No Labels

No Labels is an American political organization whose stated mission is to combat partisan dysfunction in politics and build a bi-partisan governing coalition.[1][2][3] It promoted the creation of the House Problem Solvers Caucus which has 50 members, evenly divided between Republican and Democrats to forge bipartisan cooperation on key issues.[4] It is also working on building a similar bi-partisan working group in the Senate.[5]

No Labels
MottoStop fighting, start fixing.
FormationDecember 13, 2010 (2010-12-13) (public launch)
TypePolitical
Legal status501(c)(4)
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Region served
United States
Founders
Nancy Jacobson
Tom Davis (R)
National Leaders
Joe Lieberman (I/D)
Larry Hogan (R)
Websitewww.nolabels.org

According to The Washington Post, "the 50-member Problem Solvers Caucus in the House, and the small but growing chapter in the Senate, offer the vehicle for bipartisan collaboration. With encouragement, leadership and political cover provided by the White House, their numbers could grow to the point that constitute the core of a governing coalition."[3] Since its creation,[6] the House Problem Solvers Caucus has proposed, supported, or passed bipartisan legislation on healthcare, infrastructure, immigration, border security, and gun control, and was a participant in budget negotiations.[7][8]

Notable achievements

In December 2010, over 1,000 citizens from across the country, gathered in New York to launch No Labels, a reform movement that calls on political leaders to work across partisan lines to solve America's most pressing problems. [9][10] Billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Andrew Tisch were among the prominent supporters. [11][12][13][9][10]

Rather than focus on specific policy outcomes, No Labels focuses on process reforms designed to make leaders more responsive,[14] government more efficient, and the legislative process more effective. [15]

Many of its proposals have been adopted and/or incorporated into legislation:

Fast-track presidential appointments

In his 2012 State of the Union Address, Barack Obama endorsed No Labels' proposal of a rule requiring a simple yes or no vote within 90 days of all presidential judicial and public service nominations.[16][17]

Bipartisan seating

In January 2012, No Labels proposed that Congress have bipartisan seating at the State of The Union.[18] By the time of the address, 208 members agreed to sit with a member of the opposite party.[17]

No Budget, No Pay

On February 4, 2013, Obama signed H.R. 325 "No Budget, No Pay Act of 2013" into law mandating the pay for lawmakers be held in escrow starting April 16 until their chamber has passed a 2014 budget resolution. This was a modified version of No Labels’ original proposal, which had called for member pay to be lost permanently during any period in which they had failed to meet the budget deadline.[19]

Healthcare for Heroes

In 2013, No Labels created a bill to help streamline electronic health-records and make the system more easily accessible for military service members and veterans. Language from the bill entitled 21st Century Healthcare for Heroes bill was adopted into the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) that was passed and signed by Obama in December 2013.[20]

National Strategic Agenda

In 2015, a Senate Hearing on the No Labels framework for bi-partisan problem solving, The National Strategic Agenda, took place in front of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. A number of Senators agreed to work towards solving the Agenda's four goals which polling had identified as important to majorities across the political spectrum: creating 25 million net new jobs in the next decade, securing Medicare and Social Security for 75 years, balancing the federal budget by 2030 and achieving energy security by 2024.[21]

The Speaker Project

On June 21, 2018 No Labels announced an initiative entitled The Speaker Project, which proposed using the election of a new House speaker as leverage to make rule changes in order to give bipartisan ideas a fair hearing and "a fighting chance in the next Congress".[22]

Some of the rules changes proposed included:

  • Vacate the Motion to Vacate: The next Congress should revise the "Motion to Vacate" rule which enables any House member to demand a no-confidence vote of the speaker enabling a majority of those "present" to oust the speaker. The motion should be allowed only when one-third of the House  publicly signs a petition to force such a vote.[23]
  • An Opening for Amendments: Reduce the number of "closed rules" on proposed legislation. (A closed rule denies the minority party a chance to offer amendments on the House floor).[24]
  • Return to Regular Order: Have major legislation debated and crafted in appropriate committees, not leaders’ offices.[25]

In January 2019, the new Democratic majority in the House led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a comprehensive reform package that included House rules changes which No Labels had supported through The Speaker Project. As part of the package, Speaker Pelosi created a "consensus calendar" that reserves time for bills with wide bipartisan support to be heard on the House floor.[26]

Other reforms included easing consideration of bipartisan amendments, and  making it harder for extremists on the House's wings to threaten to oust the speaker. The hoped-for effect is to promote legislation through compromise and limit the kind of showboating that blocked achievement during the recent Republican rule.[27]

Respect the Vote

In November 2020, following the 2020 election, as ballots were continuing to be counted and there were concerns about disinformation, No Labels launched a $1 million dollar national ad campaign called Respect the Vote, urging Americans to respect the electoral process. [28]

Media

Multiple news outlets have written about No Labels and its aim of achieving bipartisanship on key issues. The organization has received both support and criticism for its efforts from elements on the right and left, including writers from Bloomberg News, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.[29][30][31][32][33][34]

Since No Labels is a registered 501(c)(4) nonprofit group, there is limited verifiable information available about its funding and it is not required to release its donor information.

