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Issue One’s Reform Agenda

We, the people, have the power to create the America we want.

The path starts with rebuilding our democracy together.

Areas of focus

For decades, unlimited money in politics, gerrymandering, and a broken information environment have shifted power from the hands of the many into the hands of the few, undermining incentives for policymakers to govern on behalf of the American people. After years of dysfunction and division, the consequences have become impossible to ignore.

Yet history shows that periods of democratic strain can also create opportunities for democratic renewal. The Civil War gave way to Reconstruction Era amendments to the Constitution. The excesses of the Gilded Age led to Progressive Era reforms, from women’s suffrage to conservation. The corruption of the Nixon era led to sweeping federal reforms of our political system.

Now, we face another such moment.

Today, we have an opportunity to cultivate the civic power needed to turn frustration into action and to build the political will necessary to advance the next era of reform, one led not by partisan actors pulling us apart, but by citizens working across ideological lines around shared values. At Issue One, we believe people deserve a government that is accountable to them, institutions they can trust, and a democracy that works on behalf of everyone, not just the powerful few.

We, the people, have the power to create the America we want.

The path starts with rebuilding our democracy together.

The Challenge

Americans want a country that provides freedom, fairness, and an opportunity to pursue the American dream. Yet today, more than 70% of us feel disconnected from a political process that too often serves the few, and we’ve lost faith in the government’s ability to drive meaningful change.

Our democracy isn’t working for “We the People” – and Issue One is working to change that.

The Solution:

Issue One is driving a bold, cross-partisan reform agenda that matches the scale of our challenges with an equally ambitious vision for systemic change. By rebuilding the foundations of our republic, we can restore trust and ensure that the government is once again accountable to the people it serves.

Our reform agenda centers on three critical pillars: ending corruption; restoring constitutional checks and balances and reclaiming our information ecosystem. Together, these goals provide the comprehensive path forward needed to secure our democracy’s future.

End Corruption

Restore Checks and Balances

Reclaim Our Information Ecosystem

End Corruption

We are working to make government more honest, responsible, and focused on putting everyday people first.

End Big Money in Politics

  • Abolish super PACs by restoring reasonable campaign contributions for political action committees and strengthen anti-corruption rules that guarantee outside groups like super PACs cannot coordinate their spending with candidates.
  • Ban dark money spending in elections and enact more meaningful disclosure rules for the bankrollers of political ads to ensure that voters know who is trying to influence elections. Disclosure rules should be enhanced to require super PACs to reveal their funders before Election Day. Also, ads themselves should name the top donors behind them, and groups that are funded by out-of-state money should not be able to hide behind branding that make them appear as local efforts.
  • Ban “transactional giving” by prohibiting members of Congress from accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists who lobby them.
  • Establish voluntary public financing systems for congressional and presidential campaigns that enable candidates to compete without relying on wealthy donors and special interests.
  • Ban the personal use of leadership PAC funds to ensure that members of Congress are not using money from lobbyists and special interests as a slush fund.
  • Extend the ban on foreign spending influencing federal elections to state and local elections to ensure that the same protections against foreign-funded political spending apply at every level of government.

Ensure Fair Elections and Meaningful Voter Choice

  • End partisan gerrymandering by requiring independent redistricting commissions; establishing clear, enforceable redistricting standards; and banning mid-decade redistricting except when required by courts.
  • Reform federal primary elections to expand voter participation and give more Americans a meaningful voice in selecting candidates.
  • Prevent political targeting of candidates by building safeguards against federal agencies using investigative, prosecutorial, or regulatory powers to target political candidates for partisan or electoral advantage.

Promote an Accountable Government

  • Ban stock trading by members of Congress and executive branch officials, as well as betting on prediction markets on political events and other government actions.
  • Apply executive branch ethics rules — including conflict-of-interest, financial disclosure, and recusal standards — to the President and Vice President.
  • Strengthen enforcement, transparency, and accountability of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clauses to prevent improper financial benefits for senior officials through more robust legal application as well as legislation to codify these important guardrails.
  • Reform the presidential pardon process to reduce opportunities for corruption, self-dealing, and conflicts of interest.
  • Establish stronger Supreme Court ethics and disclosure standards.

