By Rep. Rodney Davis Ahead of Independence Day, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) unanimously approved one of the most important bills Congress passes annually: the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Included in the Fiscal Year 2021 NDAA is a bipartisan amendment that embodies the freedoms Americans across this country will be celebrating this holiday weekend. The Counting All Military Votes amendment protects the right to vote for all active duty military serving overseas. Every American has the right to vote, including our military men and women serving overseas. However, each election, the votes of more than 10,000 military members serving in our embassies, consulates, and diplomatic posts not under jurisdiction of the Department of Defense are at risk of not being counted. If signed into law, the Fiscal Year 2021 NDAA will change this. In February, I introduced the Counting All Military Votes Act to ensure the ballots of all of our servicemembers arrive on time. This legislation makes a simple change to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) to require an Express Mail Label for the ballots of all deployed active duty military serving overseas. Currently, the Express Mail Label, which expedites and tracks absentee ballots for a successful, on-time delivery, is only guaranteed on traditional military bases. Military members serving at our embassies and consulates have access to a "Diplomatic Pouch" service, but items using this service do not enter the Express Mail stream until they reach the United States -- making on-time arrival extremely uncertain. With mail-in voting increasing across the country due to the pandemic, it's critical we do everything we can to help ballots of active duty military arrive on time. I want to thank my colleagues, Reps. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.), who serve on the House Armed Services Committee for offering the Counting All Military Votes Act as an amendment to the NDAA and for their leadership in getting it passed. Having this language included in this must-pass bill to fund our military will hopefully ensure that all the voices of our men and women serving overseas are heard this November. As we celebrate the Fourth of July with family and friends this weekend, let's remember our military members serving overseas and give thanks for the work they do each and every day to protect our freedoms. Congressman Rodney Davis serves as ranking member of the Committee on House Administration (CHA), which has jurisdiction over federal elections.

By Rep. Rodney Davis After President Trump tweeted to raise concerns about states mailing all registered voters ballots, Twitter added a "fact check" label to those tweets Tuesday for the first time, stating that "there is no evidence that mail-in ballots are linked to voter fraud." Besides setting a dangerous precedent that will no doubt infringe on free speech, Twitter isn't the authority on elections -- the Committee on House Administration is. Committee Republicans recently produced a report on the fraud that exists in certain instances of vote-by-mail. What most people don't know about voting by mail is that there's a vast difference in states allowing voters to request an absentee ballot and what the Democrats in California are trying to do, which is the same thing that House Democrats tried to do with their political wish list disguised as coronavirus relief. Democrats want to force states to mail all registered voters live ballots, whether or not voters request ballots. While this may seem like a good way to vote that allows everyone to stay home during the coronavirus pandemic, forcing states to use an entirely new vote-by-mail system comes with its own problems -- especially less than six months before the presidential and congressional elections. How can you send every registered voter a live ballot in the mail when you don't keep accurate voter registration lists? The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to have a uniform, nondiscriminatory voter registration list maintenance program. This requirement was part of the NVRA because the drafters foresaw the way public confidence is undermined when these lists are not maintained properly. But many states have simply ignored or not had the resources to comply with this requirement, leaving states with inaccurate voter registration lists and certainly ill-prepared for voting by mail. Allowing states to send all of their recorded registered voters a ballot without making states update their lists of registered voters would unquestionably invite fraud into elections. Ballots would be mailed to addresses of individuals who have moved or passed away. The new residents may not be eligible to vote but could see the ballots in the mail and try to vote anyway. At the beginning of May, California and Los Angeles County were required to remove 1.5 million inactive voters from their registration lists when a Judicial Watch lawsuit said Los Angeles County has more registered voters than citizens. You read that correctly -- Los Angeles County has more registered voters than citizens. If Democrats can federally mandate a nationwide all-mail election in November, election officials will be sending out more live ballots than voters, which will lead to fraudulent ballots being returned. What Democrats are also not telling you is that California allows for ballot harvesting -- meaning that any individual can pick up any number of ballots for any reason, completely unchecked. These harvesters picking up ballots don't have to show an ID, they don't have to be a citizen, and they don't have to be eligible to vote. You expect Americans to believe that having someone who can't vote picking up ballots won't invite fraud in our elections? No one is keeping track of who is picking up thousands of ballots, so how do we know they're being delivered? How do we know the harvesters aren't altering votes or pressuring people on how to vote? Also, why are Democrats pushing to allow for ballot harvesting when all these mail ballots will supposedly have prepaid postage? If voters can mail ballots in for free, then they don't need "ballot brokers" coming to collect their ballots, unchecked. This raises questions in my home state of Illinois, where the state Legislature just passed a bill to allow ballot drop boxes in Champaign County. These ballot boxes