Today, Common Cause called on the House Ways and Means Committee to immediately investigate false statements made under oath to the committee by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the U.S. census survey. The recent release of Ross’ correspondence with Commerce Department staffers reveal that Ross falsely claimed to the Committee in March that it was a Department of Justice (DOJ) request that had prompted his Department to add the citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

Yesterday, Common Cause and Public Knowledge filed comments in the FCC’s broadband deployment proceeding. The agency is required to release an annual report on whether advanced telecommunications services is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion. As part of its report, the FCC seeks comments from the public on how it should assess the state of broadband deployment and availability. Common Cause critiqued the agency’s flawed methodology which overstates who has access to broadband and its current policies for widening the digital divide. Common Cause also urged the Commission to take a bold, forward-looking approach and increase the national broadband standard.

Today, Common Cause called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay its scheduled vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court in light of new allegations of sexual assault by the nominee. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Common Cause urged the committee to require Kavanaugh to testify under oath about the accusations.

Paul Manafort’s plea deal will surely tempt President Trump to consider pardoning his associates, or firing senior Justice Department officials or Special Counsel Robert Mueller, or take other steps to sabotage the investigation of the Russian attack on the 2016 presidential race. Congress must stand ready to take decisive action if President Trump abuses the power of his office by obstructing justice. Such blatant obstruction by the President must be a line in the sand that, if crossed, will trigger immediate Congressional action. The Republican majority in Congress must put their country before their party.

A three-judge federal district court panel in North Carolina today issued its stay order in the partisan gerrymandering case Common Cause v. Rucho, ordering attorneys for the North Carolina Legislators who drew the maps to comply with the conditions requested by the Common Cause plaintiffs. Those conditions require the defendants to file their Jurisdictional Statement with the Supreme Court by October 1, 2018, and to seek no requests for extension of time while their appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.

With Election Day now less than two months away, Common Cause released its 2018 Democracy Scorecard to chart the positions of every Member of Congress on issues vital to the health of our democracy. The reforms in question range from legislation to create a small donor matching fund system and increased disclosure requirements for outside political groups to bills to curb gerrymandering and strengthen the protections in the Voting Rights Act.