The American people expect and deserve the restoration of strong ethical standards at the White House in the wake of the abuses of the Trump presidency. President-elect Biden promised reform on the campaign trail, and Common Cause, along with our allies, urged the incoming administration to take make a strong commitment to ethics and democracy reforms.

Today, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Prometheus v. Federal Communications Commission. The case addresses the question of whether the FCC properly concluded that deregulating media ownership rules would not harm its longstanding public interest goal of promoting media ownership by women and people of color. The FCC media ownership rules prohibit a single entity from owning too many newspaper, radio, and television entities within a local market.

Americans expect and deserve a strong inclusive democracy. We commend Leader Schumer, Senator Merkley and Senator Klobuchar for pledging to introduce the For the People Act as the first bill of the new Congress – S.1. The Senate now joins the House in making this bill the top legislative priority.

Our democracy was attacked by the President of the United States on Wednesday, January 6th, and we must ensure that it never happens again. The Senate must immediately come back into session and quickly convene a trial and convict President Trump for inciting an insurrection in an effort to overturn the results of a free and fair election in which the American people elected Joe Biden by a wide margin as our next President. President Trump’s continuous lies over the last year about a ‘stolen election’, his baseless failed lawsuits, and his calls urging state elections officials to throw out the votes of predominantly Black and Brown communities laid the groundwork to incite the mob that stormed the Capitol last week. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to the American people and to our democracy, and that threat will remain until he is removed from office and banned from ever running again. The House is to be commended for again impeaching the President, although it was shocking that only 10 House Republicans stood up for the Constitution and the rule of law. Now the Senate must act, and it must act swiftly, to end Donald Trump’s presidency.   

Today, the Common Cause Education Fund is pleased to announce it is a recipient of Lumina Foundation’s racial equity funding program to expand the Student Action Alliance. The Student Action Alliance is a program for students of color that is led by a team of Black millennials. The program focuses on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and students of color at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). The two-year $200,000 grant, which is part of the Lumina Foundation’s $15 million effort to help eradicate systematic racism, will allow the Common Cause Education Fund to increase its staff capacity and expand our program to additional HBCUs and to other Minority Serving Institutions.

Today, Common Cause urged every Member of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection by a mob that stormed the United States Capitol, leaving five dead, in an attempt to stop certification of the legitimate election of Joe Biden as the next President. The letter urges Members to pass a resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump from office within 24 hours, and, if they do not, to immediately vote to impeach the President for inciting the deadly insurrection.