have no checks on who would be dropping off ballots or how many are turned in to these boxes, not to mention no supervision of the ballots once they're dropped off. Practices like these raise many red flags and leave our election systems ripe for fraud. Democrats say vote-by-mail is our only option to make sure everyone can vote, but what about the Americans who are unable to easily vote from home? The Native American Rights Fund, an organization that provides legal assistance to tribes and individual Native Americans, outlined potential obstacles for Native Americans in an entirely vote-by-mail election, like issues with access to traditional mail services, a lack of broadband connectivity, and cultural communication barriers. Democrats, who blame everyone but themselves for suppressing voters, are now going to allow a practice that will discriminate against thousands? The fact of the matter is, transitioning to an all vote-by-mail election wouldn't even be possible at this point. States without the vote-by-mail infrastructure are not equipped to transition to an all vote-by-mail election. A Bipartisan Policy Center review revealed that 34 states had fewer than 15 percent of their ballots cast by mail during the 2018 election, with many in the single digits. Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, whose state has been using vote-by-mail for many years, has said if states are not already at 60 percent of ballots or above being cast by mail they are unlikely to be prepared all-mail-in elections in November. States that have successfully implemented vote-by-mail did so over the span of several years with intense, focused statewide training for state and local officials who are actually conducting elections. A successful transition to an election by mail requires major technology and staff upgrades, managing resources between in-person and mail voting, adjusting ballot return deadlines, configuring prepaid postage, and setting realistic ballot processing expectations. If states try now to implement an entirely vote-by-mail system and mail every voter on their outdated registration lists a ballot, they are inviting fraud into our elections. My message to Twitter: Before you decide to censor speech by throwing a label on the president of the United States -- or any American -- make sure you know the facts yourself.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." Recently, we called on Speaker Pelosi to establish a clear, safe, and effective plan for reopening the House of Representatives. This follows the White House and America's governors releasing their own detailed plans for a phased reopening of society, and now, both the United States Senate and Democratic Speaker of the California State Assembly calling their members back into session. In the interim, a bipartisan taskforce has been convened -- on which we are all serving -- to further explore ways in which Congress can operate during this challenging time. While differences remain, it has become clear through our initial meetings that all members of our taskforce share several fundamental beliefs. First, the business of the People's House is "essential work" that must not be sidelined or ground to a halt. Second, there is intrinsic value in a Congress -- a physical meeting of people and ideas -- that should be dutifully guarded. And third, any changes to centuries-old rules and precedents of the House should be done in a deliberate and bipartisan way. As we enter this indeterminate period between outright mitigation and a return to normalcy, everyone recognizes that our typical ways of doing business will need to adjust. Simply put, Congress will look and feel different. However, we believe there is a pathway forward that enables the House to fully perform its key functions without compromising our shared values or sacrificing bedrock norms. To that end, we offer four strategies that should form the basis of any plan to reopen Congress and restore America's voice. These strategies are based on the advice of public health professionals, as well as guidance from parliamentary experts with decades of combined House experience. We believe embracing this approach would achieve the necessary balance between health and institutional concerns -- and hopefully build a more resilient and productive legislative branch in the process. Strategy 1: Modify Existing Practices and Structures The Rules Committee majority staff report on voting options during the pandemic states: "By far the best option is to use the existing House rules and current practices" (emphasis original). Already, Congress has demonstrated its ability to adapt and to do so responsibly. Earlier this month, the Rules Committee successfully convened an in-person business meeting in accordance with health guidelines developed by the Attending Physician and Sergeant at Arms. Likewise, over 50 members participated in a hearing on COVID-19 response efforts hosted by the Committee on Small Business. And this week, the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee will hold an in-person hearing on the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond committee business, nearly 400 members came to the House Floor on April 23 in an orderly and physically distant fashion to record their votes on two consecutive measures, a process that Speaker Pelosi characterized as having been executed "fabulously." Moving forward, we should expand these protocols to reduce density and congestion in every facet of our work. House office buildings and individual office floor plans should be assessed to provide new provisional occupancy levels -- with an eye towards possible reconfigurations to accommodate physical distance. Additionally, measures should be explored to engineer temporary controls or barriers in locations where physical distance is difficult to achieve, as is currently happening in grocery stores and other places of public accommodation across America. For example, plexiglass dividers could be installed in high trafficked areas, like security checkpoints, or possibly in committee hearing rooms along the dais to provide further separation between members. Strategy 2: Employ a Phased Return with Committees Just as our states are employing a phased reopening approach, Congress should do so as well -- beginning with committees and subcommittees as the engines of regular order. Currently, the average total