Media Center

Minority Leader McConnell’s (R-KY) decision to hold up the Senate’s organizing resolution over the filibuster rule was a trial balloon that failed. Americans voted for change and they expect the new President and the new Congress to address the pressing health, financial, structural racism, climate, and democracy crises facing our nation. McConnell, a fierce architect of obstruction throughout his tenure in Congress, has signaled his plans for the 117th Congress: Delay, deny, and distort the Majority’s right to set the chamber’s agenda at every turn. We have seen this before when McConnell spent six years abusing the filibuster at unprecedented levels during the Obama administration. This cannot be allowed to happen again.

Today, our country is headed in a different direction – and we welcome the change.  Today, the nation under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris charted a new course of aspiration and hope for every American regardless of the color of their skin or who they voted for on Election Day. We have turned away from a wayward course that undermined our democratic norms, truth, values, institutions, and the rule of law.

Americans expect and deserve a strong inclusive democracy. We commend Leader Schumer, Senator Merkley and Senator Klobuchar for pledging to introduce the For the People Act as the first bill of the new Congress – S.1. The Senate now joins the House in making this bill the top legislative priority.

Today, the Common Cause Education Fund is pleased to announce it is a recipient of Lumina Foundation’s racial equity funding program to expand the Student Action Alliance. The Student Action Alliance is a program for students of color that is led by a team of Black millennials. The program focuses on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and students of color at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). The two-year $200,000 grant, which is part of the Lumina Foundation’s $15 million effort to help eradicate systematic racism, will allow the Common Cause Education Fund to increase its staff capacity and expand our program to additional HBCUs and to other Minority Serving Institutions.

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.