Filibuster or No, S1 Has Rot Within
The "For the People Act" contains poison pills meant to cement duopolistic power.
As Georgia was passing a racist anti-voting rights bill last week, Senator Amy Klobuchar held hearings on Senate Bill 1 (S1). S1 had been passed by the House of Representatives as HR1; it’s also known as the For The People Act of 2021.
S1 has overwhelming Democratic Party support. It’s being sold as a bold move against voter suppression and the greatest advancement in voting rights in generations. Newly-elected House progressive Mondaire Jones, Michelle Obama, and erstwhile Presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig all support the bill. So do public interest groups like Common Cause.
Moreover, several prominent Republicans have decried the bill, including Mitch McConnell, which is enough for some Democrats to support it no questions asked. Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-R) weighed in as well, saying that the bill "is focused on protecting House Democrats, not our sacred democratic principles."
It’s not just the GOP, though. Opposition parties (The Greens and the People's Party) are highlighting the bill’s poison pills: New laws that would make it much more difficult for new parties to compete. You won’t find them mentioned in the Senate’s simple section-by-section guide to the bill, only in the full version. Even independent news viewers could be forgiven for not knowing about S1’s problems, since Democracy Now! has yet to mention them, much less MSNBC or CNN. But they’re there. The new sections would:
Increase the fundraising requirements for a party to qualify for public matching funds from $5,000 to $25,000 in 20 states.
Lock in a two-party plus independents structure for state redistricting. This would ultimately exclude small and new parties from participating on redistricting boards.
Do away with general election grants that have historically been accessed when a party wins 5 percent or more of the vote in the previous presidential election.
Right now, national political party committees can’t give more than $5,000 to candidates. Section 5214* of the bill would raise that to $100 million. Political comedian Lee Camp’s reaction to that line is not safe for work, but it’s completely fitting for the news.
S1 is not expected to pass the Senate unless it kills the filibuster first, but that’s beside the point: The anti-opposition party provisions need to be removed before the bill passes.
Back to Harvard Law Professor and campaign finance reform advocate Lawrence Lessig. He has suggested that the For The People Act’s good parts are so important that the Green Party and others who object to its poison pill provisions should just shut up. Lessig dismisses the idea of removing the bad parts, saying that the bill will either be voted up or down as a practicality. Public pressure can change votes. Is he not even willing to try?
At a time when the demand for a multi-party democracy is higher than ever, we can’t let the duopoly prevent it from happening if we ever want more than two viable electoral choices. Expanding voting rights while shrinking voting options makes no sense.
*Section numbers refer to HR1 Version engrossed in House 3/3/2021
Filibuster or No, S1 Has Rot Within
UPDATE: I just spoke with someone on S1 Lead Sponsor Senator Jeff Merkley's staff (at just past 6am...). I spoke with her for a couple of minutes, and she said she'll make sure that the Senator answers the question publicly. If anyone catches the answer, please share. Thanks.