About The For The People Act

After the violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 and the events of the 2020 election cycle, it’s clear that we need bold, comprehensive action to expand and protect the right to vote, end corruption, and shore up our democracy for the long term.

The For the People Act (S. 1/H.R. 1) is a transformational bill with three key goals: [1] protect the right to vote, [2] end the dominance of big money in politics, and [3] restore ethics and accountability in government.

Voting Rights: The For the People Act would make it easier to vote and ensure the security and integrity of our elections.

• Many of the voting provisions in H.R. 1 were included in the late Rep. John Lewis’ Voter Empowerment Act, including automatic, online, and same-day voter registration.
• H.R. 1 would provide election administrators with the support they need to maintain election infrastructure.
• H.R. 1 would prohibit voter suppression tactics such as voter purging and caging that are often used to wrongly invalidate voter registrations.
• H.R. 1 would put an end to partisan gerrymandering by requiring states to create independent redistricting commissions to ensure voters pick their politicians, and not the other way around.

Campaign Finance: The For the People Act would end the dominance of big money in politics.

• H.R. 1 would bring dark money into the light by requiring political groups to disclose their largest donors and adding transparency rules for online political ad spending.
• H.R. 1 would create a small-donor matching program to open up our political system to more diverse voices and reduce the power of big money donors in our elections and the policymaking process—funded entirely by a small fee on corporate lawbreakers and wealthy tax cheats.
• H.R. 1 would close campaign finance loopholes and ensure the Federal Election Commission can do its job to uphold our laws and hold violators accountable.

Ethics: The For the People Act would restore ethics and accountability in government by ensuring public officials are working in the public interest.

• H.R. 1 would require more stringent conflict-of-interest rules for members of Congress and executive branch officials.
• H.R. 1 would reduce the power of lobbyists by slowing down the revolving door between public service and the influence industry, requiring a 2-year “cooling off” period for administration officials before they can lobby their former colleagues.
• H.R. 1 would close loopholes that allowed foreign governments to influence policy in secret.