Republicans in Congress are moving to rein in President Joe Biden's executive order putting federal agencies in the business of getting out the vote.
The legislation would prohibit federal agencies from entering agreements with nongovernmental organizations to conduct voter registration or voter mobilization activities.
These prohibitions would stop certain actions Biden envisioned in March 2021 in Executive Order 14019, titled "Promoting Access to Voting." Biden's order states that agencies will "Promote voter registration and voter participation" and will be "Soliciting and facilitating approved, nonpartisan third-party organizations and state officials to provide voter registration services on agency premises."
The aim of the Republicans' legislation is to stop the Biden administration from using the power of federal agencies and offices, located in states across the country, from engaging in voter registration and mobilization efforts designed to benefit Democrats.
The Tenney-Budd legislation would prohibit agencies from conducting, or outsourcing to nonprofits, the distribution of voter registration application forms; providing assistance to applicants in completing an application; transmitting completed applications to state election officials; and doing voter registration and mobilization in federal work-study programs.
The legislation includes a requirement that all federal agencies submit to Congress, within 30 days of tts effective date, a report describing all activitiesthey carried out under Executive Order 14019.
Although agencies aren't releasing their specific strategic plans for getting out the vote, since Biden issued the order in March 2021, several agencies have responded by broadly outlining actions they will take.
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