Debbie Mucarsel-Powell on Government Reform

Holiday on election day; revamp for easier voting access.

• This bill expands voter registration and voting access, makes Election Day a federal holiday, and limits removing voters from voter rolls.
• The bill provides for states to establish independent, nonpartisan redistricting commissions.
• The bill also sets forth provisions for sharing intelligence information with state election officials, and supporting states in securing their election systems, and establishing the National Commission to Protect U.S. Democratic Institutions.
• This bill addresses campaign spending, by expanding the ban on foreign nationals contributing to or spending on elections; and expanding disclosure rules.
• This bill establishes an alternative campaign funding system [with] federal matching of small contributions for qualified candidates.
• The bill also requires candidates for President and Vice President to submit 10 years of tax returns.

Opposing argument from the Heritage Foundation, 2/1/2019: HR1 federalizes and micromanages the election process administered by the states, imposing unnecessary mandates on the states and reversing the decentralization of the American election process. What HR1 Would Do:

• Seize the authority of states to regulate the voting process by forcing states to implement early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting.
• Make it easier to commit fraud at the polls through same-day registration, as election officials have no time to verify the accuracy of voter registration.
• Degrade the accuracy of registration lists by automatically registering individuals from state databases, such as DMV.
• Cripple the effectiveness of state voter ID laws by allowing individuals to vote without an ID and merely signing a statement in which they claim they are who they say they are.

Legislative outcome: Passed House 234-193-5 on 3/8/19; received with no action in Senate thru 12/31/2019

Trump obstructed Congress by ignoring every subpoena.

The [Congressional report on Impeachment] describes the second charge against President Trump: obstruction of Congress. President Trump did everything in his power to obstruct the House`s impeachment inquiry. Following his direction not to cooperate with the inquiry, the White House and other agencies refused to produce a single document in response to Congressional subpoenas. President Trump also attempted to muzzle witnesses, threatening to damage their careers if they agreed to testify, and even attacked one witness during her live testimony before Congress.

To their great credit, many witnesses from across government--including from the National Security Council, the Department of State, and the Department of Defense--ignored the President`s unlawful orders and cooperated with the inquiry. In the end, however, nine senior officials followed President Trump`s direction and continue to defy duly authorized Congressional subpoenas.

Other Presidents have recognized their obligation to provide information to Congress under these circumstances. President Trump`s stonewall, by contrast, was categorical, indiscriminate, and without precedent in American history. The Constitution grants the `sole Power of Impeachment` to the House of Representatives. Within our system of checks and balances, the President may not decide what constitutes a valid impeachment inquiry. Nor may he ignore lawful subpoenas for evidence and testimony or direct others to do so. If a President had such authority, he could block Congress from learning facts bearing upon impeachment in the House or trial in the Senate and could thus control a power that exists to restrain his own abuses.

The evidence shows clearly that President Trump has assumed this power for himself and, left unchecked, the President will continue to obstruct Congress through unlawful means.

Trump mistakes himself for a monarch.

Impeachment is the Constitution`s final answer to a President who mistakes himself for a monarch. When the President concludes that free and fair elections threaten his continued grasp on power, and therefore seeks to corrupt or interfere with them, he denies the very premise of our constitutional system. The American people choose their leaders; a President who wields power to destroy opponents or manipulate elections is a President who rejects democracy itself.

As Madison recognized, `In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it control itself.` Impeachment is the House`s last and most extraordinary resort when faced with a President who threatens our constitutional system. It is a terrible power, but only `because it was forged to counter a terrible power: the despot who deems himself to be above the law.` The consideration of articles of impeachment is always a sad and solemn undertaking. In the end, it is the House--speaking for the Nation as a whole--that must decide whether the President`s conduct rises to the level of `high Crimes and Misdemeanors` warranting impeachment.