Today’s Action: Tell the House to pass H.R.1 and overturn Citizens United

The Democratic-led House’s first piece of legislation, H.R.1, is an agenda-setting piece of government accountability and democracy reform. We’ve previously covered how H.R.1 would require Trump to release his tax returns and restore the Voter Rights Act to full power. Today, we’re focusing on third aspect: H.R.1 would overturn Citizens United.

Citizens United vs FEC was a 2010 Supreme Court decision that determined, when it comes to campaign donations, corporations are people. Immediately following, the ruling Speechnow.org vs FEC removed the cap on donation amounts to political action committees (PACs) that don’t work directly with candidates.

The result: Super PACs, and billions of anonymous “dark money” dollars spent each election cycle, passed through by special interest organizations. Super PACs act as an auxiliary arm to political campaigns – and corporations are only limited by their own bank accounts.

Campaign finance reform, and H.R.1, begins with overturning Citizens United through legislation.

Call or email your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor and — once they’ve ended the government shutdown — push forward H.R.1, without watering it down. And if they’ve already co-sponsored, thank them!

As it tackles campaign finance reform (which 82% of voter support), H.R.1 wouldn’t stop at ending Citizens United. To heighten public transparency, H.R.1 would require Super PACs to disclose their donors to the public, and Facebook/Twitter to reveal the source and money spent on political advertisements on their platforms.

H.R.1 would also encourage small donations through a federal matching program that boosts donations under $200 six times over, thereby incentivizing candidates to seek the support of the average voter.

In short, it’s a badly needed piece of legislation to restore public transparency, access, and control over who represents us in our government.

Email or call (202.224.3121) your Representative and tell them to co-sponsor and, once the government shutdown is resolved, pass H.R.1. Be sure to check whether they’ve already co-sponsored, so that you can thank them while you encourage them to aggressively move it forward.

P.S. Thus ends our 3-part breakdown of H.R.1. If you missed Parts 1 and 2, check them out now!