S.1 Markup: Things Dems voted no on
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Last week the Senate Rules Committee held a markup for S.1, the “Corrupt Politicians Act.” During a markup, debate is held on a bill, and Senators have the opportunity to offer amendments. Because of Senate rules, the committee seats are evenly split between the two parties, which resulted in a tie vote on the bill. In parliamentary procedure, if a bill receives a tie vote and fails to get a majority, it results in the bill not being reported out of committee. To bring a bill to the floor for a vote, 51 Senators would be needed to discharge the bill from committee.
While most amendments addressed mundane technicalities, Republicans offered a series of amendments to highlight a number of flaws in the bill and offer committee Democrats an opportunity to fix those policies.
Unsurprisingly, EVERY DEMOCRAT on the committee voted “NO” on the following amendments to S.1:
- Blunt amendment: To remove taxpayer funding for campaigns from the bill. S.1 will use public funds to create a six-to-one match on political contributions up to $200. S.1 will force the American people to spend millions of dollars to fund the campaigns of political candidates.
McConnell amendment: To keep the current bipartisan structure of the Federal Elections Commision (FEC) in place (it currently has six members, three from each party). S.1 will reduce the number to five, giving the President’s party a majority and the opportunity to weaponize the FEC against the other party. - Cruz amendment: To continue allowing states to ban felons with murder convictions from voting. S.1 will require that every felon would immediately be restored the ability to vote upon release from prison. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution allows states to restrict voting rights to those who have participated in “rebellion, or other crime.” S.1 would attempt to unconstitutionally overrule the 14th Amendment with a statute. Check out Heritage Action’s video on this provision.
- Shelby amendment: To remove S.1’s provision that makes it a criminal offense to provide “materially false” information that will “impede or prevent” someone from registering or voting from the bill. S.1 is so vague that it would likely interfere with free speech and other legitimate activities.
- Cruz amendment: To require proof of citizenship to register and vote. S.1 would require states to automatically add to voter registration rolls every person—regardless of voter eligibility—who partakes in certain government programs, such as receiving welfare or obtaining a driver’s license. S.1 will automatically enroll ineligible voters such as illegal aliens.
- Hyde-Smith amendment: To remove a provision allowing voters to simply sign a statement at the polls in which they claim to be who they say they are. This provision undermines many states’ voter ID laws, which were enacted to combat impersonation fraud, voter registration fraud, duplicate voting, and voting by ineligible individuals, such as illegal aliens.
- McConnell amendment: To remove a provision of S.1 requiring non-profits to disclose their donors. S.1 is not about transparency, but giving militant Leftists the names and addresses of conservative donors. Leftist activists have repeatedly shown their willingness to dox conservatives, threaten their families, and pressure employers into firing them.
- Hagerty amendment: To keep the responsibility of drawing congressional district lines with state governments, which are accountable to their constituents. S.1 will hand over the power to draw congressional districts to unelected officials and the courts in a nakedly political ploy to draw more Democratic districts.
- Capito amendment: To remove the requirement to allow same-day voter registration. Not only does same-day voter registration enable voter fraud, Sen. Capito raised concerns that this provision is unworkable in states like West Virginia that lack broadband access across the state. S.1 will require states to register voters on the day of an election, providing no buffer-period to verify personal information.