We need to pass our Money Out, People In Agenda
This is a big check-in on our legislative agenda and where every issue we push stands in the legislative process.We are winning, and we also need to win more democracy as fast as we can. We need to win democracy so we can break the corrupt death-grip that the ruling class has on our government and ability to make decisions to help people and guarantee our basic human rights. We win the democracy we deserve by building our movement, developing leaders, and waging nonviolence with scale, duration, and intensity.Below is our legislative agenda with updates. To save space, I am not including descriptions of each policy, and please go to our Policy Platform Page to learn more.Jargon dictionary:
Leadership: The legislators at the top of the decision making pyramid (Speaker of the House, House Majority Leader, House State Gov Committee Chair, Senate President, Senate Majority Leader, Senate State Gov Chair)Rank and File: The rest of the legislators.When referring to the House or Senate, I am only referring to the majority party (Dems in the House, GOP in the Senate), since the majority holds vastly more power than the minority party.
Leaders in Harrisburg.
Organizing strategy:
We are publicly organizing around Ranked Choice Voting, Gift Ban, and Foreign Influenced Corporate Dark Money Ban. We chose to push these three publicly because they are impactful, easy (enough) to understand, and because we don’t have the movement capacity yet to publicly push all 23 of our policies at once.
LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
MONEY OUT:
Public Campaign Financing:We are in the early stages of working with legislative champions to write a bill. We are connected with the national policy experts, and we have done a good amount of research to help guide our legislative champions.
(Combining two policies) Campaign Contribution Limits and Prohibiting Personal Use of Campaign Money:We moved a minor campaign finance transparency bill through the House last session. No traction in the Senate on the subject. House Leadership told us that they need to check back in with us on it. Last winter, they promised us contribution limits and then took back the promise in the spring.
Dark Money Transparency:We passed a minor dark money transparency bill through the House last session. No traction among Senate leadership, but glimmers of hope and daylight in the rank-and-file. In the House, we are prepping a package of the best dark money policies in the country. House leadership is interested in this subject and we are pursuing it.
Prohibit foreign money in our elections:We passed this FIC (Foreign Influenced Corporations) political spending ban through the House last session. We have a guarantee that it will pass again through the House. We have interest in the Senate rank and file, but no leadership promises.
Gift Ban:We passed the Gift Ban out of committee twice in 2019 and 2021. We have interest and agreement from some leaders, but zero promises from any leaders. We have had numerous broken promises from House and Senate leadership going back to 2019.
(Combining three of our policies) End Per Diems, Prohibit Side Jobs, Close the Revolving door:These have no real traction at the moment, and they will need to be part of a grand bargain with the legislature at some point. We discussed it with House leadership, and we think there will need to be a big deal at some point that takes away legislators’ private income (side jobs, future job offers) and non-transparent public income (per-diems, slush funds, legal settlements) while also keeping ‘legislators’ well paid enough that people will want to do it (pay raise) and not costing the already (and understandably so) resentful public too much money (shrinking the Legislature).
PEOPLE IN (LET US VOTE)
Ballot Initiative:We are connected with the national experts, and the next step is organizing our legislative champions, deciding the details of the bill with them, and then introducing an ideal bill / constitutional amendment.
(Combining five policies) Strengthen Vote by Mail, Early Voting, Same Day Registration, Expanded Automatic Voter Registration, Expand the Right to Vote to the Incarcerated:We are working to craft a voting rights package that will make Pennsylvania into a leader in voting accessibility, ease, and trust. There is some interest from House leadership on these issues, and no interest from Senate leaders. These issues will likely come down to a grand bargain between the House and the Senate that includes some form of voter ID.
Open Primaries:There is no interest from House or Senate leadership. We stay connected with our allies who are taking the lead on it, and stand ready to jump into the fight when our additional pressure could be decisive.
PEOPLE IN (MAKE OUR VOTE COUNT)
Ranked Choice Voting:No interest from House or Senate leadership. We extracted a concession from House leaders and will be holding a House State Government Committee hearing on April 24th.
Equal Ballot Access for Non-Major Parties:No interest from leadership.
National Popular Vote (Side-step the Electoral College):We have a committee hearing in April (same hearing as Ranked Choice Voting). No promises from leadership. We are connected with the national experts.
(Combining two policies) Ending Gerrymandering and Ending Prison Gerrymandering:Bills have been introduced, and there is no interest from leadership in moving them. We are following our allies lead, and stand ready to jump into the fight if our pressure can be decisive. The House Speaker is supportive of ending prison gerrymandering.
Preventing Judicial Gerrymandering:This was a nefarious plot a couple sessions ago to gerrymander the judicial branch. We helped push back against it, it died, and it hasn’t been mentioned by any legislators in a little bit.
Hand-marked Paper Ballots:This took a back-seat to other voting rights and election integrity issues.
“We need to pass our entire Money Out, People In agenda, so that we kick private big money special interests out of our political process, and power will be with the people, and then the people govern, and we will guarantee our human rights and build a world of love.
To pass our Money Out, People In agenda, we need to build the movement and develop leaders, so we are able to wage massive and sustained nonviolence, and force our politicians to outlaw their own corruption and become public servants, and we will guarantee our human rights and build a world of love”
