Why H.R. 1 Must Be Stopped

Dear Friends,

Wednesday night, Democrats passed one of their highest-priority pieces of legislation in the House, H.R. 1, the ‘For the People’ Act. This bill is masked as voter and election reform, but that could not be farther from the truth. Despite its misleading name, this bill is not for the American people. Through H.R. 1, Democrats would centralize power in Washington, D.C. and rewrite election rules for their own benefit.

Speaker Pelosi rushed to get a vote on this reckless legislation, and even some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle expressed concerns with its sweeping agenda. Included in H.R. 1 are some of the most dangerous, unconstitutional changes to our election system that we have ever seen, including allowing for the first-ever federal funding of political campaigns, nationalizing our elections to take power away from states, and limiting state voter identification laws. I am writing to explain what the bill could mean to you, and more on why I voted against it this week.

Among its most outrageous provisions, H.R. 1 would nationalize our elections. By allowing the government to override states’ ability to determine their own registration and voting practices, H.R. 1 would impose a one-size-fits-all Washington mandate forcing liberal voting laws on every state. Politicians in Washington shouldn’t decide how we run our elections in Texas 12.

H.R. would also allow for your tax dollars to fund political campaigns, allowing the use of taxpayer funds to match political donations of up to $200 at a 6-to-1 rate. A $200 donation to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders—who are among the top five members of Congress benefitting from small donations—would be matched with $1,200 from the federal government. Your tax dollars belong in your pockets, not in the pockets of special interests.

This long, complex bill is filled with 800 pages of bad ideas. The main point is that I will always oppose federal violations of our Constitutional rights and giving politicians the American people’s hard-earned tax dollars. I will also always oppose Washington forcing chaotic California-style election laws on Texas.

We can and do need to empower the American people and restore faith in the integrity of our elections. However, H.R. 1 will not get us there. This bill is nothing but a power grab by Democrats to help their party centralize power in Washington and win more elections. H.R. 1 is not for the people. It is for the politicians.