Davis Participates in Press Conference with Senate and House Leaders

Washington, DC- U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) participated in a press conference today with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Rules Committee Roy Blunt (R-MO), House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-WY). As the Ranking Member of the Committee on House Administration, which has primary jurisdiction over H.R. 1, Davis raised serious concerns about Democrats’ signature legislation during today’s press conference.

H.R. 1 is scheduled to be debated and voted on this week. Some of Davis’ concerns with the bill include:

• H.R. 1 creates a public fund for campaigns. It provides a 6 to 1 taxpayer match on small-donor campaign contributions. For every $200, the federal government will pay $1,200 of public funds to a congressional or presidential campaign. Under H.R. 1 every campaign would receive
• Weaponizes the Federal Election Commission (FEC). The bill changes the current bipartisan makeup of a six-member commission to a partisan five-member commission, which will limit free speech and make partisan decisions about election communications.
• The ACLU opposes H.R. 1 for violating the First Amendment. The ACLU wrote a 13-page letter opposing the bill because it would“unconstitutionally impinge on the free speech rights of American citizens and public interest organizations. They will have the effect of harming our public discourse by silencing necessary voices that would otherwise speak out about the public issues of the day.”
• Removes states’ power of administering elections by federalizing our election system. H.R. 1 violates Article 1, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution by impeding states’ constitutionally mandated right to decide how their elections should be administered – states that know their residents’ election needs much better than a federal bureaucracy does.

Read more about the H.R. 1 here.

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