In The News
Complaints about slow mail delivery continue to pile up as Maryland lawmakers pressure the head of the U.S. Postal Service to do something about the delays. Members of Maryland's congressional delegation sent Postmaster General Louis DeJoy a letter with a list of complaints they’ve from constituents, and asked the postmaster general to fix the problem. The letter is signed by.... John Sarbanes.
Congressman John Sarbanes (D-MD 3) joins Julie Mason to talk the COVID vaccine rollout and his plan to strengthen democracy, the For the People Act.
The Democratic members of Maryland’s congressional delegation called Wednesday on Gov. Larry Hogan to improve the rollout of the state’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, citing frustration from constituents and local officials about inefficiency and inequity. In a letter addressed to the Republican governor, the members said Maryland should make a “course correction” on the distribution process, including offering a centralized, one-stop state website and a phone number accessible to all Marylanders to help them register for appointments; more coordination by the Maryland Department of Health with local health departments; and specificity about the order in which vaccines should be administered among eligible groups. U.S. senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin signed the letter, along with representatives Anthony Brown, Steny Hoyer, Kweisi Mfume, Jamie Raskin, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes and David Trone.
The Washington region’s congressional delegation is supporting a bill that would stabilize Metro capital funding for a decade, saying it also would strengthen accountability within the transit agency. The Metro Accountability and Investment Act would provide the transit agency with $1.73 billion between 2022 and 2031. It would reauthorize the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, which provided Metro with a decade’s worth of annual federal funding before it expired in 2018 and was not renewed. Since then, lawmakers have been approving capital funding for Metro on an annual basis. The bill, which will be introduced by Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.), would end that annual approval.... Connolly said the bill is backed by the region’s Democratic congressional delegation and is co-sponsored by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), Reps. John Sarbanes, Jamie B. Raskin, Anthony G. Brown and David Trone of Maryland, and Reps. Don Beyer and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia.
Baltimore’s Morgan State University is diving into the issue of microplastics in the Chesapeake Bay, thanks to a nearly $1 million federal grant. Morgan State is Maryland’s largest Historically Black University, a research institution along Herring Run in Northeast Baltimore, which leads into Back River. The $999,999 funding, announced by lawmakers U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin and Congressmen Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, and Kweisi Mfume (all D-Md.), focuses on microplastics’ impact on marine ecosystems, with the Chesapeake Bay serving as a model..... “This new federal grant funding will help Morgan State University lead the way in microplastics pollution research and accelerate aquatic cleanup efforts. It’s a clear win-win – helping us to improve the health of the Bay while investing in the capabilities of our researchers at Morgan State,” said the lawmakers in a joint statement.
H.R.1, also known as the “For the People Act,” is a sweeping reform bill that aims to make voting easier, gerrymandering harder, and generally rein in the out-of-control minoritarianism that has come to characterize American democracy. Does it have a chance of becoming law? Rep. John Sarbanes, political scientist Jacob Hacker, and The Intercept’s Jon Schwarz join Ryan Grim to discuss.
The recent article, “After record voter turnout, Republican-led states that flipped for Biden are working to change voting rules” (Jan. 31), is alarming, and it shows just how far many Republicans are willing to go in their anti-democratic fervor. This is revealed in their proposals such as eliminating “no-excuse absentee voting,” requiring “mail ballots to be notarized,” having “mail-in ballots be hand-delivered” and allowing “lawmakers to overturn presidential election results.” These are designed to impede citizens from voting and disrupt the election process. We should all be able to agree that fair, open and honest elections are vital to our democracy and that having 50 states and multiple counties with different systems is confusing and irresponsible. There is a better way this can be done while recognizing the Constitutional role states play. Introduced by Maryland Rep. John Sarbanes, House Resolution 1 (For the People Act of 2021) sets up rules for voting modernization (including requiring paper ballots), blocking foreign interference, supporting Uniformed Service voting, cybersecurity, and campaign finance transparency. No one wants to see the recurrence of the anger, accusations and vitriol that marked this last election. We want citizens to participate in the process, knowing that all votes will be obtained and counted fairly. To get there, it’s time to update our election process on a national basis. HR1 does that, it’s worthy of our attention and support.
