We are in the midst of one of those rare seasons in Washington where Congress actually gets some things done. Joe Biden's legislative legacy will begin with his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, which now seems all but certain to pass. Hiking the minimum wage to $15 an hour fell by the wayside, true, but the rest of the bill will be historic nonetheless (there are all sorts of things in it, above and beyond the pandemic relief and $1,400 checks and state and local aid). Meanwhile, the House is about to begin a marathon period of passing Democratic agenda items and sending the bills over to the Senate. First and foremost of these is H.R. 1 -- the "For The People Act." And if even some of the key ideas contained in this breathtaking and sweeping proposal ever make it into law, it would likely be the most consequential election law ever passed. So it's a good bill for Nancy Pelosi to lead with.

This isn't the first time the bill has been introduced. It was H.R. 1 in the previous Congress as well (bills in either chamber are numbered sequentially, meaning this was the first bill filed in January, as well as first back in January of 2019). Passing it would override pretty much all the voter suppression schemes the Republicans are now trying to hustle through as many statehouses as possible. But it would do far more than just that.

I originally wrote about this landmark bill two years ago. And I'm just going to paste in the list of what the For The People Act contains from that earlier article (saves having to type it all out again). Here are all the things the For The People Act would do:

• Require all states to automatically register voters who have contact with state government, unless the person opts out of being registered.
• Require all states to institute same-day voter registration.
• Require all states to institute online voter registration.
• Require states to designate colleges and universities as voter registration agencies.
• Require all states to have 15 days of early voting, with sites located near public transportation.
• Require all states to use paper ballots, so that recounts will be possible.
• Require all states to count provisional ballots from people voting at wrong precinct.
• Require all states to have postage-free absentee ballots.
• Require all states to create nonpartisan redistricting commissions for House redistricting, to end gerrymandering forever.
• Require all states to re-enfranchise felons after they have completed their sentence.
• Require all states to ban "voter caging," purging voter rolls using non-forwardable mail, and purging voter rolls of people who have not voted in previous elections.
• Make Election Day a national federal holiday.
• Increase federal funding to update and secure election infrastructure.
• Create a public financing system for House races that matches every dollar in small donations ($200 and under) with six dollars of public money. Participants in this system would be banned from raising money from large donors.
• Create small-donor matching system for presidential elections, as well (Senate elections would be addressed in a separate bill).
• Nonprofits and other groups must disclose donors if they contribute to election campaigns.
• Online campaign ads will be required to disclose donors, just like broadcast ads.
• Shrink the Federal Election Commission from six members to five, to avoid the constant deadlocks which are so common now.
• Ban coordination between super PACs and campaigns.
• Require presidential inauguration committees to disclose expenditures and ban them from spending money on things not directly related to the inauguration.
• Require disclosure of donations to inauguration committees from corporations, nonprofits, and government contractors.
• Require presidential candidates to disclose 10 years of their tax returns.
• Require the president and vice president to follow executive branch's conflict-of-interest regulations.
• Require all presidential appointees to recuse themselves from any decisions involving the president or his family.
• Ban the president and vice president from contracting with the federal government.
• Give the Office of Government Ethics new enforcement powers.
• Require public disclosure of any waivers given by the O.G.E.
• Widen the definition of who must register as a lobbyist.
• Ban former government employees from cashing in (through "the revolving door") for two years after they leave their service.
• Require the Supreme Court to develop a code of ethics to deal with conflicts of interest and recusals.
• Ban members of Congress from using taxpayer funds to settle employment discrimination cases.
• Ban members of Congress from serving on corporate boards.

As you can see, "breathtaking" is an entirely appropriate word to use. It wouldn't solve every problem with American elections, but it certainly would solve most of them. And it would completely obliterate all the Republican efforts to make it much harder to vote, as a federal mandate.

This measure is being paired with the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would essentially reinstate the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (as well as properly updating it, to avoid the constitutional issues cited by the Supreme Court when they overturned most of it). Democrats are certainly showing they are serious about making some well-needed changes.

But how successful will this effort be? Well, that's up to the Senate. With the legislative filibuster rule still in place, it is highly doubtful that the For The People Act could garner enough Republican votes to pass. In fact, currently there are zero Republicans in either house who have expressed support, and a whole lot of opposition to it, from Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell on down.

This means that there are really only two chances for success. The first and most obvious would be to eliminate the filibuster rule entirely. This does not currently have enough Democratic support, however. Which is why Senator Amy Klobuchar floated a trial-balloon idea: perhaps get rid of the filibuster just for civil rights and voting rights legislation? Such a limited and narrow change might be easier to talk Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema into, although so far both still sound pretty adamant about their opposition to changing the filibuster in any way. Joe Biden also hasn't been a big fan of eliminating the filibuster, but that could always change if he sees virtually all of his agenda get stalled in Congress.

The second chance for success would be to split the bill up. Perhaps some of it could gain Republican support and actually pass? That seems a bit farfetched (they're largely against all of the proposed changes, from everything I've heard). But if political pressure were brought to bear, it could still be a possibility. Except for the more esoteric items on that list, most of it would seem pretty commonsensical to the overwhelming majority of voters. And Republicans are already getting a little concerned that their gigantic "Make voting as hard as possible!" campaign is going to come back to bite them when they try to get re-elected. Democrats have to make this case as strongly as possible, which is what I wrote about yesterday.

Some of the For The People Act might be shoehorned into the next budget reconciliation bill that comes up (another one is scheduled to, later this year). Anything that could be considered part of the federal budget would be fair game (as long as the Senate parliamentarian agrees). So money could be appropriated for the states to make all of these election changes, and that is a valid use of the federal budget (one would assume). But this dodge won't work for all of it.

As you can see, though, that list is a long one chock full of good ideas to reform voting and ethics and a lot of other things. It is one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation I've ever seen, in fact. I'm usually a big fan of the comprehensive legislation approach, too, but at this point I would be happy to see any of these ideas make it into law. So in this particular instance, I don't really care how it happens, just that at least some of it does.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant