Related Videos
107K views · | ||
Related PagesSee All
Video Transcript
Members more press Good morning everyone good morning thank you all for being here I'm honored to be here with some of the members of the House Democratic caucus and some of the leadership of committees of jurisdiction to deal with this very important issue of integrity in government especially want to acknowledge the work and leadership of congressman John saar baines over the years We developed an initiative that gathered steam across the country on hundred candidates across the country signed a letter saying they wanted h. are one uh to be uh one of the first orders of business of this new Congress thank you bounce our banks for joined by gerry neither the chair of the judiciary Committee will be hearing from congresswoman zoe lofgren chair of House administration Committee congressman elijah cummings from government oversight and reform John servings I acknowledge the chair of the democracy reform task force congressman John Our hero on all subjects and uh I congressman David price has been a champion on this for decades and congresswoman veronica escobar member of the freshman class who will represent the views of that very transformative diverse beautiful energetic freshman class that is energizing the Congress so uh yesterday we made history again swearing in its transformative freshman class when they took the oath they are make they made a difference today guided by our new members and the American people that they represent That we all represent we are introducing hr 12 hold legislation to clean up corruption and restore integrity to government We put power and back and back into the hands of the people what's really important about this because in our for the people agenda we talked about lowering of health care costs by lowering prescription drug prices and protecting people with preexisting conditions we talked about lowering increasing lowering healthcare costs increasing paychecks by building the Green infrastructure of America from Sea to shining Sea and we gave people confidence that this could happen in a way that was in the people's interest not the special interest because of It's important for what it does it's important for the confidence that gives people that their voices and their concerns are heard so uh that restoring the people's faith in government works is really our agenda with thrilled that so many champions of democracy are here in this room representing organizations have fought this fight for such a long time and again we are the bill we'll hear more about it but it has many features one of them It's about setting us up for the voting rights act which made will not be a part of the first as we go forward because we have to build the constitutional record to do that but we will do that in a short order and then we'll have the complete hr one passed by the House of representatives with the acknowledge transparency that the American people will know that this is an option that the House is giving the Senate of the States and the President of the United States to take action in support of the American people for the people uh with that now I'm very pleased to yield to the chair of our task force our champion on integrity in government comes from John saar baines from John good morning everybody uh thank you Speaker pelosi thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this agenda of giving the American people their voice back last year when candidates were out campaigning to their constituents new candidates and candidates were running for reelection we heard loud and clear from the American people that they feel left out and locked out too often from their own democracy that they want us to fight the culture of corruption they want us to clean up Washington fix the system and give them their voice back they wanna be Get to the ballot box without having to run an obstacle course they wanted to be easy and not hard to register and vote in America and hr one will address that concern they wanna make sure that when people come to Washington to serve whether it's in the legislative branch or the executive branch or as a member of the judiciary they behave themselves they abide by ethics they have integrity that they're open and transparent so hr one addresses ethical responsible And finally they kept saying to us over and over and over again don't get tangled up in the money we don't want special interest and people who write big checks to govern our democracy to determine what the legislative calendar is gonna look like we want the people's priorities to be reflected so we have to fight back against special interests and big money in hr one does that we carried a message of reform of fighting corruption of cleaning up Washington we made a promise to the American people the new members who come made that promise Clear they wanted this to be the first order of business so hr one is delivering on that promise back to the American people and telling them in return for you giving us the gavel we're gonna do everything we can every single day to give you your democracy back and make sure that this truly is a government of by and for the people so thank you for being here today My privilege someone who's been a fighter for democracy he talks about fighting for the soul of our democracy every single day the new chairman of the oversight and government reform Committee elijah cummings live Thank you thank you Jon Jon I wanna thank you for putting your blood sweat and tears in this effort you have been simply spectacular wanna thanks figures pelosi majority leader a warrior and uh for your leadership with regard to this historic package the midterm elections were monumental and indeed historic the American people gave Congress a mandate to finally Conducting credible oversight and enacting reforms over the last two years President trump set the tone from the top of his administration that behaving ethically and complying with the law is optional ladies and gentlemen I've stopped by here to simply say we're better than that we're better than that it cannot be optional we have seen Abuses from agency heads such as former epa administrator Scott pruitt and former interior Secretary Ryan thinking this is why we are introducing the four the people act this bill includes a number of reforms that will strengthen our accountability for the executive branch officials including the President here is what we are focusing on in our oversight Committee requiring the President to disclose his financial As soon as he takes office or she takes office prohibiting executive branch officials from lobbying their own agencies for two years after they leave for here prohibiting procurement officers from going to work for companies the award of contracts to for at least two years after they leave strengthening the government's ethics watchdog the office of government ethics and making it Independent making any waivers any waivers from ethics rules available to the American people finally requiring senior government officials to disclose political contributions David see