Demand Progress

No president should be able to trade pardons like currency, accept illegal ‘emolument’ payments, ignore oversight subpoenas, punish whistleblowers, or trespass on Congress’s constitutional power of the purse. 

Donald Trump may have done all of these things, and exposed a clear need for major reforms to prevent it from happening again.

As the first year of the Biden Administration comes to a close, it’s time to shut the door on the Trump presidency by passing a critical democracy reform bill, the Protecting Our Democracy Act. 

Sign the petition: Congress must pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act to prevent future abuses of executive power!

The Trump presidency and the fallout from the January 6th insurrection demonstrated that we can’t rely on informal norms to protect our democracy and exposed vulnerabilities in our democracy that were brewing long before Donald Trump’s time in office. Strengthening Congress — its power to investigate the executive branch and its authority over the federal budget in particular — is one way to shore up these vulnerabilities. Directly limiting the president’s power is another. PODA does both.¹

Democracy reform remains as relevant as ever, as we saw yet again with recent revelations about the Trump Administration’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and assist the January 6th insurrection.²

PODA is an opportunity for President Biden to show real leadership by moving to limit presidential powers while he’s still in office. By placing the nation’s interests above his own and supporting PODA, President Biden can cement his legacy, definitively close the Trump era, and stop any future president from committing these abuses of power again.

Sign the petition: Congress must enact democracy reform legislation immediately!

Sources: 

1. Adam Schiff, “Protecting Our Democracy Act: Section-by-Section,” September 2021. 
2. The Guardian, “Trump called aides hours before Capitol riot to discuss how to stop Biden victory,” November 30, 2021.