Today, the RNLA sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives opposing House Resolution 1, which will be considered on the House floor and receive a vote this week:

H.R. 1 would federalize many areas of election administration, dictating election procedures from Washington in great detail while undermining or removing safeguards that protect the ability of eligible voters to ensure that their votes are counted and not cancelled out by a fraudulent vote. These sweeping changes to our election system have been drafted without any input from state and local election officials, who have first-hand knowledge of election administration and whose duties would be much more difficult under H.R. 1’s dictates.

As the non-partisan Lawyers Democracy Fund stated in its analysis of the over 30 federal election administration mandates contained in H.R. 1: “The far-reaching legislation would reverse the current decentralized nature of elections by preempting state laws across the country and placing the control of election and voting policy within the federal government.”

In addition to centralizing election administration, H.R. 1 would create a partisan Federal Election Commission, which would be empowered to increase regulation of Americans’ political speech under partisan political control. It would restrict the ability of non-profits to advocate on important public policy issues such as the economy, healthcare, and the environment. Through an expansive system of public financing, instead of removing money from politics, it would infuse more money into the political campaign system through such systems as a six-to-one small donor contribution match.

These so-called reforms do not meet their claimed purpose of reducing the influence of special interests in political campaigns and on politicians but instead restrict the rights of Americans to speak on topics of importance, thereby further weakening our public discourse, and violate the First Amendment.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that instead of being called the “For the People Act,” H.R. 1 should be called the “Democrat Politician Protection Act” because it is an “attempt to rewrite the underlying rules of that political process itself and skew those rules to benefit just one side.” More broadly, this legislation, far from protecting the people, would protect the interests of established politicians and lawyers by vastly expanding the federal government’s power over elections, regulating political speech, and creating new rights of action that would clog the court system.

Instead of increasing the American people’s confidence in our political and electoral systems, H.R. 1 would decrease it while lining the pockets of politicians and lawyers. For these reasons, we urge you to oppose H.R. 1.

The entire letter can be viewed and downloaded here.