahan. \u201cSince the Civil War, federal law has kept troops away from our polling places, and for good reason. Our military exists to defend the Constitution and the American people, not to police our elections.\n\n\u201cWhen I asked a senior military official whether troops could be deployed to polling places this November, I could not get a commitment that they would not be. That should alarm every American. We should not have to rely on the restraint of this or any President or administration when something as fundamental as the right to vote is at stake. The Protect Our Polls Act makes the guardrails unmistakable: no President gets to put armed federal forces at our polls without Congress and the law standing in the way.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe right to vote is the fundamental right from which all of our rights flow as Americans, and free and fair elections are the foundation of our republic,\u201d said Rep. Goodlander. \u201cAt a moment when this President is hellbent on sowing chaos and confusion in our elections, our commonsense bill makes a bedrock American principle crystal clear: the ballot box belongs to the American people\u2014not any President.\u201d\n\n\u201cTrump\u2019s second term has been defined by crushing cost increases, a war in Iran \u2013 which has cost us billions in taxpayer dollars and the lives of 18 brave Patriots \u2013 and historic cuts to programs like SNAP and Medicaid,\u201d said Rep. Ryan. \u201cThat\u2019s not a winning message, and Trump knows it \u2013 that\u2019s why he\u2019s doing everything in his power to silence the American people ahead of the election. This legislation would help ensure that every American has unencumbered access to their polling place in November, and stop the President from yet again using our Patriots in uniform as pawns in his political games.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis administration has spent months trying to chip away at Americans' confidence in our elections \u2013 from executive orders targeting mail voting, to threats against states that don't fall in line,\u201d said Rep. Whitesides. \u201cThat's not how democracy is supposed to work. The right to vote doesn't belong to whoever holds power in Washington; it belongs to the American people. The Protect Our Polls Act strengthens existing guardrails to require Congressional approval before the President can make any kind of decision to deploy armed agents to polling places.\u201d", 1, "2026-09-16T09:43:13Z", "2026-09-16T09:44:22Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://houlahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=5195"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5798737294971943, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}