Making Government Work

Say the legislation “is the bold, comprehensive bill we need because the threats to our democracy are deep, systemic, and wide-ranging”

A letter signed by almost 100 small business and community leaders urging Senator Susan Collins to support the “For the People Act” was released at an event at Portland City Hall. More than four dozen people gathered at a rally sponsored by Common Cause to hear local business leaders explain why the bill needs to become law.

Common Cause is urging every member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote “yes” on the Washington, D.C. Admission Act (H.R. 51) when it goes to a floor vote today. The legislation would make Washington, DC the 51st state in the nation. The letter notes that Common Cause plans to key-vote final passage of H.R. 51 in our next Democracy Scorecard, which we send to our 1.5 million members.

“The relationship between elected officials and constituents is intended to be a dialogue and not a one way street,’’ said Common Cause Florida Executive Director Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert at a news conference last week.

“We have a roadmap as to how [McConnell] has operated in the past, which is to be a one-man blockade,” said Stephen Spaulding, a senior counsel at Common Cause, a liberal government reform group. “He will abuse the filibuster rule to demand supermajority votes on nearly every piece of the majority’s agenda. I think we can anticipate that.”

Common Cause today released Democracy on the Ballot 2020. The report examines the results of 18 initiatives on the November 2020 ballot that aimed to change state laws regarding money in politics, voting rights, redistricting and direct democracy. The grassroots, citizen-led measures that protect the people’s voice in government won by a 2 to 1 margin.