The House Passes H.R. 1

By Lawrence Lessig

The first step has been taken. The hardest step is yet to come.

Last night, the House passed (again) the historic H.R. 1. This massive democracy reform package — establishing an equal freedom to vote, blocking partisan gerrymandering, enacting public funding for congressional elections, to name just the three most important elements — would assure almost immediately the equal freedom of Americans to participate in elections, and the essential freedom of representatives to serve without dependence on large campaign donors.

Now comes the hard part: The Senate. If the filibuster stands, Democrats would need to find 10 Republican votes in the Senate to allow the bill to come up for a vote. That will be extremely difficult — which only highlights the critical challenge we face in America to achieving a representative democracy.

It has been a long fight to get here. (Any of you with me 5 years ago will recognize the first three elements of H.R. 1 were also in my Equality Act.) But if we can overcome these anti-majoritarian hurdles in the Senate, we will have achieved an extraordinary victory.

Celebrate the victory in the House. But let’s get ready to move on to the fight in the Senate.