Reclaim Our Information Ecosystem

We are building an information ecosystem that strengthens our democracy instead of hurting it.

Establish Governance Standards

  • Creating a Digital Regulatory Agency, modeled on the FDA and FCC, that has rulemaking authority, enforcement power, limited pre-market authorization, and the resources to keep pace with social media and artificial intelligence.
  • Creating a Traditional Journalism Preservation Trust that imposes an excise tax on digital advertising revenue for social media and artificial intelligence companies, above a certain threshold, with a portion of the proceeds directed into a newly created Journalism Preservation Trust Fund — held in reserve to enact tax credits for local journalism.

Ensure Accountability

  • Reforming Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act to clarify Congress’ intent to preserve free expression on the internet, while removing immunity for harms that companies actively create through their design.
  • Creating a Statutory Duty of Care, ensuring that social media and artificial intelligence companies have an obligation to design and deploy their platforms without causing compulsive use.

Enshrine the Right to Privacy for All Americans by Default

  • Create a national privacy law that limits unnecessary data collection by social media and artificial intelligence companies, protects sensitive information, gives people meaningful control over their data, and holds companies accountable for violations.
  • Establishing a “Data Portability” Requirement that mandates that social media and artificial intelligence companies allow users to access, download, and transfer their personal data to any competing service of their choosing.

Empower Americans With Choice

  • Require greater transparency from social media companies, so the public—not just the companies themselves—can understand how their platforms influence our lives.
  • Put Users Back in Control by requiring social media and artificial intelligence companies to explain how they shape what people see and provide options to customize their experience.

Require Safety-by-Design

  • Establishing Age-Appropriate Design Standards that mandates that social media and artificial intelligence companies assess and mitigate risks to minors before deploying products or features. It sets the safest settings by default and limits design features that encourage compulsive usage or expose minors to foreseeable harm.
  • Build commonsense safety measures into social media platforms by pausing the rapid spread of potentially violative content until it can be reviewed.

Restore Checks & Balances

We are working to make Congress truly represent the people again.

Rein in Executive Overreach

  • Check presidential emergency powers by requiring congressional approval to extend national emergencies beyond a short initial period, improving transparency around emergency authorities, limiting repeat declarations, and creating expedited procedures for termination.
  • Protect elections from executive overreach and interference by safeguarding our decentralized, federalist system. This includes reinforcing Congress’s constitutional authority under Article I, Section 4, clarifying the limits of executive authority over federal elections, and preventing unilateral executive actions from altering election rules.
  • Limit domestic military deployments by removing loopholes that allow for the weaponization of military forces in inappropriate settings, including requiring narrow findings of necessity, strengthening notice and reporting to Congress, imposing time limits, and preserving civilian law enforcement as the default. This will be accomplished by reforming the War Powers Resolution of 1973 and by reforming the Posse Comitatus and Insurrection Acts.

Strengthen the Separation of Powers

  • Reclaim Congress’s role in decisions about war and peace by addressing ambiguities in the War Powers Act, requiring affirmative consultation and authorization before military action, tightening Executive response requirements regarding the 60-day clock, and strengthening enforcement mechanisms when presidents act without congressional approval.
  • Restore congressional authority over tariffs and trade by requiring congressional approval for major tariff actions, strengthening reporting requirements, and creating expedited procedures for Congress to review or terminate unilateral trade measures. This can be accomplished by supporting efforts such as the Trade Review Act, which provides Congress with a bigger role in tariff decisions.
  • Protect Congress’s power of the purse over federal spending by strengthening limits on impoundment, requiring timely transparency, and creating expedited remedies when funds are withheld or redirected without authorization through reforming the Impoundment Control Act to close loopholes that presidents from both parties have used.

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