membership of a standing House Committee is approximately 40 members, with average subcommittee membership in the teens. Each committee should present an outline to the Majority Leader detailing their projected business meetings for the month ahead, along with estimated attendance levels. Working backwards, this information could be used to generate a staggered business calendar, with rotating use of larger committee hearing rooms where necessary. Precedence should be given to bipartisan COVID-19 response measures and other high-priority legislative items, such as the National Defense Authorization Act, Water Resources Development Act, and FY21 appropriations measures. By directing committees to focus on legislation that has bipartisan and bicameral appeal, we can make the most of each member's time and effort, thereby making the House more productive. This system would also ensure greater transparency and regular order for all members -- as opposed to centralized decision-making by a select group of leadership and staff that reduces the role of representative to merely voting "yea" or "nay" on pre-drafted proposals. At the start, we do not envision routine recorded votes occurring in the House every day or perhaps even every session week. Instead, our voting schedule should be reimagined in the near-term, with postponement authority providing a structure to queue up bills at the end of a week or work period. Lastly, regular morning hour time should be restored so all members have the opportunity give one- and five-minute speeches from the House Floor, an essential forum that has not been available now for over a month. Strategy 3: Deploy Technology in a "Crawl, Walk, Run" Progression The rules change proposal introduced by Chairman McGovern would enable sweeping use of technology for every element of committee business. This is concerning for a variety of reasons -- many of which are catalogued in the Rules Committee majority staff report -- including untested assumptions that members have "reliable, connected technology, knowledge of how to use that technology, access to round-the-clock technical support, …[and] secure connectivity with the capacity to transmit potentially large amounts of data," just to name a few. From a security standpoint, the House averages 1.6 billion unauthorized scans, probes, and malicious attempted network cyber-connections per month. Earlier this month, our colleagues experienced this kind of incident firsthand with hackers interrupting a House Oversight Committee video event multiple times. In our view, technology should only be deployed in a "crawl, walk, run" progression. Before we rush to discard over 200 years of precedent, we should require that rigorous testing standards be met, ample feedback be provided, and bipartisan rules of the road be agreed upon and made public to truly safeguard minority rights. We believe "hybrid" hearings -- an idea initially proposed by Democrats on the taskforce -- could serve as a useful proof-of-concept to consider, similar to the model currently being used in the United Kingdom to facilitate virtual question time in the House of Commons. For the purposes of these hybrid hearings, in-person quorum requirements should remain in place (most committee rules require only two members be present to hear testimony), with allowances for committee and non-partisan support staff to guide the proceedings and troubleshoot any technical problems. For the reasons outlined above, virtual participation should not become the default -- but should instead be reserved for members in at-risk categories or who are otherwise unable to travel to D.C. Under this proposal, committees that regularly handle sensitive and classified materials, including Intelligence and Ethics, would still be required to meet in-person. We cannot recommend using virtual platforms for committee markups, given the mountain of unanswered questions regarding how more complex and involved procedural maneuvers would work in a remote setting. Strategy 4: Accelerate Active Risk Mitigation Practices Thanks to the efforts of the Attending Physician, in coordination with the House Administration Committee, the fourth strategy has already been set in motion. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits -- including gloves, facemasks, and alcohol-based hand sanitizers -- have been provided to each member office and committee, with additional supplies available on-demand. Hand sanitizing stations are now ubiquitous around the Capitol campus -- including on the House Floor -- while enhanced cleaning procedures have become the new standard, with areas ripe for surface contamination having been limited or removed. Staffing has been kept to a minimum through continued use of teleworking procedures, while the Capitol remains open to only members, required staff, and credentialed press. Even so, these mitigation practices can be accelerated in several key ways. Measured screening procedures should be considered, consisting of either self-reported medical diagnostic assessments, at-home temperature monitoring, touchless thermal temperature checks at office entry points, or any combination thereof. A uniform "return-to-work" policy -- in accordance with existing CDC guidelines -- should be adopted for any staffer experiencing signs of illness. Finally, our ongoing and iterative testing regime should be scaled as test availability increases nationwide. This plan should progress to incorporate asymptomatic randomized testing, and eventually, FDA authorized rapid antigen tests. Conclusion We fully appreciate the extraordinary nature of the challenge before us. However, when it comes to fundamentally altering how the House operates -- in this case, potentially abandoning the Capitol for the remainder of the 116th Congress under the introduced Democratic proposal -- every avenue should first be explored that preserves enduring institutional rules while prioritizing member health. As Chairman McGovern recently wrote, "decisions we make today will influence the choices made in this chamber 100 years from now." We agree -- and firmly believe it is our job as leaders of our respective parties to ensure the most reasoned voices prevail on this critical matter, not simply the loudest ones. This pandemic has claimed too many lives and livelihoods already. We must not allow the institution we are tasked with safeguarding to be the next.