House Democrats officially unveil their first bill in the majority: a sweeping anti-corruption proposal

Democrats will take up voting rights, campaign finance reform, and a lobbying crackdown — all in their first bill of the year.

House Democrats will unveil full details of their first bill in the new Congress on Friday — sweeping anti-corruption measures aimed at stamping out the influence of money in politics and expanding voting rights.

This is HR 1, the first thing House Democrats will tackle now that a new Congress has been sworn in. To be clear, this legislation has little to no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate or being signed by President Donald Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell already bluntly stated, “That’s not going to go anywhere.”

But by making anti-corruption their No. 1 priority, House Democrats are throwing down the gauntlet for Republicans. A vast majority of Americans want to get the influence of money out of politics, and want Congress to pass laws to do so.

Given how popular the issue is, and Trump’s multitude of scandals, it looks bad for Republicans to be the party opposing campaign finance reform — especially going into 2020.

“Our best friend in this debate is the public,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters recently. “We believe it will have great support.”

The issue is being spearheaded by Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, a longtime advocate of campaign finance reform who has disavowed corporate PAC money for years. Sarbanes and other House Democrats have been working with progressive heavy hitters in the Senate including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose own wide-ranging anti-corruption Senate bill was recently introduced in the House by Sarbanes and progressive Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal. He is also working with Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) to introduce a companion HR 1 bill in the Senate, which will likely not even be brought to the floor.

HR 1 will be formally introduced later today by Pelosi, Sarbanes, and chairs of the committees of jurisdiction for the bill: Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and Jerry Nadler (D-NY).

The bill will make its way through their committees in the coming weeks; Sarbanes hopes to have a final floor vote done later this month or early February.

The bill covers three main planks: campaign finance reform, strengthening the government’s ethics laws, and expanding voting rights. Here’s the important part of each section.

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