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House Democrats Pass Landmark H.R. 1 "For The People Act" with Zero Republican Support
As reported two weeks ago, the Democrats’ first order of business as they took control of the 116th Congress was introducing H.R. 1, the “For the People Act.” The bill covers voting rights, campaign finance reform, ethics improvements among other things. “For the People Act” would go an enormous way toward repairing our badly broken democracy.
House Democrats officially passed their massive anti-corruption and pro-democracy reform bill known as HR 1 on Friday [3/8/19]. The bill passed on a final vote of 234 to 193.
HR 1 covers three main planks: campaign finance reform, strengthening the government’s ethics laws, and expanding voting rights. Here’s the important part of each section, briefly explained.
The bill....would require major presidential candidates to release 10 years of tax returns and require that presidents and vice presidents divest to avoid financial conflicts of interest. It would bolster transparency on campaign spending and fortify ethics rules constraining lobbyists in all kinds of ways. It would thwart voter suppression and extreme gerrymanders while making participation easier.
The bill the House Democrats passed is the Democratic answer to Trump's toxic blend of corruption and plutocracy. It would deliver the swamp-draining that Trump promised -- and reneged upon. It's a big statement in advance of 2020.
H.R. 1, a sprawling anti-corruption, pro-democracy piece of legislation that constitutes an ambitious and comprehensive Democratic blueprint for draining the swamp in the Trump era.
We are now in the midst of discovering whether Trump can indulge in industrial-scale wrongdoing, misconduct, corrupt self-dealing, and likely criminality with impunity, as if rules and laws don’t apply to him.
The Democrats’ bill, which just passed the House on a party-line vote, offers the foundation for the Democratic answer to this.
Political scientist Lee Drutman has described the bill as “the most transformative pro-democracy package in decades.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, an ardent opponent of laws regulating money in politics, will not let this come to a vote in the Senate. We need to scream that fact at the top of our lungs.
The GOP Senate will, of course, refuse any vote on the bill. But in so doing, Republicans will demonstrate that they don’t believe their ideas can triumph without “election-rigging.” And they will leave behind Democrats as the sole party of real reform.
....this is an agenda that actually commands a great deal of unity....shows massive consensus around a set of proposals that would counter elite corruption and influence
Sources:
http://smartdissent.com/article/house-democrats-hr1-election-reform-bill-seeks-save-american
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/nancy-pelosi-election-reform-bill-save-democracy.html
https://www.vox.com/2019/1/18/18188150/mitch-mcconnell-house-democrats-anti-corruption-bill-hr1