Just a few blocks away from where a grand jury was meeting to investigate former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, California Rep. Adam Schiff stood with several of his fellow House Democrats to reintroduce the Protect Our Democracy Act, a bill aimed at curbing abuses of presidential power.
“Over the last several years or so, we’ve seen our democracy put to the test from the 2020 election, to the violent assault on the nation’s Capitol,” Schiff said at a press conference Thursday, joined by several prominent Democrats, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Protecting our democracy is critical to safeguard our government from both foreign and domestic bad actors.”
“The American people have witnessed an erosion of trust in our institutions and the norms that are essential to a functioning democracy,” Schiff added. “The Protecting Our Democracy Act is designed to address and enshrine into law many of the safeguards that we thought were inviolate, but turned out can be violated with impunity.”
The bill was passed by the House in late 2021, when Democrats controlled the chamber, but has not been able to garner enough support to overcome the filibuster in the Senate. Parts of PODA have been made law, including provisions ensuring efficient presidential transitions, additional transparency regarding how and when federal dollars are spent, in addition to numerous inspector general protections.
PODA is based on 3 principles: stopping the abuse of the president’s pardon powers, restoring the system of checks and balances, accountability and transparency and protecting U.S. elections from foreign interference.
It’s unclear what future, if any, the bill has in the Republican-controlled House, where Schiff is a favored target for his constant provocation of backers of former President Donald Trump.
“It ought to be a bipartisan work product. These are protections that arguably Republicans should want from a Democratic administration,” Schiff told Spectrum News following the press conference. “It really is a nonpartisan, pro-democracy effort. But they may view it as an implicit criticism of the former president and they are scared to death of doing anything to even imply criticism of the former president.”
“I’m gonna keep pushing this until we get [it] passed,” Schiff said of the uphill battle the bill faces. “This is just too important.”
Pelosi, telling reporters that she supports PODA “wholeheartedly,” adding that Schiff’s name is “synonymous with courage, patriotism, with restoring faith of the American people in our government.”
The former speaker has endorsed Schiff’s Senate bid to replace retiring California Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
Earlier this week, Schiff’s campaign dropped a digital ad campaign called “Schiffective,” honing in on the congressman’s record and effectiveness fighting for democracy.
