Congress and President Obama should work quickly to fully staff the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC), a 12-year-old bipartisan panel created to help states meet voluntary standards for administering elections, Common Cause said today.

Congress should be wary of plans to overhaul the 18-year-old federal law governing broadcasters and telecommunications companies and should focus first on making the existing law work as its authors intended, former Federal Communications Commission member Michael Copps said today.

Miles Rapoport, whose long career in public service has been devoted to strengthening democracy and achieving economic fairness at every level, has been named president of Common Cause.

The social welfare organizations and other tax exempt groups that funneled hundreds of millions of dollars from anonymous donors into the 2012 presidential and congressional elections ran a charade (that) must not be repeated, Common Cause asserted today.

Knowing of your interest in the rules of the U.S. Senate, and the filibuster rule (Rule 22) in particular, I wanted to update you on Common Cause v. Biden, Common Cause's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the filibuster.

Regulators at the Federal Communications Commission should promptly and emphatically reject Comcast's proposed purchase of rival Time Warner Cable, Common Cause said today.

As millions of Americans struggle to pay their bills and take care of their families in a rough economy, obstructionists in the Senate are continuing to exploit the filibuster rule to block debate on a proposed increase in the minimum wage.

"This is an alarming day for anyone who treasures a free and open Internet – which should be all of us.

"When politicians draw lines that lock in the winners for the rest of the decade, it creates a disillusionment among voters that elections may not matter, because our voices won't be heard," said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for the good government group Common Cause.

And without the political middle represented in Congress, "you end up with a dysfunctional body," she said.

Congressional action alone cannot solve the problem. A holistic approach to holding platforms accountable also requires regulatory reform, executive action, and corporate accountability. The White House must continue to push relevant federal agencies to use their enforcement, rule-making, and investigatory authorities to go after some of the most harmful business practices of the big tech companies – invasive data collection, inconsistent content moderation, discriminatory uses of algorithms, and more. 

The new year...