House Majority unveil first major legislative package of voting, campaign finance and ethics overhauls

Automatic voter registration, independent redistricting commissions, super PAC restrictions, forced release of presidential tax returns — these are just a handful of the provisions in a massive government overhaul package House Democrats will formally unveil Friday, according to a summary of the legislation obtained by Roll Call. 

The package is being introduced as H.R. 1 to show that it’s the top priority of the new Democratic majority. Committees with jurisdiction over the measures will hold markups on the legislation before the package is brought to the floor sometime later this month or early in February. 

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Automatic voter registration, independent redistricting commissions, super PAC restrictions, forced release of presidential tax returns — these are just a handful of the provisions in a massive government overhaul package House Democrats will formally unveil Friday. It also would require states to set up independent, nonpartisan commissions to draw congressional districts, an effort to combat gerrymandering. “That’s a really wonderful thing,” said Paul Smith, vice president of the Campaign Legal Center, who argued before the Supreme Court in recent cases on voting and gerrymandering. Though many of the proposals seem unrelated, Smith said they all aim to address what he views as an ailing democracy. What the Democrats are after at bottom, Smith said, is turning aside efforts by Republicans who wanted to prevent a new majority "coming into being in this country — younger, people of color — and people are trying to prevent them having their voice heard,” he said. The congressional effort, because it upsets many applecarts, he added, "may take a little while."

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