Making Government Work

Common Cause today released the results of its Our Democracy 2020 candidate surveys. More than 200 candidates for Congress, including in certain swing House and Senate races, responded on how they promise to defend and strengthen our democracy.

The 2020 Democracy Scorecard charts the position of every Member of Congress on issues vital to the health of our democracy and shows the Senate is a "legislative graveyard" for democracy reform

The 2020 Democracy Scorecard charts the position of every Member of Congress on issues vital to the health of our democracy and predicts the 116th Congress will be the least productive in history

I am very sorry to announce that Ann McBride, who served in many capacities at Common Cause, including President, passed away on May 5. She was 75 and had been in declining health. Ann is an important part of Common Cause’s history and was a cherished mentor and role-model to me. Ann’s message was clear. Our victories were, she would often say, a message of hope for citizens – a reminder that working together, we all could make a difference in our government and our world.

At this time when the COVID-19 pandemic challenges our governmental institutions and public bodies in unprecedented ways, our public officials must do everything reasonably possible to maximize transparency and remote public participation, even as we protect public health via social distancing. There is no one way to do this, but key steps include four key principles.

As public officials at every level of government wrestle with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, including implementation of social distancing measures that impact the public’s ability to attend government meetings and other proceedings, Common Cause encourages public officials to adopt emergency measures to protect public health while maximizing transparency and remote public participation and limiting government business to priority functions necessary under the current emergency conditions.