before joining the government I'm anxiously looking forward to uh the hearings on hr one and now it gives me great honor and great pleasure and privilege to introduce my great colleague and just uh a fighter for all of these kinds of issues the distinguish uh chairman uh newly German harvey uh do this judiciary Committee at gerry nail or Thank you very much uh let me begin by thanking our John saar baines for his leadership role over a long period of time pulling together this democracy agenda and gathering support for it and the new leadership of the House Speaker pelosi and majority leader warrior who have been uh great supporters and rally warriors for this kind of agenda for a long time I am proud to be joining my colleagues today to unveil hr one legislation to restore democracy and deliver for the American people the overwhelming influence of money and special interest is a cancer on our democracy that must be removed otherwise we Evolving into an oleg our key like so many other republics before us indeed many Americans already believe that their elected leaders do not care about them and that office holders care only about raising money and prioritizing the interest of the money to class they believe that their participation their voices cannot count against the power of big money and recent experience shows they are often right for example most Americans including most gun owners support reasonable firearms regulation heartbreaking Lee we can To hear about Mass shootings yet after each tragedy the Republican controlled Congress refused to act even without such high profile incidents remains true that more than 33000 Americans losing their lives to gun violence every year and the gun related murder in the United States is 25 times higher 25 times higher than in 22 other comparably high income countries despite near universal support from the American Republic the Republican Congress does not even have a hearing on the issue much less pass legislation because of this Political influence of the National rifle Association and the big givers Associated with it in a similar vein Americans overwhelmingly support lowering prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry and its army of lobbyists of thus far successfully managed to stifle any real reform sadly this pallet this pattern repeats itself in policy area after policy area from gutting protections that ensure clean air and clean water to those that ensure the Integrity of our financial system the very real danger now is that special interest will be able to use vast sums of concentrated wealth to further dictate policy outcomes at odds with the American people's wishes without hr one our democracy will find himself more and more at the mercy of large moneyed interests if we do not pass this critical legislation the history books may eventually say that like the roman Republic the United States had a good 200 to 250 year running democracy and then the generator Into an oligarchy like all the rest we must not let that happen we must pass this legislation so the government of the people remains of the people And now I'm proud to introduce one of the people who has perhaps had the greatest role and making sure the government is of by and for the people in the last century our great moral leader and a great legislative leader representative John Lewis Thank you mister chairman for those kind words of introduction Thank you John for not giving up for not giving in for keeping the faith for and keeping your eyes on the prize right The last two years have made it clear their force which invest thousand and millions of dollars in drowning out the voice of the people of this country but in the last election the people spoke and they spoke with a mighty voice and they will continue to speak the use the power of the vote to create a more diverse more Progressive and more outspoken House than ever before I said on many occasion that the vote is the most powerful nonviolent instrument a transformation we have in our democracy we have in a Democratic society and at the foundation of our system it must be strengthened and preserved their force are trying to make a harder and more difficult for people to participate and we must These forces We must strengthen On democracy Democrats want to put power back in into the hearts of the people that is fine we have introduced H our wind Before the people at like automatic registration and mandate nationwide not just instant States instead of counties but nation why we must get there and we will get there as Democrats we will get their as citizen of this great country if restore voting rights to felons who paid their debt to society I truly believe deep in my heart and my soul the way folks were Not chronic encourage in Georgia in Florida until the judge and other state change from the last election that was never happen again everyone I could never never again Illegal it also offer federal resources to secure the votes and States and localities around our country if this bill it is in keeping with the voting rights like the 19 65 when some of us gave a little blood on that bridge oh yeah we don't wanna give animal blood no sir but we have votes and we must use our votes everyone as a powerful instrument to change thing we just feel you demonstrate that this House is for the people And we will choose the side a fabulous equality and Justice always special interest rate every time that's the right thing to do and we will do it yes It is my great pleasure to present a fighter a warrior the gentle woman from the great state of California a member of the judiciary Committee representing alright First I want to reiterate the things that we all have four representatives our veins for pressing forward never giving up and also for our freshman class for responding and saying this has to be a priority I look out in this audience I see people who have been working for Fred others have been working for reform for decades and we are on the cost of getting some enormously important things done I wanna talk a little About partisan redistricting across the United States we can see majorities of voters voting for one party but it doesn't reflect the actual result in the end because of partisan redistricting now we've had bills uh to require non partisan redistricting really modeled after the California effort for some years and I'm not the only person who worked on it I see Allen low and fall is here and and julia brownlee who had bills and John barro who's no longer a member in our John tanner we made these efforts but now we're in a position to actually Forward you know um because of these partisan districts politicians are actually choosing their voters instead of voters choosing their politicians that has to stop we have this bill uh that will use the voting rights act principles as the guide for how these districts need to be drawn but there will be no opportunity for the citizens to know the party registration in the Redistricting to nowhere the incompetence live it's just gonna be by the book fair districts so that voters have a fair chance to elect the Congress of