It has been 157 days since the House passed the For the People Act (H.R. 1) and 47 days since the House passed the SAFE Act (H.R. 2722)
Last month, Special Counsel Robert Mueller told the nation and the world that Russia unequivocally interfered with our election in 2016 and that they are attempting to interfere with the 2020 elections “as we sit here.” Since retaking the House in January, Democrats in Congress have acted swiftly, passing legislation that would patch up vulnerabilities in our voting systems and ensure that our democracy is protected from hostile foreign actors as we head into 2020. But there is one man standing in their way: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Securing our elections should not be a partisan issue,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “While Democrats are taking action to protect the vote of every American citizen, Mitch McConnell is keeping the door wide open for foreign actors to hijack our elections. The House has passed common sense election security measures and by refusing to even allow a Senate debate, Mitch McConnell is single handedly putting our entire democracy at risk. It’s time for him to stop stonewalling and let the Senate vote on vital election security legislation like the SAFE Act and the For the People Act.”
The first bill introduced in the House in 2019 was the For the People Act (H.R. 1), a sweeping anti corruption bill that would require states to replace outdated voting machines and provide grants to states to enhance their election security, as well as close campaign finance disclosure loopholes that allow foreign entities to secretly buy political ads. The House later passed the SAFE Act (H.R. 2722) which would hold election technology vendors accountable by setting strong cybersecurity standards, authorize a $600 million grant program to assist in securing election infrastructure, and require voting systems to use individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots. This legislation would help ensure that our elections can be protected from Russian interference, but both of these bills have been declared dead on arrival by Mitch McConnell, who refuses to put them up for a debate in the Senate. It has been 157 days of stonewalling and the clock is still ticking.
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