H.R. 1: For the Politicians, Not the People

House Democrats and Speaker Pelosi are targeting our entire election system.



Today on Sekulow, we discussed H.R. 1, a bill that the Democrats passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, also interestingly enough called the For the People Act of 2021. What it really does is target our election system.



This bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 220-210. Only one Democrat voted against it. Now it goes to the United States Senate. 



The bill, if enacted into law, would codify some of the election issues that we were concerned with in the 2020 election. There are constitutional issues, such as states deciding what their election laws should be rather than the federal government mandating it. Under the election and electors clauses of the Constitution, the states are to determine their own election laws.



This bill would create automatic voter registration across the United States. It would allow felons who have served their sentences to vote. It expands early voting and enhances absentee voting by what they call simplifying the process. It requires more online ad political disclosures, and forces all organizations involved with political activity to disclose their large donors.

The disclosure of donors issue has always been troubling to me because of the 1st Amendment principle of anonymous donors. That is freedom of association.



There is also another troubling provision in this bill, as pointed out by House Administration Committee Ranking Member Rodney Davis:

"Weaponizes Biden’s IRS. H.R. 1 permits the agency to investigate and consider the political and policy persuasions of organizations before granting tax-exempt status."

As I shared on the broadcast, we have an injunction against the IRS on exactly that point. We went to federal court and obtained that injunction and the IRS consented to it. Now, they’re trying to undo that consent provision by passing a new bill.



ACLJ Senior Counsel Andy Ekonomou gave his take on that provision:

"It puts us back in the position we were in when we fought and conquered the IRS, if I might say, in getting them away from trying to target conservative organizations, pro-life organizations, organizations that supported traditional values, and they had targeted those. They had put us in a position where they wanted to know what our political, religious affiliations, and beliefs were. We got them to apologize, to withdraw that. People lost their jobs."

We’re already looking at potential constitutional challenges to this. We’ll keep you updated on the status of this bill as it now heads to the U.S. Senate.



The full broadcast is complete with much more analysis by our team of what the Democrats are trying to do to our elections system. We were also joined by ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo.