House OKs reforms to election law in answer to US Capitol riot in ’21
WASHINGTON — The House has passed legislation to overhaul the rules for certifying the results of a presidential election as lawmakers accelerate their response to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Donald Trump’s failed attempt to remain in power.
The bill, which is similar to bipartisan legislation moving through the Senate, would overhaul an arcane 1800s-era statute known as the Electoral Count Act that governs, along with the U.S. Constitution, how states and Congress certify electors and declare presidential election winners.
While that process has long been routine and ceremonial, Trump and a group of his aides and lawyers unsuccessfully tried to exploit loopholes in the law in an attempt to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Democrats are pushing to pass the bill before the end of the year and ahead of the 2024 election cycle as Trump is considering another run.
While at least 10 GOP senators have signed on to the Senate version, the House vote fell mostly along party lines. House Republicans — most of whom are still aligned with Trump — argued that the legislation shouldn’t be a priority and that it is a political vehicle for Democrats ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The final vote was 229-203, with nine Republicans joining all Democrats in voting for the bill.
The legislation would set new parameters around the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress that happens every four years after a presidential election.
The legislation intends to ensure that future Jan. 6 sessions are “as the constitution envisioned, a ministerial day,” said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican who co-sponsored the legislation with House Administration Committee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Cheney and Lofgren are also members
of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Climate measure passes:
The Senate on Wednesday ratified an international agreement that compels the United States and other countries to limit use of
hydrofluorocarbons, highly potent greenhouse gases that are commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning and are considered far more powerful than carbon dioxide.
The so-called Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone pollution requires participating nations to phase down production and use of hydrofluorocarbons, also known as HFCs, by 85% over the next 14 years, as part of a global phaseout intended to slow climate change.
The Senate approved the treaty 69-27.
HFCs are considered a major driver of global warming and are being targeted. Nearly 200 nations reached a deal in 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, to limit HFCs. Over 130 nations, including China, India and Russia, have formally ratified the agreement.
MyPillow’s Lindell sues:
MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell sued the Department of Justice and the FBI, demanding the return of a cellphone agents seized from him outside a fast-food restaurant Sept. 13 in Mankato, Minnesota, apparently as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system technology.
Lindell alleges in the complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Minnesota, that the confiscation of his iPhone violated his constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and an attempt to chill his freedom of speech.
Lindell is a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 presidential election.
Iran protests: Anti-government protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody are intensifying, and dozens of cities are embroiled in unrest that has been met with a crackdown by authorities, according to witnesses, videos posted on social media and human rights groups.
The protests erupted last weekend after the woman, Mahsa Amini, died after her arrest by Tehran’s morality police on an accusation of violating the law on headscarves.
At least seven protesters had been killed as of Wednesday, according to human rights groups.