Passing the “For the People Act” to Create a More Accessible, Transparent and Responsive Government

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At a Glance

Congress should pass and President Joe Biden should sign into law the comprehensive set of democracy reforms outlined in H.R. 1/S. 1 to advance the freedom to vote, strengthen ethics laws, end partisan gerrymandering and decrease the influence of wealthy special interests in our political system.

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Campaign Legal Center (CLC) released a report grading states on their 2021 legislative sessions on Aug. 11, 2021. This is the first report to zoom in on how states have changed their vote-by-mail and early voting laws this year, finding that seven states enacted restrictive laws in the first half of the year.

The report uses a 10-point scale to...

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About this Action

Over the last decade, our country’s democracy has suffered attacks on several fronts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC that struck down the prohibition on corporate independent expenditures has allowed wealthy special interests to inundate our elections with record-breaking amounts of campaign spending and difficult-to-trace dark money, making elected officials more responsive to a select few rather than everyday Americans. In 2013, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court opened up new opportunities for voter suppression. In the years since, many states and localities have instituted a slew of restrictive photo ID laws, polling place closures and purges of voter rolls that aim to suppress voters of color. Meanwhile, extreme partisan gerrymandering in states across the country has further disenfranchised many voters by creating political maps that rig the system in favor of the politicians or party in power.

Additionally, there have been rampant ethical abuses by officials in the highest levels of government, which has set a dangerous precedent by eroding the line between the work that elected officials do for their own campaigns or personal benefit versus the work that they do on behalf of the public. Additionally, lobbyists and even registered foreign agents have been able to serve in the government and exert influence over its decision-making processes.

In 2020, the combination of the presidential election and COVID-19 pandemic brought more opportunities to try to restrict voting rights, dump vast sums of money into our political system and violate ethics norms. Restrictions on in-person gatherings made it harder for citizen activists in states across the country to gather the number of signatures required to get initiatives that would have ended partisan gerrymandering on the ballot.

The For the People Act, H.R. 1/S 1, is a sweeping legislation package that offers some of the most comprehensive advances our democracy has seen in decades. These reforms in this legislation are deeply popular and have already been passed in many states and localities. They aim to accomplish three overarching goals: (1) protecting and strengthening the freedom to vote, (2) decreasing the amount of influence wealthy special interests can exert over our politics and (3) implementing anti-corruption, pro-ethics measures to clean up government. In addition to strengthening federal ethics laws, the For the People Act would also create a more transparent process where citizen-led independent redistricting commissions would draw political maps.

Our elected officials should make good on their promise to prioritize democracy reform. We all deserve to have a government that is accessible, transparent and responsive to us.

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