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Call to Action: Ask Your Senator to Bring the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to Debate
Without protected voting rights for every eligible American, it is impossible to have a government that is truly representative of and accountable to the people. To this end, H.R.4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 (VRAA), was designed to protect the right to vote for Americans who experience voting discrimination on the basis of race, color, or language minority membership. It amends the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965 by strengthening its power to protect voting rights and updating its requirements to be specific to the modern context of voting discrimination. The bill was passed in the House strictly along party lines. It now goes before…
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Harkin Filibuster Reform Proposal
Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin has been pushing for filibuster reform for more than 20 years. During his 30 years of public service, he experienced the Senate from the perspective of both majority and minority control. Harkin first introduced filibuster reform in 1995, when his party was in the minority — defying the conventional support of the filibuster by minority leadership. This article reviews his proposed reform and then digs a little deeper into the reasons for his proposal. Harkin’s proposal This proposal would amend the Standing Rules of the Senate to permit a decreasing majority of senators to invoke cloture (end filibuster and move legislation forward toward a vote)…
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Call to Action: Ask Your Senators to Engage in Discussion of the Freedom to Vote Act
Equality, freedom, and representation are central to the practice of democracy. To remain a democratic republic, the U.S. must protect the voting freedom of every eligible American, ensuring our ability to participate in free and fair elections. Among American voters, there is wide bipartisan support for federal protection of voter rights. Recognizing this, historically both the Republican and the Democratic parties have overwhelmingly supported the Voting Rights Act and its renewals. Unfortunately, since the November 2020 election many state legislatures have passed legislation to restrict access to the ballot. In all cases these have been strictly partisan initiatives. The Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) is intended to provide much-needed reforms…
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Filibuster Reform
Joe Manchin’s leaked call and apparent softening on the question of filibuster reform has given new energy to the questions of whether and how to reform this Senate rule in keeping with historic tradition and the goal of encouraging compromise. The historic tradition is complicated. The Constitution does not mandate this rule, and both James Madison and Alexander Hamilton wrote about how dangerous it would be to require supermajorities for decision making in Congress. In 1805, Aaron Burr suggested dropping the rule about how to end debate on the Senate floor, as he was trying to simplify the Senate rules as a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping. At the time, it…
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Some Final Thoughts About the Recent Supreme Court Confirmation Proceedings
October 8, 2018 The past few weeks leading up to Saturday’s Supreme Court confirmation vote have been difficult ones for America. In an effort to score a political win, politicians on both sides gambled with the trust of the American people, and the result is that we all lost. We watched in real time while hyper-partisanship dealt a serious blow to one of our most sacred democratic institutions. Some have asked why MWEG engaged so publicly in this particular battle. We did not see this as a contest between Republicans and Democrats or between conservatism or liberalism. We reject the notion that every engagement in the civic sphere must necessarily…
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Official Statement from Mormon Women for Ethical Government Before the Vote on the Confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a Justice to the Supreme Court
October 4, 2018 As the Senate prepares to vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, we implore its members to carefully weigh the totality of factors involved in this confirmation process. Those factors include not only the actions and character of Judge Kavanaugh but also the damage that a compromised process will do to our collective faith in our institutions. At risk is the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, the civic health of our country, and the confidence of sexual assault victims that they will receive equal justice under the law. The members of the Senate are now tasked with the solemn duty of fairly…
