Yesterday, the FCC announced a plan to launch a $9 billion 5G fund for rural America. The plan would allocate funding from the FCC's Universal Service Fund to support carriers deploying 5G wireless networks in rural areas. The plan would also terminate the FCC's current mechanism to fund 4G deployment after the agency found several carriers had significantly overstated their actual coverage and misrepresented the actual on-the-ground experience of their users.

With a floor vote expected Friday, Common Cause and it’s 1.2 million members are strongly urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the Voting Rights Advancement Act (HR 4). In a letter to House Members, Common Cause emphasized the critical importance of updating the protections of the Voting Rights Act after the landmark legislation was gutted by a highly controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder.

President Trump and his GOP apologists don’t get to have their cake and eat it too. After months of doing everything in their power to obstruct any investigation of presidential misconduct – particularly related to President Trump’s efforts to coerce and bribe the President of Ukraine to launch an investigation of his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son – it is laughable that they are now trying to dismiss the process as a ‘witch hunt.”

With increased public scrutiny of the security, accessibility, fairness, and overall integrity of voting and elections as we approach 2020, Sylvia Albert joins Common Cause as its National Director of Voting & Elections. Albert brings more than a decade of professional experience in public interest law and public policy campaigns expanding ballot access, reducing barriers to participation, and combating voter intimidation among historically disenfranchised communities. She has also done extensive work on fair housing issues serving as a program analyst and an advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in the Obama Administration.

Today’s vote is a defining moment for every member of the U.S. House of Representatives. History is watching as Republican Members will weigh the choice of casting a vote for their country or for their party. Amidst a growing list of witnesses testifying about shocking abuses of power by the Trump administration and the president’s inner circle and seismic shifts in public disapproval of the president’s conduct, this is the first time many Members will be asked to cast a formal vote that will put them on the right—or wrong—side of history.

With a floor vote expected later today, Common Cause and it’s 1.2 million members continue to strongly urge every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the SHIELD (Stopping Harmful Interference in Elections for a Lasting Democracy) Act (HR 4617). In a Monday letter to Representatives, Common Cause emphasized that the critical legislation will help safeguard our elections from the very real and ongoing dangers of foreign interference in our elections.