• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Events
  • Civic Ed
  • Campaign Finance
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • Independent Voter News
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. big picture>

Democrats seek exposure (and face aggressive GOP) on HR 1

David Hawkings
March 04, 2019

Majority Democrats are going to slow-walk debate on their comprehensive election and ethics overhaul bill for the better part of three days this week. They hope to highlight their "good government" bona fides for as long as possible before pushing the bill through the House and on to certain death in the Republican Senate.

The only real suspense is whether GOP House members, who also appear dead set against the package, will have any success at weakening some provisions or adding language the Democratic leadership would view as poison pills.


The initial Republican strategy on that front will become clear Tuesday night, when the Rules Committee, which determines the ground rules for all of the House's legislative debates, determines whether to allow amendments.

The sprawling bill carries the label HR 1 to reflect the Democrats' desire to tout it as a top priority during their return to power, and so party leaders are very likely to do whatever they can to keep it unsullied with GOP alterations during a debate that's likely to stretch from Wednesday into Friday.

To that end, they seem willing to brush past complaints that such thwarting of an open amendment process amounts to trampling on one good-government principle even as they profess their overriding interest in promoting a more functional democracy.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Still, House rules afford Republicans one opportunity to alter the legislation right before the final vote, and they can wait to unveil their proposal until the literal last minute – so that the roll call occurs without time for any intervening pressure campaigns by lobbyists or party leaders.

This maneuver, known as the motion to recommit, has become House Republicans' new parliamentary weapon of choice this winter and they have succeeded twice so far in amending legislation, including a gun control measure last week. When the strategy works, it means the GOP has come up with a proposal that wins over a bloc of at least 20 moderate or politically vulnerable Democrats, those most likely to break from the party line in order to display a moderate streak to constituents who in many cases backed President Trump in 2016.

The catchall nature of the bill makes a brief synopsis difficult. Among other provisions, it would:

  • Expand the rules for disclosing campaign contributions to include so-called dark money groups.
  • Give congressional candidates federal matching funds for donations raised in small denominations.
  • Mandate easier voter registration systems nationwide.
  • Create a national requirement to permit early voting.
  • Set Election Day as a federal holiday.
  • Require states to give House redistricting duties to independent commissions in order to end partisan gerrymandering.
  • Bar members of Congress from serving on for-profit boards.
  • Prevent members from using taxpayer money to settle any sort of employment discrimination claim.
  • Tighten ethics rules to slow the revolving door between executive branch service and K Street advocacy.
  • Compel presidential nominees to turn over a decade's worth of income tax returns.
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Text - H.R.1 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): For the People Act of ... ›
  • 10 things you might not know about HR 1 ›
  • House Democrats Introduce Anti-Corruption Bill HR1 As First Act ... ›
  • HR 1: Democrats pass sweeping bill to get money out of politics - Vox ›
big picture

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow
Contributors

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Steve Corbin

A dangerous loss of trust

William Natbony

Shifting the narrative on homelessness in America

David L. Nevins

Reform in 2023: Leadership worth celebrating

Layla Zaidane

Two technology balancing acts

Dave Anderson

Reform in 2023: It’s time for the civil rights community to embrace independent voters

Jeremy Gruber
latest News

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Kevin R. Kosar
Elise J. Bean
6h

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Mia Minkin
8h

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

James-Christian B. Blockwood
9h

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

David J. Toscano
30 May

Your Take on congressional incivility

Lennon Wesley III
26 May

White House plan to combat antisemitism needs to take on centuries of hatred, discrimination and even lynching in America

Pamela Nadell
26 May
Videos

Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirst Friday YOUnify & CPL

Our Staff

Video: What is the toll of racial violence on Black lives?

Our Staff

Video: What's next for migrants seeking asylum after Title 42

Our Staff

Video: An inside look at the campaign to repeal Pennsylvania’s closed primaries

Our Staff

Video: Where the immigration debate stands today

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Our Staff
25 May

Podcast: Can we fix America's financial crises?

Our Staff
23 May

Podcast: Gen Z's fight for democracy

Our Staff
22 May

Podcast: Political Football, Inc.

Our Staff
19 May
Recommended
Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Podcast: Why Is Congressional Oversight Important, and How Can It Be Done Well? (with Elise Bean)

Test Unlisted
Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Hypocrisy of pro-lifers being anti-LGBTQIA

Diversity Inclusion and Belonging
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Justin Roebuck

State
Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Three practical presidential pledges to promote national prosperity

Big Picture
Chipping away at election integrity: 
Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

Chipping away at election integrity: Virginia joins red state exodus from ERIC

Threats to democracy
Video: Honoring Memorial Day

Video: Honoring Memorial Day