Dear Friend,

Five thousand and fifty two bills have been introduced in the House of Representatives this year. That’s a lot. About 11 per Member of Congress in seven months. Every bill is introduced by one person who officially becomes the sponsor. Every other Member who wants to show their support for a bill asks the sponsor to be listed as a cosponsor. The number of cosponsors is important in decisions about which bills to bring up for consideration in committees and on the House floor. 

The Do No Harm Act, which would clarify portions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act so that the original intent is clear to the courts, has 126 cosponsors. That is a respectable number but significantly less than the number of cosponsors from the last Congress. I’ve been meeting with and emailing staff of the House members who have not yet cosponsored the bill this year and made some progress. I expect a dozen or so new cosponsors to show up on the list when the House is back in session after the August break. 

In some cases there is a new staff member handling this type of issue and they just haven’t focused on the Do No Harm Act yet. Again, there are 5,052 bills so far to keep track of. I will keep working on adding more cosponsors to the Do No Harm Act to improve its chances of passage. You can ask your representatives here.