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Amidst a huge surge in membership and citizen engagement, today Common Cause announced the addition three new development team members and the move of Rey Lpez-Caldern to the post of Interim Vice President of Development from his role as Director of State Organizational Development. The moves come at a time when Americans are exhibiting a growing concern with the health of American democracy as a result are turning to Common Cause to lead in the struggle to hold power accountable. The organization is seeing unprecedented growth in its membership – surging to 750,000 up from just 450,000 a year ago.

Privacy goes the way of populism as Trump rolls over again for big business. Despite a campaign filled with rhetoric about the plight of forgotten Americans, Trump has once again come down on the side of corporate profiteering at the expense of Americans who don't sit on corporate boards and can't afford a $200,000 membership at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach. Trump has flip-flipped on his own campaign promises and handed over Americans' right to privacy to those with the deepest pockets.

Overnight, the Georgia Senate voted down House bill 515, a racial gerrymandering proposal that had been dropped at the end of session on short notice in the House and cleared through committee in minutes without public comment. Common Cause Georgia fought the bill from the outset and urged the Senate to vote it down on the grounds that significant numbers of Black voters would be packed into legislative districts with “safe” seats – thereby diluting their voting power to elect candidates of their choice - in order to move new white voters into Republican legislative districts that were carried by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the presidential election.

The White House is going to increasing and troubling lengths to influence and undermine the investigations of possible coordination between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government. It is becoming increasingly disturbingly clear that the White House will do anything to try to change headlines President Trump doesn’t like. Instead of taking the Russian interference in the 2016 election seriously, President Trump, White House staff, and House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes are playing partisan games to try to distract Americans from the truth.

Congress has knuckled under to Big Telecom and Big Cable on internet privacy. If the bill passed today is signed by the president, broadband providers will have free rein to sell user data to the highest bidder - without ever informing consumers.”

Rep. Devin Nunes has surrendered his own integrity and compromised that of the entire House Intelligence Committee. House Speaker Paul Ryan should immediately relieve Nunes of his chairmanship.