Hageman Sponsors Safeguarding Electoral Integrity Act of 2023

Washington, DC – Today, the Safeguarding Electoral Integrity Act of 2023 was passed by the Committee on House Administration and will now move to a vote of the full House of Representatives.

Congresswoman Hageman stated, “States have the authority and responsibility for holding elections, not the federal government. The executive order that this bill repeals is yet another example of many where the Biden administration believes that bureaucrats in Washington know better than everyone else how to do everything – total control of our lives is their ultimate goal. I am proud to have this bill advanced by the House Administration Committee today and look forward to its passage by the full House. The electoral process is one of the most important features of our republic. We cannot permit the Biden administration to tamper with it as they continue violating our Constitution on a daily basis.”

Background:

On March 7, 2021, President Biden’s White House announced the “Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting.” While its directive to federal agencies to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process” sounds good in theory, it reflects an unconstitutional expansion of the federal government into election administration.

The Constitution is our guiding document and must be followed. According to the Elections Clause, states have the primary role in establishing election law and administering elections. To the extent the Elections Clause contains a federal fail-safe, it is Congress to whom the Constitution delegates that power, not the president. The president’s constitutional role is limited to enforcing legislation enacted by Congress.

This bill repeals the Executive Order and requires every plan made under it to be submitted to Congress for review. Since the executive order was put into place, the Committee on House Administration, in conjunction with several other committees of the U.S. House of Representatives, have sent letters to 12 federal agencies asking for information relating to their implementation of the executive order. At this time, no agency had responded. By including a requirement in this bill that these plans be submitted for review, Congress will be able to determine what initiatives were created by the executive order, allowing executive branch agencies to get back to the work they were intended to focus on.

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Contact: Chris Berardi, Sr. Advisor/Communications Director