House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House
Democrats rally ahead of the passage of H.R. 1, "The For the People
Act," at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 8, 2019. (Associated
Press)
U.S. House Democrats passed a sweeping
anti-corruption and voting rights bill Friday that they said was
intended to make voting easier, as well as strengthen ethics rules,
while also rejecting a motion to condemn voting by undocumented immigrants.
The legislation, dubbed the “For The People Act” or "H.R.1," passed 234-193 along party lines.
The
proposal -- nearly 700 pages -- calls for Election Day to be designated
a federal holiday, requires all states to offer automatic voter
registration, restores voting rights to convicted felons, institutes
independent redistricting commissions to weed out gerrymandering and
requires nonprofit organizations to disclose the names of donors who
contribute more than $10,000 in an effort to rein in dark-money groups. .
“It’s a power grab for the American people,” U.S. Rep. Zoe
Lofgren, D-Calif., who leads the House administration committee that
shepherded the legislation, according to the New York Times.
The
bill also requires the sitting president and vice president to release
10 years of federal tax returns, as well as presidential candidates.
“This
bill is a massive federal government takeover that would undermine the
integrity of our elections,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy,
R-Calif., said Friday, the Times reported.
“This bill is a massive federal government takeover that would undermine the integrity of our elections.”
— House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
The
legislation has almost no chance of passing in the Senate. Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has indicated he will not bring
the bill for a vote, effectively killing the bill.
"We know this
bill is not going to be signed into law," said Illinois Rep. Rodney
Davis, the ranking Republican on the House subcommittee on elections, on
the House floor before the vote. "This bill is nothing but a bill that
is for loading billions of billions of dollars into the coffers of
members of Congress."
In
the broader debate over voter accessibility, House Democrats also voted
Friday to defend localities that allow non-citizens to vote in their
elections, the Washington Times reported.
The 228-197 vote would have almost no effect as noncitizens are barred
from participating in federal elections. The GOP-backed measure would
have added language to "H.R.1 stating that “allowing illegal immigrants
the right to vote devalues the franchise and diminishes the voting
power of United States citizens.”
“We are prepared to open up the
political process and let all of the people come in,” Rep. John Lewis, a
Georgia Democrat and hero of the civil rights movement, told
colleagues. The measure referenced San Francisco's policy of allowing
noncitizens, including undocumented immigrants, to vote in school board
elections.
Just six Democrats voted against it and one Republican opposed it.