News Clips

House watchers suggest that the 116th Congress might also have a chance at denting public corruption. House Resolution 1, the first bill introduced this year, is a sweeping proposal aimed at money in politics, voting reforms and ethics. Those issues have broad bipartisan support in many states and localities, according to Aaron Scherb, legislative affairs director at government watchdog Common Cause. “I think a lot of the reforms at the national level will help advance the ball for when there is a more favorable political climate after 2020,” he says. 

“When lawmakers draw their own lines, they lose all of their philosophical ideals and they become ugly monsters that are willing to cut out competitors, punish people from the other party and try to draw the most protective district for themselves so they don’t have to face serious competition for the next 10 years,” said Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at the good government group Common Cause, which championed the creation of California’s commission.

“I think the background definitely changes with a flip of the House. There is going to be more oversight, probably some attempts to draw up legislation,” said former FCC commissioner Michael Copps, now an adviser to watchdog group Common Cause.

The effort was applauded Friday by the government watchdog Common Cause. “Congress is finally listening to the growing demands for reform from the American people,” the group’s president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said in a statement. “On Election Day, voters from coast-to coast sent a clear message that we are ready for bold, comprehensive democracy reforms.”

The discrepancy is “nothing new in the sense of filing one thing with the FCC and telling the customers something else,” says Yosef Getachew of the watchdog group Common Cause, which is among advocacy groups that are fighting to block the merger.

"The FCC's actions also hurt state and local government abilities to negotiate any public interest obligations like buildout requirements or anti-redlining provisions," Michael Copps, a former Democratic FCC commissioner and Common Cause special adviser, said in a statement. "This gives wireless companies even more of an ability to only deploy 5G to the richest parts of a city, leaving low-income areas unserved." The order, Copps argues, is just "a corporate welfare plan that only widens the digital divide."