Democracy 21 Applauds House Passage of Historic Democracy Reform Legislation, Three-to-Five Year Battle Now Moves to Senate and 2020 Presidential and Congressional Campaigns
The House today passed H.R. 1, historic reform legislation to repair our broken political system and revitalize our democracy. H.R. 1 includes far-reaching reforms to address Washington corruption, voter suppression, extreme partisan gerrymandering and abuse of public office for private financial gain.
The three-to-five year battle to enact this unprecedented package of reforms now moves to the Senate and to the national debate that will occur in the 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns. Senate Majority Leader McConnell has said he will do the political equivalent of standing in the schoolhouse door to maintain the status quo. We have beaten Senator McConnell on democracy reforms in the past and will beat him again.
Every House member who voted for H.R. 1 deserves great credit for taking bold action to unrig the system in Washington. The House members who passed H.R. 1 took a giant step forward in restoring the integrity and health of our democracy.
The passage of H.R. 1 is a tremendous victory for the American people who have made overwhelmingly clear that they want our political system fixed and Washington corruption ended. It is also a great victory for the Declaration for American Democracy coalition of more than 130 organizations who played a major role in passing the comprehensive reform legislation.
H.R. 1 is a marker bill, not a message bill, which sets the standard for future battles that will ultimately end with the enactment of this essential democracy reform package.
Enormous credit is due to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Sarbanes for the extraordinary national leadership they have provided in achieving today’s victory.
Speaker Pelosi has repeated the successful effort she led in 2007 to pass sweeping lobbying and ethics reforms following the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandals. Speaker Pelosi injected the democracy reform issues into the 2018 national debate, established the overriding importance of the reforms by making the reform package H.R. 1 and provided indispensable leadership in the House where all 234 Democratic Members who voted, voted yes.
Rep. John Sarbanes has been the legislative leader, architect and chief strategist for H.R. 1. Rep. Sarbanes’ relentless, forceful and highly skilled efforts over a number of years built the inside support from his colleagues and the outside support from a broad range of organizations that were central to today’s victory.
There are a number of other Representatives who played key roles in achieving today’s win. They include, but are not limited to, the following Members.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer provided critical leadership in the House for passage of H.R. 1. House Administration Committee Chairman Zoe Lofgren effectively managed the bill in Committee and skillfully shepherded the bill through House floor consideration and passage.
Rep. David Price, a longtime reform leader, developed a number of the campaign finance proposals in H.R. 1. Rep. John Lewis, an American icon, led the voting rights efforts included in H.R. 1.
Rep. David Cicilline led the effort to close the disclosure loopholes used to pour dark money into federal elections. House Oversight Committee Chair Elijah Cummings and House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler provided important leadership on key portions of the bill, including the ethics reforms.
The House Democratic freshman class was a driving engine for H.R. 1 and fulfilled the pledges they made in their 2018 campaigns to bring a new movement for fundamental reform to Congress and to take successful action against Washington corruption and special interest influence. The Democratic freshman class deserves great credit for the collective force they brought to achieving today’s democracy reform victory.
Two House staff members deserve special recognition for the tremendous contributions they made to today’s victory: Raymond O’Mara, Deputy Chief of Staff for Representative Sarbanes, and Jamie Fleet, Chief of Staff for the House Administration Committee. The tireless, dedicated and skillful 24/7 efforts of Raymond O’Mara and Jamie Fleet were vitally important to achieving today’s victory.
Special recognition also is due to the talented staff of House Speaker Pelosi, who played a key role in the internal efforts that resulted in all House Democrats sponsoring the bill and 234 House Democrats voting for the legislation.
The single most important anti-corruption measure in H.R. 1 is the small donor, matching funds system for congressional and presidential races.
As long as the Citizens United decision stands, influence-money corruption will continue in Washington until federal officeholders and candidates can finance their campaigns free from the vise-like grip of big money funders, bundlers, lobbyist fundraisers and special interest donors. The small donor, matching funds system in H.R. 1 provides this essential alternative financing system.
The proposed small donor, matching funds system will be financed for the first time by lawbreakers, not taxpayers. It will be financed entirely from a new de minimis assessment on federal fines, penalties and settlements for corporate malfeasance and major tax crimes. Despite the new financing approach, opponents of the bill continue to grossly mislead the public by falsely telling the American people that they will pay for this system through their taxes.
A priority effort will now be made in the coming months and years to build Republican support in the country and in Congress for the democracy reform package. Building bipartisan support for democracy reforms has been successfully done in the past and will be done again.
The House victory today begins a battle that will continue for as long as it takes to enact the democracy reforms in H.R. 1. The American people will ultimately win this battle.
The fight goes on.
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