HR 1 provides freshman House Democrats a McConnell 101 lesson

RollCall ^ | June 5, 2019

[SMGFan]

First-term lawmakers want to see Senate action on ethics overhaul

While it is not quite an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, the metaphor is close enough: Freshman House Democrats who roared into the majority in January with ambitious legislative plans are increasingly facing the reality of a Senate majority leader who has little interest in what they want.

The latest reality check came on Wednesday when a substantial portion of first-year House Democrats — 62 members — urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to act on HR 1, a sweeping House-passed bill that seeks to fortify ethics rules for public officials, overhaul campaign finance and expand access to voting.

In a letter to the Kentucky Republican, the Democrats stressed how they pledged action on those three pillars as their first priority of the 116th Congress. Several of the signatories staged a press conference Wednesday in front of the Capitol where they implored the Senate to act.

“We call upon Mitch McConnell. What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? I’m not asking for him to vote for this. I’m asking for him to put it up for a vote,” New Jersey Democrat Andy Kim said.

The For the People Act, introduced by Maryland Democrat John Sarbanes passed the House in March with 235 Democratic co-sponsors. The companion bill in the Senate, S 949, was introduced by New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall in March but no action has been taken since.

“He won’t even take a meeting with us,” Rep. Max Rose, a New York Democrat, said of McConnell.

[SMGFan]

Awww, boo hoo hoo.

Have fun in the minority if you house dems are reelected.

Hope not you Nj KIM!

[Gay State Conservative]

Ethics? OK,fair enough. Let's make public *every* secret payout that's been made (with taxpayers' money) to women who've claimed various kinds of sexual violations by Members of Congress.

The amounts and the name of the accused are made public along with dates,places,etc.The only thing withheld are the names of the accusers.

That's a good start in establishing Congressional "ethics".

[Cheerio]

“He won’t even take a meeting with us,” Rep. Max Rose, a New York Democrat, said of McConnell.

[SMGFan]

Rose from Staten Island & southern BKLYN

[Svartalfiar]

a sweeping House-passed bill that seeks to fortify ethics rules for public officials, overhaul campaign finance and expand access to voting. How are we fortifying ethics rules? to hit Repubs more I would guess? And how are we overhauling campaign finances? Trying to prevent companies from spending $$ unless it's a Dem? And expand access to voting, we need to get more restrictive! Even without changing the law, current needs to be enforced much better.

Maybe they should try passing these bills individually, then we might get some of them passed if they make sense.