The House of Representatives approved a thorough voting reform act along party lines Friday, a victory for freshman Democrats who ran on an anti-corruption platform.
H.R. 1—or the “For the People Act“—moves to expand early voting, reform redistricting, automate voter registration, restore protections from the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and implement stricter disclosure rules for campaigns and other political activities.
It also includes a provision to require all presidential candidates to disclose a decade of tax returns—a move that directly goes against President Donald Trump’s decision to keep his tax returns private—and another that would make Election Day a federal holiday.
Republicans have harshly condemned this bill, most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who called it a Democratic “power grab.” McConnell has said he won’t allow H.R. 1 to reach the Senate floor, saying, “I get to decide what we vote on.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, said Friday that the bill “restores the people’s faith that government works for the public interest, the people’s interests, not the special interests,” Politico reports.
