By Steve Evered
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R 1, For the People Act of 2019. Here are the major provisions.
Protecting and expanding voting rights and election security:
- Automatic voter registration – eligible voters are automatically registered when they have contact with government agencies, unless they opt out.
- Online voter registration.
- Same day voter registration.
- Make election day a federal holiday.
- Voting rights restoration to people with prior felony convictions.
- Expand early voting and simplify absentee voting.
- Prohibit voter purges that kick eligible voters off the registration rolls.
- Enhance election security with increased support for a paper-based voting system and more oversight over election vendors.
- End partisan gerrymandering by establishing independent redistricting commissions.
- Prohibit providing false information about the elections process that discourage voting and other deceptive practices.
Reduce the influence of big money in our politics:
- Require secret money organizations that spend money in elections to disclose their donors.
- Upgrade online political spending transparency rules to ensure voters know who is paying for the advertisements they see.
- Create a small donor-focused public financing matching system so candidates for Congress aren’t just reliant on big money donors to fund their campaigns and set their priorities.
- Strengthen oversight rules to ensure those who break our campaign finance laws are held accountable.
- Overhaul the Federal Election Commission to enforce campaign finance law.
- Prohibit the use of shell companies to funnel foreign money in U.S. elections.
- Require government contractors to disclose their political spending.
Ensure an ethical government accountable to the people:
- Slow the revolving door between government officials and lobbyists.
- Expand conflict of interest law.
- Ban members of Congress from serving on corporate boards.
- Require presidents to publicly disclose their tax returns.
- Overhaul the Office of Government Ethics to ensure stronger enforcement of ethics rules.
- Require members of the U.S. Supreme Court abide by a judicial code of ethics.