Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney is teaming up with Democrats on new legislation that was inspired, so to speak, by her nemesis, former President Donald Trump, as well as other Republicans.
Cheney is expected to introduce a bill next week that will put up new hurdles to challenging electors and may also limit the role of the vice president.
The measure, to be introduced with Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., would “reform the way electoral votes are counted in presidential elections” and is directed at “Trump’s challenge of the 2020 election that led to violent protests at the Capitol,” Fox News reported Saturday.
The outlet added:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday on the House floor that the bill could get a vote as early as next week. The two lawmakers had not introduced the bill as of Friday afternoon, but it’s been clear for some time that a bill is in the works.
Both Cheney, who lost her primary election in August and won’t return to Congress next year, and Lofgren sit on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In July, the two lawmakers indicated that legislation to amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 was on the way.
“The Select Committee has been considering legislative recommendations based on its findings concerning the January 6 attack and will share those soon,” the two lawmakers said in a statement. “These will include a bipartisan approach to the Electoral Count Act.”
Lofgren, who is chair of the Committee on House Administration, indicated previously that recommendations made by the panel in January could also make it into the upcoming legislation.
“One of those recommendations was to make it harder for members of Congress to raise objections to the electoral votes of a given state when it meets in a joint session to count the votes,” Fox News reported. “Under current law, only one lawmaker from the House and one from the Senate is needed to object, and Lofgren’s report recommended that one third of all members of both the House and Senate would be needed to object.
“Lofgren’s report also called for language to narrow the role the vice president plays when electoral votes are counted. It said the vice president should not preside over the joint session of Congress, and should have no procedural say in the process. That language reflects complaints from Democrats and some Republicans that former President Trump urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to challenge the electoral count,” Fox News added.
The committee’s report also recommended that Congress’ role be limited to generally accepting the electoral results of states, and that if any major problems arise, they should be addressed on approval of a supermajority.
Some reforms contained in the Cheney-Lofgren bill were included in a Senate bill introduced by Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) in July. That bill states that the vice president’s role in overseeing the counting of electoral votes is “solely ministerial” while also raising the threshold for objecting to electors.
In August, after losing to GOP challenger Harriet Hageman, whose candidacy was backed by Trump, Cheney vowed to help some Democrats win office.
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney lashed out at Republican “election deniers.”
“I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not elect election deniers,” she said.
“We’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country,” Cheney added. “I’m going to work against those people. I’m going to work to support their opponents.”
The Republican Party put together a 10-minute montage of Democrats, including the party’s 2016 nominee, Hillary Clinton, and then-Vice President Joe Biden, all denying that Donald Trump’s electoral victory was legitimate.
As for Cheney, she was soundly defeated by Trump-backed lawyer Harriet Hageman, who secured 66.3 percent of the vote compared to the incumbent’s 28.9 percent.
“Wyoming has spoken on behalf of everyone all across this great country who believes in the American dream, who believes in liberty, and who recognizes that our natural rights – the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equal protection, and due process, come from God, they do not come from the Government,” Hageman said in a victory speech.
