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U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

Trump’s Plan to Strip Rep. Omar of Her Citizenship Is Unconstitutional and a Threat to All of Us

JD Vance

JD Vance Tells Republicans Who America’s Real Birthright Citizens Are

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Sue New York After Being Denied the Right to Vote

Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Wars Sue New York After Being Denied the Right to Vote

Meeting, handshake and business people with deal in office for funding approval and success.

On Immigration, Common Ground May Be Closer Than We Think

If It Quacks Like a Fascist

If It Quacks Like a Fascist

Senators may unveil Electoral Count Act reform proposal this week

Sen. Susan Collins and Sen. Joe Manchin

The bipartisan Senate group led by Susan Collins and Joe Manchin intend to reveal their plan to update the Electoral Count Act in the coming days.

Alex Wong/Getty Images
David Meyers
By David MeyersJul 19, 2022
David Meyers

David Meyers is the Executive Editor of The Fulcrum. Before launching The Fulcrum, David spent more than two decades at CQ Roll Call, a leading publisher of political news and information. During his time there, David served as managing editor of Roll Call (“the newspaper of Capitol Hill”) and as managing editor of member information and research, which included co-editing the definitive biographical directory of Congress, “Politics in America.” David went on to lead all of CQ Roll Call’s congressional research teams as vice president of research and content development before shifting to a revenue and strategy role as vice president of business operations for Roll Call, working with the advertising and editorial teams to develop new revenue models and expand the company’s events business. David lives in Fairfax, Va., with his wife, two daughters and rottweiler. A graduate of Tufts University, David is a past president of the Tufts University Alumni Association. He is also a past president of the Washington Press Club Foundation, which works to celebrate and advance the role of women and minorities in the media. David currently serves on the board of directors for Temple B’nai Shalom in Fairfax Station.

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A bipartisan effort to solidify the role of Congress and the vice president in certifying election results may move forward this week, as the committee investigating the Capitol riot prepares for another primetime hearing.

The Electoral Count Act sets the rules for finalizing presidential elections; Donald Trump and some of his supporters attempted to exploit ambiguities in the law in order to keep him in the White House. When that failed, thousands of people stormed the Capitol.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is leading a partisan effort to update the ECA with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, told reporters Monday that their bipartisan group expects to offer legislation this week.

“This turned out to be a more complex task than we anticipated, as always is the case when you're delving into an 1887 law that has ambiguous and outdated language, but I do anticipate that our group will introduce the bills this week,” Collins said, according to The Washington Post.

The ECA was passed after three states submitted multiple slates of electors in the 1887 presidential contest. In order to prevent future confusion, Congress passed a law that outlines the process and procedures for counting electoral votes. But the language is vague in some areas, including the role of the vice president – which Trump attempted to exploit by having Mike Pence overturn the results.

Pence refused, Trump and many of his followers were outraged, and the insurrection ensued with some people even demanding that Pence be hanged.

According to the Post, the Collins-Manchin bill is expected to clear up ambiguities in the ECA. It will:

  • Set deadlines for states to change election rules.
  • Make clear that states cannot select electors after Election day.
  • Increase the requirement for Congress to object to a state’s slate of electors (currently one member from each chamber).
  • State clearly that the vice president’s role is purely ceremonial.

The nonpartisan group CommonSense American recently released survey data showing overwhelming support for reforming the ECA. The group found that 97 percent of Democrats and 86 percent of Republicans agree that the vice president’s role in the process must be clarified.

CommonSense American also found strong support for other elements of the ECA reform bill, including 80 percent support for barring states from changing how electors are selected after Election Day, and 76 percent backing for making it more difficult for members of Congress to object to a state’s electoral slate.

The committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot will hold its ninth – and second primetime – hearing Thursday. The panel’s members will focus on Trump’s actions on that day. Matthew Pottinger, who served on the National Security Council, and former White House press aide Sarah Matthews are both expected to testify. Both resigned their positions in response to the insurrection.


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​U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies during a Senate Committee on Appropriations hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2026. Hegseth is crafting a strong and masculine identity for his audience as he reportedly contemplates a presidential run.

(Alex Wroblewski/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

Politicians Can’t Just ’Give the People What They Want’

For reasons that will baffle my many detractors, I am often asked for advice about being an opinion journalist. One of my standard responses is: You have to be willing to disappoint your biggest fans.

What I mean is that if you start to see your job as telling fans what they want to hear, you risk becoming an entertainer rather than a thinker, and eventually you become a caricature. I’ve seen it happen numerous times. Patrick Buchanan was a brilliant columnist and a serious person. But over the course of his career, he listened too much to the people who said, “Go Pat, go!” and too little to friends who said, “I think that’s taking it too far.”

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White marble exterior of the United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government

Congress approval is at a record-low 10%. Moderation and consensus-building, not partisan theatrics, are how Washington gets problems solved.

Richard Sharrocks / Getty Images

Reclaiming the Politics of the Possible

Washington is stuck in a cycle of performative conflict. The incentives seem to reward outrage, not outcomes that last; purity tests, not problem‑solving. So it’s no surprise that after three shutdowns in less than a year, public approval of Congress collapsed to just 10 percent this spring. (Gallup, April 2026.) But the country we live in — where many middle-income families report persistent financial strain and businesses are navigating unprecedented technological upheaval — cannot be governed by theatrics. Breaking this cycle requires moderation, consensus‑building, and a cooperative approach to governance.

This is not a call for centrism as an ideology. Instead, this is a call for transformative leaders to embrace moderation as their governing strategy, recognizing that in a pluralistic country of nearly 350 million people durable solutions require broad and stable alliances. Ultimately, this is a call for the 240 million of us who are eligible to vote in November to elect consensus-builders instead of bomb-throwers, and healers instead of arsonists.

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Congress ignored 90% of public support for background checks. Learn how citizen assemblies and sortition helped Ireland break gridlock and could work in the US.

SDI Productions/Getty Images

Consensus Without Power: How Sortition Could Break America's Legislative Gridlock

In April 2013, four months after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting killed twenty children, the US Senate voted on the Manchin-Toomey Act to expand background checks and to include gun-show and internet sales of firearms. Roughly nine in ten Americans, including a majority of gun owners, supported the bill—a figure that has held steady across more than a decade of polling. It fell short of the 60-vote threshold by six votes. This was not an outlier. On complex issues, representatives often fail to translate public consensus into reality. Research shows that legislators consistently vote in line with donor and interest group preferences over constituent opinion. Before the vote, the National Rifle Association (NRA) warned every senator it would “rate” their vote on its annual rating system, and a low NRA rating could cost senators their next primary. Consequently, the bill died 54-46, and the majority of Americans watched, powerless, as their consensus was overridden by self-interested representatives.

Liberal democracies need a method to bypass electoral incentives that run counter to public opinion. One already exists: Ireland faced the same stalemate on complex issues before it instituted a process called sortition. The beauty of sortition lies in its removal of the primary pressure that misaligns representatives’ interests from public interest: reelection. Much like jury duty, citizens are randomly drawn from the population. An independent body then stratifies the pool, so the final group mirrors the country by age, gender, geography, and income. The group meets over weeks or months, hearing from experts and the public, as well as debating frequently. At the end, it issues a recommendation that parliament may then put to a referendum or pass into law.

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Emily Scherer for The 19th; Getty Images

California’s New Law Aims To Close a Housing Gap for Domestic Violence Survivors

Domestic violence survivors often struggle to find housing, and California’s “Unseen and Unheard Housing Act” will help make more housing available to meet their specific needs.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill Sunday requiring cities and counties to factor in domestic violence survivors when planning for future housing.

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