WASHINGTON – Committee on House Administration Ranking Member Rodney Davis (R-IL) issued the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a cost estimate for H.R. 1, the For the People Act. This statement follows the letter to CBO sent last week requesting the score for H.R. 1.

While the final score determined by the Congressional Budget Office is still an outrageous $2.5 billion, CBO has yet to score several provisions within H.R. 1 that would only add to the legislation's already large price to the taxpayers. The most costly provision of H.R. 1, the small-dollar campaign match program, is not included in this score. The Democratic Majority have chosen to rewrite the language of H.R. 1, so the program will be funded by future legislation. The current cap to this program would be approximately $4.3 million, per candidate. This program could easily cost billions of dollars each election cycle.

"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has underestimated a costly piece of legislation by not projecting the future costs to the detriment of the American taxpayer. Democrats knew this score would be an outrageous number and took steps to modify it purely for the purposes of hiding costs from the taxpayers, instead of taking the necessary steps to reduce the cost of H.R. 1," said Ranking Member Rodney Davis.

He went on to say, "H.R. 1 is a costly bill that federalizes the nation's election system, weakens safeguards to voting and registration practices that open the door to fraud, attempts to limit free speech, and creates taxpayer subsidies to finance politicians' campaigns. Regardless of what they disguise it as, make no mistake that the position of Democrats is to fund politicians' campaigns using taxpayer funds. The greatest threat to our nation's election system is partisanship, and I strongly encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against H.R. 1 and instead work together in favor of a bipartisan effort to improve our election system."

To read the CBO score sent to CHA, click HERE.

For more information on H.R. 1, you can view our document on H.R. 1: Myth vs. Fact HERE.

###