Press Release

At a time of deep partisan divide in Washington, Congress deserves credit for allocating significant additional resources for election security in the face of ongoing attacks on our election infrastructure by hostile foreign governments. This $425 million can be put to good use toward critical contingency plans for the 2020 elections should election systems fail due to foreign interference. As national intelligence agencies have warned the attacks on our election infrastructure are ongoing.

The American people deserve a fair trial of the impeached and disgraced President in the United States Senate – not a show trial to attempt to excuse the abuses of office which led to President Trump’s impeachment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his GOP colleagues must put the interests of the nation before the interests of their political party. If Senator McConnell honestly believes that President Trump is innocent of the high crimes for which he was impeached by the House then he should agree a fair trial.

Today, Common Cause called on the U.S. House of Representatives to impeach and the Senate to convict and remove Attorney General William Barr from office for obstruction of Congress, abuse of power and failing to faithfully execute his office. In a letter to every Member of Congress, Common Cause emphasized that Barr, despite serving as the nation’s top law enforcement official, has violated his oath of office and put the interests of President Donald Trump before the interests of the nation.

Common Cause commends the House Judiciary Committee for approving two articles of impeachment against President Trump. These articles reflect the overwhelming evidence against President Trump that was collected despite obstruction of the investigation by the White House. We are disappointed that the Republican members of the committee chose to ignore the compelling evidence before them and uphold their oath of office. We encourage all House Members to impartially review the evidence before them and keep in mind their constitutional duty to hold the executive branch accountable and vote for these when they’re expected to be voted on by the full House of Representatives next week.

Our democracy can only be fulfilled when all eligible Americans have their votes counted and voices heard, and we commend the House of Representatives for passing the Voting Rights Advancement Act (HR 4) today to help stop voter suppression. Since the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act, Americans have been systematically stripped of their ability to vote in numbers not seen since the Jim Crow era. Instead of poll taxes and literacy tests, modern day vote suppressors use poll closures, voter purges, and other devious tactics to silence Americans. The Voting Rights Advancement Act will help curb those abuses and hold states and municipalities accountable when they abuse the system to determine who is able to cast a ballot and who is not. To Majority Leader McConnell, we ask: why are you afraid of all Americans having their full right to vote?”

Yesterday, the FCC announced a plan to launch a $9 billion 5G fund for rural America. The plan would allocate funding from the FCC's Universal Service Fund to support carriers deploying 5G wireless networks in rural areas. The plan would also terminate the FCC's current mechanism to fund 4G deployment after the agency found several carriers had significantly overstated their actual coverage and misrepresented the actual on-the-ground experience of their users.