Media Center

Today, YouTube announced it will rescind its prohibition on content that espouses election denialism and disinformation about the 2020 elections. This move comes as more 2024 candidates (including former president Trump) engage in public events which may be hosted on the platform.

Today at 9:30 a.m., the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing on “American Confidence in Elections: Protecting Political Speech.” Stephen Spaulding, Common Cause Vice President for Policy & External Affairs, will be testifying. His testimony submitted in advance of the hearing discusses the myriad threats that undermine public confidence in our democracy and offered several solutions as well. He includes voter suppression and gerrymandering as hugely detrimental to public confidence and focuses his testimony on the corrosive influence of money in politics.

Common Cause is pleased to announce that two Common Cause veterans have stepped into the role of vice president at the government watchdog. Longtime Common Cause leader Kathay Feng will step into the role of Vice President for Programs and Stephen Spaulding is returning to Common Cause from his role as Policy Director of the U.S. Senate Rules Committee and will serve as Vice President for Policy & External Affairs. Together the two will help lead Common Cause’s national efforts to reduce barriers to a more representative democracy. They will also support efforts for the organization’s 30 state operations working to create a 21st Century democracy that works for everyone.

Today, Common Cause urged the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to call Justice Clarence Thomas as a witness in hearings to examine Supreme Court ethics in the wake of the latest scandal to engulf the nation’s highest court. Recent reporting by ProPublica revealed that for more than two decades Justice Thomas failed to report luxury gifts and vacations he received from billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s thinly-veiled attempt to scuttle the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) has been turned back by quick action from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats. The office faced newly-enacted arbitrary terms limits that disqualified several sitting Democratic board members and outrageously tight deadlines to replace them and hire staff. Thanks to Minority Leader Jeffries, and his swift appointments of new board members overcoming the GOP effort to gut the OCE, the office is on its way back to holding our representatives accountable.