House Approves Post-Trump Curbs on Presidential Power

WASHINGTON — The House connected Thursday passed a sweeping bundle of constraints connected statesmanlike power, which Democrats framed arsenic a effect to Donald J. Trump’s norm-busting presidency and Republicans unanimously opposed for the aforesaid reason.

By a astir party-line ballot of 220 to 208, the House approved the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would enforce caller curbs connected enforcement power. Proponents of tighter authorities morals person agelong sought galore of the measures, and Republican person supported them, but they person been recast arsenic partisan issues due to the fact that of their relation with Mr. Trump.

“Disturbingly, the past medication saw our ideology successful situation with a rogue president who trampled implicit the guardrails protecting our Republic,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “Now, Congress has the solemn work and accidental to safeguard our democracy, ensuring that past abuses tin ne'er beryllium perpetrated by immoderate president of immoderate party.”

The authorities would necessitate statesmanlike candidates to disclose their taxation returns, which Mr. Trump refused to do.

The enactment would besides fortify the Constitution’s antecedently obscure prohibition connected presidents taking emoluments, oregon payments, by extending anticorruption prohibition to commercialized transactions. Mr. Trump’s refusal to divest from his hotels raised the question of whether lobbyists and other governments that began paying for galore rooms astatine Trump resorts — and sometimes not utilizing them — were trying to acquisition his favor.

The measure would besides necessitate campaigns to study immoderate offers of overseas assistance to the F.B.I. — a connection that resonates with episodes unearthed successful the Russia investigation, specified arsenic erstwhile Donald Trump Jr. and different elder run officials met astatine Trump Tower with Russians they were told had ungraded connected Hillary Clinton.

The bundle present moves to the Senate, wherever the 60-vote threshold for passing authorities means that Republicans tin artifact it. Representative James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who managed his party’s broadside of the House debate, said determination was “no evident way for the measure successful the Senate.”

But supporters of the measure envision breaking it up and attaching antithetic components to different authorities successful the Senate successful a bid to regain bipartisan backing for elements that Republicans person supported successful the past.

Among galore different things, the measure would marque it harder for presidents to bestow pardons successful briberylike contexts. It would make caller protections against firing inspectors wide without a bully crushed oregon retaliating against whistle-blowers. And it would constrain a president’s quality to walk oregon secretly frost funds contrary to legislature appropriations.

It would besides velocity up lawsuits implicit legislature subpoenas truthful that stonewalling by the enforcement subdivision cannot tally retired the timepiece connected oversight efforts; necessitate the Justice Department to springiness Congress logs of contacts with White House officials; and fortify the Hatch Act, which prohibits national employees from engaging successful run authorities astatine work.

The legislation’s way has besides been slowed by uncertainty among Senate Democrats astir the Biden administration’s support. The White House connected Thursday greeting issued a statement of medication policy that supported the bill, citing “the formidable, but essential, situation of reinforcing the norms and safeguards that forestall our ideology from eroding.”

Ian Bassin, a laminitis and the enforcement manager of Protect Democracy, which supports the measure and worked with House Democrats connected processing immoderate of its provisions, praised the White House for supporting the authorities adjacent though it would curb enforcement authority.

“The Biden medication deserves large recognition present for doing thing executives seldom do: agreeing to enactment legislative curbs connected their ain power,” Mr. Bassin said, adding: “Now that the White House has announced its support, it needs to enactment with the Senate promptly to enact these provisions.”

Still, the White House connection was not unqualified. It included a vague caveat that the medication would proceed to enactment with Congress to guarantee the measure would uphold “the longstanding interests of the enforcement subdivision that are indispensable to effectual governance and businesslike usage of payer resources and accordant with our law structure” without specifying immoderate peculiar provisions it had concerns about.

The White House had spent months negotiating with House Democrats, who dropped immoderate of their archetypal ideas successful effect to its law oregon argumentation objections earlier introducing the bundle successful September. But Democratic lawmakers insisted connected keeping immoderate provisions with which the medication had expressed concerns, according to radical acquainted with the matter, including making it harder for presidents to occurrence inspectors general.

Throughout a astir four-hour statement connected the measure and amendments, House Democrats portrayed its provisions arsenic indispensable to hole weaknesses successful the American strategy of separation of powers that the Trump medication had exposed.

Republicans portrayed it arsenic a partisan onslaught connected Mr. Trump, portion oscillating betwixt denouncing Trump-related investigations and raising different matters specified arsenic inflation, convulsive crime, amerciable immigration, state prices and elector fraud fears.

“This measure is thing but a continuation of the Democrats’ obsession with President Trump,” said Representative Mary Miller, Republican of Illinois.

Democrats offered a muddled connection astir whether they wanted the measure to beryllium seen arsenic concerning Mr. Trump. They insisted astatine times that it was astir the future, emphasizing that helium was nary longer president and that galore elements of the measure had Republican enactment successful different contexts.

“Joe Biden is our president now,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York, who managed her party’s broadside of the debate. She added: “And these bold, bully authorities reforms volition interaction his administration, arsenic good arsenic aboriginal presidents of some parties. It is not astir the past; it is astir the aboriginal and the strengthening of our democracy.”

But Democrats besides kept emphasizing abuses of the Trump epoch — and lawmakers connected some sides raised the anticipation that helium mightiness tally for president again. Interpreting the measure partially arsenic a referendum connected Mr. Trump’s actions proved to beryllium an inescapable governmental reality.