I'm honored to serve as your independent voice
Unfortunately, we as a nation have strayed from that vision. Today, too many Americans feel left out. They see a system that does more to preserve the status quo than it does solving our most pressing challenges. They see a class of career politicians and elite insiders.
I wish I could tell you, my constituents, this problem is exaggerated; that this mess in Washington doesn’t affect you, or your families, or your businesses. But, as a former anti-corruption FBI special agent, I’ve seen the brokenness in our system and I know the real-life impact that it has: soft and hard corruption that tilts the legislative agenda towards special interests; electoral complacency that causes lawmakers to focus on accumulating power rather than serving constituents; and entrenched partisanship that grinds the gears of government to a halt.
This does not have to be our fate. This Congress can be remembered as the one that buried party labels for good, and focused on fixing the system.
That’s why on my first day in office I introduced a government reform package comprised of:
- A Constitutional Amendment (H.J. Res. 5) enacting term limits for all members of Congress;
- A Constitutional Amendment (H.J. Res. 4) preventing members of Congress from being paid unless a budget is passed. This is not just withholding pay for a little while, this is complete forfeiture;
- A Balanced Budget amendment (H.J.Res. 6) so we are forced to stop kicking the can down the road, and will create a fiscal path that will allow the next generation to thrive;
- Requires Congress to act on single-issue legislation.
- Codifies that all laws passed by Congress must apply to its members.
- Reforms the broken “Gerrymandering” process by moving all redistricting to independent, non-partisan commissions.
- Allows access to political party primaries for Independents or non-affiliated voters.
- Ends Congressional pensions.
- Establishes uniform standards for absentee voting in federal elections and promotes timely reporting of election results.
- Mail-in ballots must be returned and received by the time polls close on Election Day.
- Mandatory signature match.
- Mail-in ballots received prior to the date of the election shall be counted beginning at least one week prior to the date of the election.
- National deconfliction database – Assist states in ensuring that individual voters are registered only in the one State in which they are domiciled, deceased voters are purged from voting rolls and only citizens of the United States vote.
- Parity for in-person and mail-in voting – Signature match and verification, prepaid costs, subsidies for methods of voting.
- Standard procedures across all counties/jurisdictions in States – Standardized and uniform for all jurisdictions in a State including for curing defective ballots.
1. Ensures election integrity and security by creating a consistent photo identification requirement for voting in federal elections.
“This reform package is not political and should not be controversial. Every legislator in America at the federal, state, and local level should be on record as to whether they support these reforms,” said Fitzpatrick. “If not, they should be asked to explain why.”