Nancy Pelosi as speaker

On November 26, 2018, The Daily Beast reported that "No Labels leadership contemplated a campaign to attack Pelosi aggressively after the primary campaign of centrist Rep. Dan Lipinski," despite the fact that Pelosi had supported Lipinski in his primary campaign that year.[35] In the same article, the group countered that "No Labels is not against Nancy Pelosi or any other speaker candidate. We are FOR rules changes that empower members in both parties who want to work across the aisle to find solutions and prevent the fringes–in both parties–from perpetuating endless gridlock." On November 28, 2018, the Problem Solvers Caucus reached an agreement with Leader Pelosi on house rules changes that would foster more bipartisan legislating.[36] In January 2019, the new Democratic majority in the House led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a comprehensive reform package that included House rules changes which No Labels had supported through The Speaker Project.[26]

Funding

The Intercept reported on November 29, 2018, that there are several PACs affiliated with No Labels and that a large portion of their funding comes from wealthy donors.[37][38][39] Among these donors are Louis Bacon, as well as investor Nelson Peltz.[37]

On December 6, 2018, No Labels wrote in The Hill that "nobody who donates to No Labels does so with an expectation of a quid pro quo. If you’re a big donor or company looking to give money to an advocacy group who will push for your special tax break or regulatory exclusion, you shouldn’t bother looking at No Labels."[40]

See also

References
  1. "No Labels: Stop Fighting. Start Fixing". No Labels. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
  2. Broadwater, Luke (2020-12-15). "No Labels, Planning Centrist Push in New Congress, Taps Larry Hogan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  3. Pearlstein, Steven (November 9, 2020). "Forget McConnell. Forget Pelosi. In a divided Congress, Biden needs to build his own coalition". The Washington Post.
  4. "A Call to Revive America's Political Center | RealClearPolitics". Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  5. "Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan Named Co-Chair Of Bipartisan Group No Labels". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  6. Marcos, Cristina (2017-02-03). "Lawmakers set up bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus for new Congress". TheHill. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  7. Former Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA.) (March 1, 2018). "How to fix Washington, step one". The Hill.
  8. Leaf, Clifton. "Don't Tell a Soul: There's a Secret Bipartisan Health Plan". Fortune. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
  9. Clift, Eleanor (2015-04-11). "The Only Bipartisan Game in Town". Retrieved 2019-02-02. ...the non-profit group that was founded in 2010 to advocate for that elusive middle way.
  10. "A No Labels solution to Washington gridlock?". The Washington Post.
  11. Halloran, Liz (2010-12-13). "New 'No Labels' Movement Seeks Bipartisanship". NPR. "Those on the far left who say that we don't need to reform Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social insurance programs are wrong and they don't have a credible plan to address our structural deficits. Those on the right who say that we can close our federal financial hole without additional revenues are also wrong."
  12. Siefert, Liz (2010-12-14). ""No Labels" Grassroots Group Determined to Push Back Against Hyper-Partisanship". CBS.
  13. Huck, Peter (2010-12-10). "America's search for a third option". NZ Herald.
  14. Weigel, David (2011-12-14). "Is "No Labels" the First Centrist Group Ever To Have Good Ideas?". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  15. Contributor, John Avlon, CNN (2012-03-15). "Three simple ways to make Congress work". CNN Digital. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  16. "Full transcript: Obama's 2012 State of the Union Address". USA TODAY. January 25, 2012. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
  17. Berglund, Collin (January 25, 2012). "Daily Dose: Presidential Endorsement". No Labels. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2012.
  18. Leader, New Hampshire Union. "unionleader.com - Manchester, NH". www.unionleader.com. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
  19. "Obama signs debt-ceiling bill". Politico. February 4, 2013.
  20. Yingling, Jennifer. "Working together to take care of our service men, women and returning vets". TheHill. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  21. Davis, Tom (March 14, 2012). "Testimony of the Honorable Tom Davis: Hearing on "Raising the Bar for Congress: Reform Proposals for the 21st Century"". Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Washington, DC. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
  22. "Change House Rules to Fix Our Broken Congress | RealClearPolicy". Retrieved 2018-07-29.
  23. Hulse, Carl (2018-07-24). "Frustrated by Gridlock, House Members Propose Rules Overhaul". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  24. Galston, William A. (2018-02-27). "To Fix the House, Start With the Speaker". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  25. Hulse, Carl (2018-06-16). "Can the House Speakership Be Saved? These Lawmakers Have an Idea". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
  26. "The Democratic House wants to reform democracy. It's not a panacea — but it's a start". The Washington Post.
  27. "The Democratic House wants to reform democracy. It's not a panacea — but it's a start". The Washington Post.
  28. Swan, Alayna Treene,Jonathan. "Exclusive: Joe Manchin, Larry Hogan urge voters to be patient in new $1M ad". Axios. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  29. Klein, Ezra (December 21, 2011). "'No Labels' Stops Whining, Offers Political Agenda". Bloomberg. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
  30. Hiatt, Fred (June 28, 2015). "No Labels stakes out a national agenda". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  31. Clift, Eleanor (April 11, 2015). "The Only Bipartisan Game in Town". The Daily Beast. Retrieved January 28, 2016.
  32. Frank Rich, The Bipartisanship Racket, New York Times (December 18, 2010).
  33. Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington elites push for a consensus that ignores reality, Washington Post (April 16, 2012).
  34. Jennifer Rubin, No Labels, no relevance, Washington Post (January 14, 2013).
  35. Markay, Sam Stein|Lachlan (2018-11-26). "Centrist Group Behind Pelosi Holdouts Plotted to Make Her 'Bogeyman'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-11-30.
  36. McPherson, Lindsey; McPherson, Lindsey (2018-11-28). "Problem Solvers to Back Pelosi for Speaker After Reaching Agreement on Rules Changes". Roll Call. Retrieved 2018-12-04.
  37. Fang, Lee (2018-11-29). "Billionaire Republican Donors Helped Elect Rising Centrist Democrats". The Intercept. Retrieved 2018-12-01.
  38. "Bipartisan 'No Labels' group's super PAC network revealed: mega Chicago donors". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
  39. Stein, Sam (2018-12-03). "How No Labels Went From Preaching Unity to Practicing the Dark Arts".
  40. Jordan, Chuck (2018-12-06). "Setting the record straight about No Labels". TheHill. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
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