At the recent Jefferson Dems Fish Feast, Rep. Derek Kilmer spoke about some of the legislation introduced by House Democrats this year. When he described HR 1 as a bill that would control corporate power by ending corporate constitutional rights and money as speech, those of us who have been working on this issue were taken aback. HR 1 takes some very important steps toward protecting our democracy, but it can’t accomplish what Rep. Kilmer asserted that night. Surely he knows it was Supreme Court decisions that (1) allowed corporations to claim human rights and (2) equated money with speech, giving corporate interests and the super wealthy the enormous power they currently have over our government and our society. Rep. Kilmer must know that neither HR 1 nor any other Congressional action can reverse a Supreme Court decision.

This is why Jefferson County Move to Amend has been promoting HJR 48, the We the People Constitutional Amendment. Although there are other bills in the House and Senate proposing constitutional amendments to address money in politics, HJR 48 is the only amendment bill asserting that corporations may not claim the Constitutional rights of people and that political spending is not protected as free speech and must be regulated. This language will reverse court decisions that were legal precedents for the Citizens United decision or that currently allow corporations to dominate workers, hide information from consumers or resist regulations that protect our health, safety and the environment.

We appreciate that Rep. Derek Kilmer is a cosponsor of HJR 48, but we are concerned about his confusion of HR 1.

Judy D’Amore
Port Townsend