One Year After House Passage of For the People Act, Merkley Decries Senate Inaction That Allows Corruption to Continue Unchecked

Monday, March 9, 2020

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley today issued the following statement marking the one-year anniversary of the House’s passage of H.R. 1, the For the People Act. Along with Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), Merkley is the co-lead of the For the People Act in the U.S. Senate.

“I grew up the son of a union mechanic, and I still live in the blue collar neighborhood I grew up in. Week in and week out, I hear from constituents, friends, and neighbors who want to know why the squeeze on the middle class just keeps getting tighter. How can the costs of housing, health care, tuition, and other fundamentals keep skyrocketing up when workers’ wages are flatlined—and why doesn’t our government do anything about it?

“The answer is that Washington, D.C. has been broken by big money and corruption. If we want to tackle the fundamentals for working families—health care, housing, education, and living wage jobs—we must first fix the rot at the core of our government. Passing the For the People Act is the single most important step we could take to fix how our government works, and who it works for. 

“It’s inexcusable that Majority Leader McConnell has buried this legislation in his legislative graveyard for a year. But it’s not surprising. Every day that he refuses to call this bill up for a vote, he protects the influence of big pharmaceutical companies, giant polluters and the other special interests who fund his party’s elections. 

“Our government will never deliver the results we want if we don’t first reform our government so that it works for the people and not just the powerful. I will never stop pushing for a government that works for working Americans, and that means I will fight every day to get the For the People Act signed into law.”