Abuse of Power

Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said the census affects the fair distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal funding annually for “critical resources like food assistance, medical supplies for COVID-19 recovery, youth programs, and affordable housing.” “This memorandum by President Trump is a blatant attempt to skew how electoral districts are drawn, instill fear and chaos in immigrant communities, and send a message to his white supremacist base,” she said.

"It is a shocking day: The only thing that is clear to me is that pay-to-play is rampant in Ohio," said Catherine Turcer of the government watchdog group, Common Cause Ohio. "Utility money is the grease of the machine of the Statehouse."

The U.S. Constitution enshrines a uniquely American invention: to conduct a Census each ten years to count every person living in the United States of America in order to determine representation in the Congress. Today, counting every person also ensured that $1.5 trillion in federal funding for critical resources like food assistance, medical supplies for COVID-19 recovery, youth programs, and affordable housing is also fairly distributed. Today, President Trump has issued a memorandum ordering the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment base used to allocate congressional seats following the 2020 Census. 

Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has attacked democratic institutions and undermined independent agencies. Now, as millions of voters are relying on the Postal Service to support our elections during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump is politicizing another once-nonpartisan government agency. Having a political ally with ethical and competence questions like DeJoy lead the agency potentially puts November's election at risk.

“Common Cause has no doubt Congress will be able to meet the Court’s clarified standard and will finally see the financial records President Trump has been hiding for years,” said a statement from Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans removed a measure from the intelligence bill that would have required presidential campaigns to report attempts or offers of foreign election interference to federal authorities and then defended President Trump’s excuses and refusal to act on U.S. intelligence reports that Russia has been paying bounties to Taliban militants to kill U.S. Troops. The so called “Duty to report” provision on foreign election interference, was passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee with bipartisan support in June but was removed from the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) currently before the full Senate.