McConnell Buries Popular Democracy Reforms in His Private Legislative Graveyard
Statement of Lisa Gilbert, Vice President of Legislative Affairs, Public Citizen
Note: Today, members of the U.S. Senate took the considerable step of attempting to bring the U.S. House-passed, For the People Act (H.R. 1) to the Senate floor for debate and the up or down vote it has waited for since January. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked it. H.R. 1 is a broad package of democracy reforms designed to clean up political corruption and give voters more say in the political process. McConnell has refused to allow a vote on the legislation, which contains an agenda that the public supports and would move the nation forward.
H.R. 1 is the most sweeping and far-reaching pro-democracy and anti-corruption legislation this country has seen in the past 50 years, and it scares Leader McConnell immensely. His failure to approve this legislation for floor debate is another reminder that the Senate has been largely reduced to a legislative body that doesn’t move legislation.
Americans are suffering through the most corrupt administration in modern history and our elections are under daily attack from foreign countries. The people will eventually have their vote in the U.S. Senate because these reforms are what their country so desperately needs.