Nearly one year ago, on Christmas Eve, health care reform overcame Senate roadblocks and headed toward final enactment by the Congress, with the President’s signature coming in March.
Tomorrow will be the last day that Gracia Hillman sits as a commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Gracia, who, in full disclosure, served as the League’s executive director from 1990-1994, has been at the EAC since its inception seven year ago. The League family will miss her voice and dedication and so will America’s voters and election officials!
With the lame-duck session of Congress winding down, one of the key decisions that will be made before they adjourn for the holidays is whether to extend the “Bush tax cuts” -- the huge cuts enacted when our nation was running a surplus early in the George W. Bush Administration.
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- This debate is proving to be a fascinating discussion coming on the heels of voters ongoing concerns about the economy, big money in politics and ethics in Washington.
Today, we joined with an interesting and diverse array of groups (Judicial Watch, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Common Cause, Democracy21, U.S. PIRG, CREW, Campaign Legal Center and Public Citizen) for a press conference calling on Speaker-elect John Boehner to retain the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) in the upcoming 112th Congress. The League is deeply concerned that many in Congress, apparently wishing to return to a time when there was no meaningful ethics enforcement in the House of Representatives, have called for steps that would substantially weaken the OCE.
Several nonpartisan organizations, including the League and Common Cause, literally took a stand at a media event on Capitol Hill on Thursday calling upon the Senate to pass a stripped down version of the Disclose Act which is focused solely on disclosure by special interests.
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In the run-up to the election, many may have missed a critically important court decision on voter registration handed down on October 26. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Gonzalez v. Arizona that the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) blocks the state of Arizona from implementing a proof-of-citizenship requirement for voter registration.
Millions of American voters went to the polls on Tuesday in a great display of civic responsibility and participation. And while the League is proud — not just of voters but of our own powerful contributions to election 2010 — we cannot ignore the tens of millions of dollars spent in secret this election season.
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