D21 Strongly Urges House Members to Support H.R. 1, Historic Democracy Reform Legislation Reintroduced Yesterday
Democracy 21 applauds Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Sarbanes, and Chair Lofgren for the powerful leadership they have provided for the country and the Congress to repair our broken political system.
H.R. 1 is historic democracy reform legislation that passed the House in March 2019 by a vote of 234 to 193. The bill addresses fundamental problems in our democracy, including a corrupting campaign finance system, voter suppression and discrimination, excessive partisan gerrymandering and the unprecedented ethics abuses of President Trump and his administration.
According to Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer:
The 2020 election and its aftermath provided incontrovertible evidence of the need to take immediate steps to repair our democracy.President Trump’s repeated attacks on the legitimacy of the election results and his unprecedented attacks on our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power demonstrate the urgency of moving quickly to enact H.R. 1.
The 2020 elections saw billions of dollars in unlimited and often secret contributions provided by influence-seeking funders to support federal candidates. The elections saw voting rights abuses that suppressed the sacred right to vote, particularly of people of color, and that interfered with the ability to vote successfully in person and by mail.
The Trump presidency has provided the most unethical practices and unprecedented abuses of office in modern history.
Democracy 21 strongly urges House members to vote for this historic legislation and to enact it swiftly. We expect Members who voted for virtually the same democracy reform legislation in the last Congress to vote for the legislation again in this Congress. These Representatives have no basis for abandoning their past votes.
The battle would then switch to the Senate. Depending on who controls the Senate, this battle can be won in 2021, or in 2023 when Republicans currently have 21 Senators up for re-election compared to 13 Democratic Senators.
But the fight to fix our democracy and political system will go on for as long as it takes to win the battle.
