WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to agree to hold a vote on a voting rights and ethics reform bill the lower chamber passed earlier this year.
“You may think this is dead over there, Grim Reaper …but it is alive and well in the public. And the people know, and they will know more-that you are holding this up,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference on Friday.
She was accompanied by fellow Democratic Reps. Jon Sarbanes (Md.), Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), Deb Haaland (N.M.), Chris Pappas (N.H.), Joe Neguse (Colo.), and Tom Malinowski (N.J.).
McConnell (R-Ky.) has referred to himself as the “Grim Reaper” in reference to the fate House-passed bills will face in the Senate if he deems them too extreme — he will block them. McConnell has used the term in the connection with the Green New Deal and other progressive initiatives.
McConnell has said the Senate will not consider the House’s voting rights and ethics reform bill. He has called it the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.”
Under H.R. 1-For the People Act of 2019, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) would be reduced from six to five members. Two members would be Democrats and two would be Republican. One member would be unaffiliated.
Election Day would become a federal holiday. Voter registration would become automatic. Also. 16- and 17-year-olds would be allowed to pre-register to vote. Ballots could be cast by mail. Felons would be allowed to vote after their sentence is complete.
Super PAC’s would be required to disclose their donors. Congressional districts would be drawn by an independent commission. Candidates for public office would receive public financing via matching funds. The president and vice president would be required to release 10 years worth of tax returns.
