House Democrats will pass their massive clean government legislation Friday, fulfilling a key promise of the 2018 election. H.R. 1, the "For the People Act of 2019," is a sweeping package of election, campaign finance, voting, and government ethics reform.
The bill would make it easier for people to vote and harder for state governments to suppress the vote, and would impose a swath of ethics laws for federal government officials. "It's about confidence. It's about ending skepticism," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during a news conference on Thursday. "This is about honoring our democracy."
In broad strokes, the bill tries to end dark money by requiring super PACs to make their donors public, and impose lobbying registration requirements and provide more oversight of foreign agents. It also would set up nonpartisan redistricting commissions to end partisan gerrymandering, and create national automatic voter registration. It also addresses the third branch, by instituting an ethics code for U.S. Supreme Court justices.
It hits the executive branch, too, with "new rules and prohibitions on the [presidential] transition teams and inaugural committees." Additionally, it requires presidents, vice presidents, and presidential nominees to release their tax returns, including the current president, who would have to release 10 years’ worth of personal and business tax returns. Just one of many reasons Mitch McConnell won't let it near the Senate floor.
More transparency, better elections, tools to fight voter suppression—it's all there. It's what we elected a Democratic House to do. And it is providing a roadmap for a new Democratic trifecta—House, Senate, and White House—in 2020.