August, 11 2021, 09:55am EDT
Senate Republicans Block Legislation Strengthening the People's Voice in Our Democracy
As Senators go home for recess, voters must demand September action.
WASHINGTON
By objecting to even begin debate on the For the People Act, Senate Republicans demonstrated they have doubled down on obstruction as their strategy to block the most comprehensive pro-voter, pro-democracy bill in a generation. "By continuing to delay a floor debate on the bill, they show more respect for an obstructionist strategy than they do for voters, elections, or the election administrators, poll workers, and volunteers who faithfully stand watch over our democracy in each election, ensuring fairness and accuracy in the ballot counts," said Karen Hobert Flynn, Common Cause President. It is significant that, for the second time in less than two months, 50 senators (Democrats and two Independents who caucus with them) were willing to begin debate on a transformational anti-corruption and freedom to vote package.
"To the millions of Americans around the country who prove we can modernize our elections by winning the solutions locally that Congress has included in the For the People Act, and to everyone who has made a call, written a letter, worked a phone bank, or attended a rally -- this fight is not over. Majority Leader Schumer indicated that voting rights will be the first order of business when the Senate returns from recess in September. If Americans stay engaged, contact their Senators, keep the pressure on, and keep organizing on this as they have on important issues in the past, I'm confident we, the people will prevail," said Hobert Flynn.
The For the People Act is a comprehensive approach to modernizing our elections and democracy that reduces the influence of money, strengthens voting rights, ends gerrymandering, and raises the bar on ethics, moving closer to the time when our democracy truly works for all of us.
"Everyone, regardless of political party, how much money is in your pocket, your unique life experience, or the zip code you live in, should have an equal voice in the future with their vote and equal access to the ballot," said Hobert Flynn. "For the last 50 years, most voters believed that while we still had disparities that needed to be addressed, at least we agreed that the goal is an equal vote for everyone."
Common Cause put Senators on notice that we will score votes on the bill in the next Democracy Scorecard, compiled on each Congress to inform our 1.5 million members and the public about which elected officials are true champions of democracy.
The letter to each Senate office read, "The For the People Act is popular with Republican, independent, and Democratic voters. In fact, many components of the bill have already passed in red, blue, and purple states, often with strong bipartisan support, and recent polling shows that it is popular with conservative voters. Because this bill is popular, corporate special interests and dark money voter suppression groups lie, deceive, and distort to try to erode its support. Opponents of the bill admitted in a recorded secret call that the bill is popular, even among conservatives, and instead want to rely on 'under-the-dome-type-strategies' to defeat it."
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
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While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
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The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
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PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and Brasília's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
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