GOP Sens’ Bill Seeks to Halt Biden Admin. ‘Electioneering’

The Biden administration’s use of federal resources for his 2024 campaign has a group of Republican senators proposing a bill to prohibit federal agencies from using taxpayer funds in contracts for get-out-the-vote campaigns by partisan groups.

“The federal government and its millions of employees should not be using official resources to advance partisan politics,” Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., wrote in a statement introducing the Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act.

“President Biden’s executive order empowering every federal agency to engage in electioneering on the taxpayers’ dime raises serious ethical and legal concerns. This sweeping directive is inherently political and directed primarily at groups expected to vote for one party over another.”

Budd’s bill was co-authored by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Deb Fischer, R-Neb.; Mike Braun, R-Ind.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and Roger Marshall, R-Kan.

The bill prohibits federal agencies from using taxpayer funds to implement or enter into agreements with partisan organizations that conduct voter mobilization activities. It counters Biden’s Executive Order 14019: “Promoting Access to Voting.”

The head of every federal agency was ordered to submit plans to Biden’s Domestic Policy Adviser — who was Susan Rice at the time before his recent resignation – a plan outlining the steps their agency will take to “promote voter registration and voter participation.”

The executive order mandates all federal agencies support “approved” third-party organizations to provide voter registration services on federal agency premises located in states across the nation, but it failed to defined the “approved” organizations.

Budd and 35 colleagues requested White House plans under the executive order, but the White House never responded to the request and will not publicly disclose the plans.

Recently, coincidentally, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to answer a question on whether Biden planned to serve all four years of his next year, saying she is prohibited by law from making election campaign-related remarks from the press briefing podium.

But White House critics noted on Newsmax that was a disingenuous response for a question that could have been easily and legally answered that, yes, he planned to serve four years if reelected.

Among the details of Budd and company’s Promoting Free and Fair Elections Act:

• Prevents the Biden administration from “using the power, resources, and reach of the federal executive branch, and federal offices located in states across the country, from engaging in voter registration and mobilization efforts designed to benefit Democrats.”
• Requires the Executive Order (EO) 14019 “Promoting Access to Voting” orders to be on hold until the federal agencies disclose to Congress how they intend to proceed.
• “Prohibits soliciting or entering into an agreement with a third-party group to conduct voter registration or voter mobilization activities on federal property anywhere in the country, or on any federal agency website.”
• Prohibits “voter registration and voter mobilization activities in federal work study programs.”
• Keeps strategic plans on hold for at least 180 days after Congress is given a copy of the plans.