We the People Democracy Reform Act of 2017
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
We the People Democracy Reform Act of 2017
This bill amends various provisions related to elections, including by:
expanding the ban on election contributions by foreign nationals to include corporations subject to specified levels of ownership or control by foreign nationals or governments;
expanding and otherwise revising various disclosure and reporting requirements related to campaign communications;
imposing penalties for willfully violating limits related to campaign contributions for coordinated expenditures;
revising notification requirements for campaign contributions of $1,000 or more from any contributor during a calendar year;
replacing the Federal Election Commission with the Federal Election Administration, which shall enforce specified election-related laws and formulate related policies;
imposing restrictions on covered financial-services regulators, such as by prohibiting them from using their position to influence any matter that provides a direct and substantial pecuniary benefit to certain former employers or clients;
requiring the President and Vice President to disclose financial interests, including tax returns, to Congress and the Office of Government Ethics;
modifying the system for the public financing of presidential elections, including by providing for 600% matching funds for smaller campaign contributions and requiring a candidate who accepts public financing to agree not to accept certain bundled contributions;
requiring each state to conduct redistricting through a plan developed by an independent commission or, if such a commission plan is not enacted, a plan developed and enacted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and
directing states to permit same-day voter registration.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on September 27, 2017. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on September 27, 2017: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 115th Congress (2017-18), 442 of the 11,421 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.9 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
TOM UDALL (D-NM) introduced it on September 27, 2017, and 16 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 15 Democrats, 1 independent.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on September 27, 2017, 3270 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3270 days ago, on September 27, 2017.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 115th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2019 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers