Protecting Our Democracy Act

Key Points

• The bill bans a president from pardoning themselves and requires the Attorney General to share materials with Congress when a president pardons family members, political allies, or people connected to investigations involving the president. It also makes it a crime to offer or accept bribes in exchange for pardons.
• Presidential and vice presidential candidates must release 10 years of tax returns to the Federal Election Commission, and sitting presidents and vice presidents must continue sharing returns each year. If they fail to do so, the FEC chairman can request the returns directly from the IRS.
• Federal whistleblowers gain stronger protections, including the right to take their cases to federal court if the Merit Systems Protection Board does not act within 180 days. The bill also protects whistleblower identities and expands which workers are covered.
• Political campaigns would have to report any contact with foreign governments or their agents to the FBI within one week. Foreign nationals would also be banned from donating to state and local ballot initiatives, and online platforms would face new rules for tracking and disclosing political ads.
• The bill creates a new Inspector General for the Executive Office of the President to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. It also strengthens Congress's ability to enforce subpoenas and requires the White House to publish visitor logs every 90 days.
• The bill limits presidential emergency powers by requiring Congress to vote to approve any national emergency declaration within 20 legislative days, or the emergency automatically ends. It also blocks the use of emergency powers to impose tariffs or tariff-rate quotas.