House update: vote on post offices, then debate on Election Assistance Commission

House Democratic leaders late Tuesday continued to argue against the bill. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said the bill would “be an invitation to repeat the mistakes that blemished our democracy in 2000.” The EAC was created after the 2000 election that led to a recount in Florida and several court cases, and Democrats believe that ending the commission would put the U.S. at risk of lower election standards.

But Republicans reject this by saying the EAC has fulfilled its goal of supplying states with grant money to upgrade their election systems, and that the EAC, originally scheduled to expire in 2005, is now a bloated bureaucracy that has less and less of a mission to achieve.

The House is expected to debate the bill Tuesday night, but hold a vote sometime Wednesday. The bill is being brought up under a suspension of House rules, which means two-thirds of all voting members are needed for passage.

That looked increasingly unlikely Tuesday night. Along with Hoyer, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chairwoman Judy Chu (D-Calif.), and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) also warned that ending the EAC would make fair elections less likely in the U.S. in the future.