The frayed unity of House Democrats will be tested next week when lawmakers vote on the party’s signature campaign finance reform and voting rights legislation.
Democrats won’t have trouble voting unanimously for H.R. 1, the For the People Act. The sweeping legislation aims to expand voting rights, increase campaign finance regulations, broaden conflict of interest laws, and close lobbyist loopholes.
But Republicans are plotting a last-minute amendment they hope can lure away moderates and further fracture the Democratic majority. Republicans have already won two of these “motion to recommit” amendments in February with the help of Democrats, creating tension and anger within the Democratic caucus instead of the unity leadership wants.
Among the provisions Republicans may attach to the campaign finance legislation is one that would prohibit ballot harvesting, which is the practice of collecting absentee ballots and delivering them to a polling site with the intent to create a vote surge for a preferred candidate.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., authored the measure and attempted to attach it to H.R. 1 during committee consideration, but Democrats blocked it. Now, Republicans hope to attach it as the last-minute amendment the GOP is allowed to offer on the House floor.
A Republican political operative was indicted last week in North Carolina for ballot harvesting, yet the practice is legal in California and helped Democrats win several seats in GOP-held districts.
“It’s almost prime for a motion to recommit,” a Republican aide told the Washington Examiner.
A spokeswoman for Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said she wouldn’t confirm that Republicans would offer the ballot harvesting amendment. The minority’s amendment is not revealed until the last minute so that the majority has little time to convince their own party to vote against it.
“We don’t telegraph those ahead of time,” the GOP spokeswoman said.
Republicans are eager to continue their short winning streak on amending Democratic legislation.
Last week, they won a last-minute amendment to a bill broadening firearm background checks with the help of 26 moderate Democrats. The amendment would require reporting to Immigration and Customs Enforcement any illegal immigrant who attempts to purchase a gun.
The GOP victory sparked a fight within the House Democratic caucus and a warning to the moderates from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as well as freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to vote along party lines or face the wrath of party fundraisers and activists.
Gleeful National Republican Campaign Committee officials have declared the intraparty kerfuffle a “socialist dumpster fire,” and Republicans are hoping to inflict further damage with other amendments that are hard for moderates to reject.
Two weeks ago, Republicans unanimously won an amendment to a resolution to end U.S support of the war in Yemen. The GOP amendment took aim at House Democrats accused of making anti-Semitic remarks, and called on the House to “emphasize the importance of combating anti-Semitism and reject all movements that deny Israel’s right to exist.”
Progressive activist groups are warning Democrats to stay in line next week and refrain from voting for GOP provisions.
In a letter to House Democrats, officials from 71 progressive groups urged them to vote for H.R. 1 and “vote against any weakening amendment and against any motion to recommit to weaken or remove any provision in the act.”
The group warned, “The American people and our organizations will be watching your votes on H.R. 1, including the motion to recommit, which will be judged by history.”
Republicans say now that Pelosi has clamped down on moderates with a warning, it will get harder to win amendments.
“Nancy Pelosi is locking down the conference,” the GOP aide said. “If she stays true to that, I would think it’s going to be increasingly more difficult.”