There is a bill in Congress now, H.R. 1, that seeks to make voting rules more uniform across the country including same-day registration and early voting. It would also establish independent commissions to draw Congressional district lines for the disclosure of high-dollar donors to political groups and obligate presidents to disclose their tax returns. The bill was originally introduced two years ago to fierce opposition by congressional Republicans.... Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Maryland, said “People just want to be able to cast their vote without it being an ordeal. It’s crazy in America that you still have to navigate an obstacle course to get to the ballot box.” It’s hard to see how having uniform voting rules across the country would help only the Democratic Party but this is one area in which the Republicans would certainly NOT want to see change. Republicans have managed over the years to set up Congressional districts that favor them over Democrats. Reapportionment is their golden goose — it makes it possible for Republicans to control more seats than would seem natural, i.e., there can be many more Democratic votes than Republican votes but there are more Republicans elected because of the district boundaries. That’s part of the reason Michigan voters agreed to set up an independent commission to establish districts in Michigan, and the commission gets to do its thing after the census is established sometime this year. It isn’t to say that Democrats didn’t fiddle with the districts when they had the chance, they did. But if you look around the country today it’s the Republican Party that is the main culprit in using reapportionment to keep their members in office. I’m not seeing any move to change election rules in Michigan, probably because reapportionment and same-day registration and no-excuse absentee voting are already on the books. Michigan has never had early voting and probably never will, but the system should still allow local election officials to start at least opening AV ballots before election day. It should really come down to this: Does a law make it easier to vote, or more difficult to vote. If voting is a sacred right of our country if the law makes voting more difficult, change the law. If it is easier, congratulations on enabling more citizens to vote for their favorite candidate.
Democrats who control Congress by narrow margins and the White House are making a fresh attempt to move forward a massive package that tackles dark money in campaigns, voter suppression and election security. The architect of the bill, Rep. John Sarbanes, said in an interview that the tumultuous 2020 election was a perfect example of why the U.S. needs reform. “A lot of people out there feel like their voice isn’t respected,” the Maryland Democrat said. “If we can get these changes in place it’ll create a lot more accountability in our democracy.” The 791-page bill, known as the For the People Act, was given the bill number of H.R. 1 by House Democrats to signify its importance, and it’s expected to pass the lower chamber for a second time. The sweeping measure would, among many other things, require states to put in place same-day registration for federal elections and allow 15 days early voting for federal elections; make states pay for postage on ballots and other election materials; and require states to adopt independent redistricting commissions to redraw congressional districts. On ethics, it lays out new requirements for both Congress and the executive branch, like mandating the public disclosure of tax returns by candidates for president and vice president and barring members of Congress from sitting on the boards of for-profit entities.... McConnell has called it a “terrible proposal” and a “power grab.” But Sarbanes said states that implemented early and mail-in voting for the 2020 election, because of the pandemic, helped increase voter turnout, and there are provisions in H.R. 1 that would require states to make those voting options available under federal law. “It turns out that a lot of the things we wanted to see (in H.R. 1) made voting easier,” Sarbanes said..... In 2013 the Supreme Court found a section in the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional in the case Shelby County v. Holder. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his opinion that voter suppression was not as prevalent as it was in the 1960s and 1970s and “there is no longer such disparity.” The Supreme Court then instructed Congress to draft a new process to determine how the Voting Rights Act would monitor cities, countries and states based on current data. Democrats are poised to pass that piece of legislation, which is named after the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights icon, alongside the H.R. 1 package. “That was John Lewis’ number one effort for years,” Sarbanes said, adding that Lewis worked closely on H.R. 1. “We’re very excited that Lewis’ legacy is very present in H.R. 1.”
This week.... we welcome Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD) to tell us about the comprehensive package of democratic reforms that he introduced in Congress, H.R. 1, the For The People Act. We talk about what this much-needed bill would do, and how he hopes his colleagues in the Senate might get it passed in the narrowly divided upper chamber.