their choice it's my hope that these commissions that will fully reflect the diversity of their state and function of fully transparent nonpartisan matter will completely transform politics in the United States and I want it done by the time we The next congressional elections With that the for the people acting are gonna look deliver the change with campaign finance reform transparency voting rights and redistricting reform but we have someone here who has worked on so many of these items for so many years not only as a member of Congress but as a distinguished professor of political science and I'd like to introduce him next representative David price Thank you I wanna thank my colleagues thank all of you for being here this morning for your interest in what we're undertaking and it truly is a momentous undertaking as uh my colleagues have said what we're talking about here today is basic to everything else we need to do political reform far reaching comprehensive political reform and I as a representative from North Carolina have a special reason we we're we're ground zero on so many of these issues special reason to to understand how important this is this is a once in a generation blueprint For reforming our Democratic system diminishing the influence of big money in American politics special interest and restoring power to our people it represents the commitment of the House Democratic caucus to deliver on the promises we made to restore integrity and accountability and transparency to our democracy I have spent the better part of my career in Congress on the issues addressed in this bill especially the campaign finance system that allows money to interest to nominate and corrupt our politics before the people act would dramatically change that it will uh it will transform The process of disclosure making it a real process that real people can understand it will help us shine a light on dark money in politics it will modernize our presidential public finance system and and by the way that probably ranks as the most um successful reform effort of modern times and it worked for 30 years past watergate it does need to be modernized and uh that's included in this bill it would establish a new public matching system also for congressional races that would empower Donors we plan to bolster limits on campaign spending by cracking down on improper Super pacs Super pacs that are all too often uh affiliated um behind the scenes with the political campaigns and we intend to expand my original stand by your add the provisions that with apologies to tammy why net for anybody who remembers stand by your ad we want to expand those provisions and require corporations and other groups to disclose their top vendors and that should include um of course Tv ads But also uh online paid ads robo calls and so forth these reforms are going to empower American voters they're gonna encourage more diverse candidates to run for office and they're gonna help break the strangle hold that big donors have on American politics so we're proud to deliver on our promise to the American people were proud to roll this comprehensive package out as hr one and we fully intend to do everything in our power to return power to the American people with that I turn to Standing new members who's just been through a campaign and can testifies to some of the rigors and some of the changes that need to be made a very very convincingly representative escobar Good morning everyone uh wanna thank uh um Speaker pelosi and House majority leader steady hoyer for their leadership my name is bonnie cosco od I am from the great safe secure us Mexico border El paso Texas and I want to thank congressman saar baines for the incredible privilege of allowing us as new members to be able to sign on to such a transformative piece of legislation and I'm very proud to have signed on today uh you will see in this group this group of heroes for See who I am so privileged to be standing with you will see many freshman we our hot off a campaign trail that for many of us went on for well over a year for some of us it was a year and a half we spent every single day of our campaigns on the ground talking to constituents and I can tell you speaking for myself and many of my freshman colleagues who have spoken to over the the course of our campaigns cynicism And mistrust of Congress is at an alltime high it is at a tragic level when American people cannot trust the Congress that creates the laws that govern their lives and so we heard directly from our citizens about their disappointment with Washington dc at the very same time we received our marching orders from them they have told us Us to work on an ambitious agenda they want health care they want us to deal with the challenges of our generation and climate change they want comprehensive immigration reform they want investments in real infrastructure not a monument to division like a Wall they want real infrastructure projects but in order for us to be able to sell that to the American public and asked them for their faith Their trust in us we have to prove that we are trustworthy and that is why h. our one is so critical at the beginning of this new this new Congress the hundred and sixteenth Congress at the beginning of a new era in government and governance we must demonstrate to the American public that we're willing to police ourselves in order to build the big projects and dreams and ambitions that they have For our country you know I come from local government I spent over a decade in local government where we passed sweeping ethics reforms campaign finance reforms because if we didn't our folks would have thrown us out of office what is unacceptable at the local level has been acceptable in Washington dc for too long but representatives our veins thanks to you that day is over and a new day has dawned thank you all very much Okay I wanna thank everybody for coming and I do want to acknowledge there is in this room many many grassroots organizations and groups that have been part of this effort to restore our democracy really for decades but certainly over the last few years in the last few months I wanna thank them for their continuing efforts to give people their voice back thank you for being here I want to salute the new members who came to Congress with this message of reform pinned to their chest they understand it wasn't just a message they were delivering it was heard as a promise and that's why they want to deliver on this promise but I wanna By talking to Americans out there across the country who I know in many instances are hanging on by a thread their cynicism is deep their skepticism is broad they don't know whether they can get their democracy back they spend too long on the outside looking in but as John Lewis has said many many times don't give up and don't give in The Democratic majority wants to give you your voice back with hr one which is literally for the people that's the name of the bill with hr one we're committed we are determined to restore a government of by and for the people thank you all for coming today and shake











