WASHINGTON — The incoming Democratic House majority should move early next year to pass a sweeping democracy reform package modeled on H.R. 1, the leader of the government watchdog group Democracy 21 said Friday.
Fred Wertheimer, president of the Washington-based nonprofit, which advocates for campaign finance and ethics reform, argued in a statement published Nov. 13 that the results of the 2026 midterm elections give Democrats a new chance to enact changes that stalled in the Senate in January 2022.
That earlier effort fell two votes short when the Senate declined to create a limited exception to the filibuster for a revised voting and democracy bill, with Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed to the rule change, according to the group.
Wertheimer said the legislation should again target three areas: the campaign finance system, voting rights and partisan gerrymandering. Under his description, the package would create a small-donor matching system for congressional campaigns, require disclosure of donors to politically active nonprofits, shut down single-candidate super PACs, tighten rules against coordination between candidates and outside groups, and overhaul the Federal Election Commission.
On voting, he said the bill would guarantee mail-in and early voting and create automatic voter registration, while separate legislation, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore key protections of the Voting Rights Act. On redistricting, the plan would hand congressional mapmaking to independent commissions.
Wertheimer said he expects the effort to take about three years, predicting that President Donald Trump would veto democracy reforms passed by the new Congress and that Democrats could win full control of Washington in 2028. He cited projections that Democrats are heading toward roughly 260 House seats and as many as 56 Senate seats.
He also pointed to a post-election poll in which, he said, 90% of voters described corruption as a crucial or major factor in their decisions. Passing the bill early, he argued, would show voters that House Democrats intend to act on the issue and leave time to build Senate support before another filibuster fight.
The group also called for a ban on stock trading that would cover the president and vice president as well as members of Congress, along with Supreme Court reforms, new ethics rules and new pay-to-play restrictions.
Wertheimer described the coming years as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to restore and revitalize the rules of our democracy.”
The House passed versions of H.R. 1 in 2019 and 2021, but the measure never cleared the Senate.
This report is based on information from Democracy 21.
Source: Democracy 21
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