Protecting Our Democracy Act

Bill: 116-s-4880
Sponsor: Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN]
Introduced: 2020-10-26 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Appropriations
Budget process
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Civil actions and liability
Congressional elections
Congressional oversight
Congressional-executive branch relations
Criminal investigation, prosecution, interrogation
Criminal procedure and sentencing
Defense spending
Department of Defense
Department of Justice
Director of National Intelligence
Elections, voting, political campaign regulation
Employment discrimination and employee rights
Evidence and witnesses
Executive agency funding and structure
Federal officials
Fraud offenses and financial crimes
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government ethics and transparency, public corruption
Government information and archives
Government studies and investigations
Intelligence activities, surveillance, classified information
Judges
Judicial procedure and administration
Labor standards
Lawyers and legal services
Legal fees and court costs
Legislative rules and procedure
Merit Systems Protection Board
Military operations and strategy
National Security Agency
Office of Government Ethics
Political advertising
Political parties and affiliation
Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents
Public participation and lobbying
Research administration and funding
Right of privacy
Subversive activities
Supreme Court
Tariffs
War and emergency powers

Summary:
action_date: 2020-10-26
text: 

Protecting Our Democracy Act

 
This bill addresses issues involving (1) abuses of presidential power; (2) checks and balances, accountability, and transparency; and (3) foreign interference in elections.
 
Specifically, regarding abuses of presidential power, the bill
 
 
requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the President to submit to Congress specified materials relating to certain pardons;
 
 prohibits self-pardons by the President;
 
suspends the statute of limitations for any federal offense committed by a sitting President or Vice President;
 
prohibits the acceptance of foreign or domestic emoluments, authorizes civil actions by Congress concerning foreign emoluments, and requires the President to make certain disclosures; and
 
sets forth provisions regarding enforcement authority of the Office of Government Ethics and Office of Special Counsel jurisdiction.
 
 
To address checks and balances, accountability, and transparency, the bill, among other things
 
 
authorizes specified actions to enforce congressional subpoenas,
 
requires appropriations to be made available for obligation in a timely manner,
 
imposes limits on presidential declarations of emergencies,
 
requires DOJ to maintain a log of communications between it and the White House regarding certain investigations,
 
requires cause for removal of inspectors general,
 
increases whistleblower protections,
 
reauthorizes the Merit Systems Protection Board, and
 
establishes penalties for political appointees who engage in prohibited political activities.
 
 
To protect against foreign interference in elections, the bill

 
requires federal campaign reporting of foreign contacts,
 
requires federal campaigns to establish a foreign contacts compliance policy, and 
 
specifies that foreign donations to political campaigns and candidates of nonpublic information relating to a candidate are prohibited.
 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2020-10-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2020-10-26
text: Introduced in Senate