In the News

The House passed of the For The People Act (H.R.1) Friday, a bill designed to improve election integrity by focusing on voting and election laws, campaign finance, and ethics. The bill also defends localities that allow illegal immigrants to vote in their elections.

“It sounds like I’m making it up. What kind of government would cancel the vote of its own citizens, and replace it with noncitizens?” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Texas Republican.

Supporters say the For The People Act expands early voting while simplifying absentee voting. It enhances federal support for voting system security. It expands disclosure requirements for donations and campaign transparency while creating a multiple matching system for small campaign donations. Lastly, it will ease the creation of automatic voter registration rolls as well as restoring voting rights to the formerly incarcerated.

The bill now moves to the Senate where it is highly unlikely to pass, let alone be voted on. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said it would not receive any floor time “because I get to decide what we vote on.”

San Diego Congressman Scott Peters voted to pass the For the People Act saying, “These groundbreaking reforms will help us rebuild trust in government. Now, we must continue to work together to solve problems most important to San Diegans and all Americans like climate change, gun violence prevention, access to higher education, comprehensive immigration reform, and more,” said Rep. Peters.

Earlier this week, Speaker Pelosi spoke on the importance of passing H.R. 1, “So, when we talk about newcomers, we have to recognize the constant reinvigoration of America that they are, that we all have been – our families. And that, unless you’re blessed to be Native American – which is a blessing in itself that we respect – but that constant reinvigoration of hope, determination, optimism, courage, to make the future better for the next generation, those are American traits. And these newcomers make America more American. And we want them, when they come here, to be fully part of our system. And that means not suppressing the vote of our newcomers to America.”

Multiple House Republicans are chastising the bill. Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) slammed the bill as a cynical Democrat move to dilute Americans’ voting power. In a statement Brooks said,

“As a backdrop, let me emphasize that the long term goal of Socialist Democrats is to dilute and undermine the voting power of American citizens. How do we know that? By past Socialist Democrat actions and conduct. For example, in many parts of America where Socialist Democrats enjoy dominant political control, they have made it lawful for illegal aliens and lawful noncitizens to vote, thereby diluting the vote of American citizens and undermining the ability of Americans to run their own governments! San Francisco is the largest such city, where illegal aliens and all other noncitizens can not only lawfully register to vote, they in fact vote in local elections. Further, H.R. 1 does its best to exploit and expand voter fraud loopholes that Socialist Democrats slipped into past federal legislation that, for example, empowered as many as 95,000 noncitizens to register to vote, and 58,000 noncitizens to actually vote, in recent Texas elections.”