House Democrats have decided on
their priority legislation for the next Congress, and it's all about improving the quality of American democracy. HR 1, the bill number typically reserved for the House majority party's most important policy, marks the first time that political reform has been given this kind of top billing.
There's
a lot in the bill, including a number of ethics and disclosure and election security proposals that should be commonsense. But at heart, there are four big-ticket items that would be standalone news on their own: a small-donor matching system for campaign finance, mandatory independent redistricting commissions, automatic voter registration, and felon reenfranchisement. Collectively, this is the most transformative pro-democracy package in decades.