It’s an open secret in Washington that both parties strong-arm legislators into raising astronomical amounts of cash in order to serve in powerful legislative positions. Affording this “committee tax” often means spending countless hours soliciting corporations, labor unions, and other special interests that have business before Congress. This takes members of Congress away from the jobs they were elected to do — crafting legislation, building relationships with their colleagues, assisting constituents, and conducting oversight.
In the media
Cites Issue One's "The Price of Power Revisited" report...
Press releases
A new Issue One review of federal campaign finance filings shows that both the Democrats who led the four most powerful House committees during the past two years and the…
Reports
With control of the House of Representatives comes gavels — and fundraising expectations...
With Republicans taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives last month for the first time in four years, there’s been a shift in leadership in the legislative branch of…
In the media
Quotes Issue One Founder and CEO Nick Penniman
Reports
Parties pressured legislative leaders to raise huge sums of campaign cash during the 116th Congress — and are poised to do so again this year...
Click for a PDF version of the report. One of the open secrets of Washington is that both the Democratic and Republican parties strong-arm influential legislators to raise astronomical amounts…
Podcast episodes
When new members are elected to Congress, there’s a two-month gap between election day and their swearing-in. Not long after in 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) exposed one of Washington’s…
Analysis
Recently leaked internal Democratic Party documents confirm a disturbing trend that Issue One has been calling attention to for years: Both the Democratic and Republican parties lean on members of…
Press releases
In response to Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) citing fundraising demands as a primary reason he’s leaving the Senate, Issue One CEO Nick Penniman released the following statement: “This is further…
Reports
How the Political Parties Leaned on Legislative Leaders for Cash During the 115th Congress ...
One of the open secrets in Washington is that the Democratic and Republican parties both lean on their most powerful legislators to raise extraordinary amounts of campaign cash, often under…
Reports
To help inform Issue One’s landmark report, “The Price of Power,” we interviewed several members of our bipartisan ReFormers Caucus at-length about their experiences with fundraising and concerns with the…
