Operation Citizen People-First Candidate Pledge

Two short labels appear below. A5 means the five accountability reforms. R8 means the eight economic-security commitments. They are all parts of one pledge, signed by one candidate as a whole.

Understand → act → follow through

What this tool produces

Use this page to prepare a request for a candidate’s signature. The candidate is not joining Operation Citizen or endorsing every finding. The candidate is being asked to accept the complete pledge so citizens can verify the promise later.

You will leave with: the candidate’s name, one complete pledge containing the five accountability reforms and eight economic-security commitments, a return date, and a record showing whether the candidate signed the whole pledge, qualified the response, declined, or did not respond.

Follow the promise through the public record.

PromiseBill or rule identifiedAction requestedRecorded decisionEnactmentCitizen result

A signature proves only that the commitment was made. It does not prove that a bill was introduced, received a hearing, passed, became law, or improved citizens’ lives. Keep those stages separate so the record shows what happened and where the next decision rests.

01 / Identify the candidate and citizen

Who is being asked—and by whom?

Candidate’s nameOffice soughtState or districtElection dateYour nameYour city and stateWhy you are asking

02 / Core statement

Operation Citizen People-First Candidate Pledge

“I pledge to use the power of this office to arrest the quiet collapse by subordinating the privileges given to property and financial capital to human dignity, material security, and the general welfare. I will pursue every commitment below, place each act I take on those commitments in the public record, and publicly identify the next decision-maker and barrier whenever an outcome depends on others.”

This is a public performance record. It connects the promise made before an election to the acts, decisions, barriers, and citizen results recorded afterward.

The signature applies to the whole pledge: all five Accountability Five reforms, all eight Rights Eight commitments, and the public follow-through promise. A stated exception is recorded as a qualified response, not as a signature of the complete pledge.

03 / Part I · Accountability Five

Aligning Congress with the public

A5-1. Financial conflicts, trading, and political money.

Practical demand: remove individual-security conflicts, disclose compliance, and state which sources of political money the campaign accepts.

I will support enforceable rules or legislation that prohibit members of Congress, their spouses, dependent children, and covered senior staff from owning or trading individual securities while permitting defined diversified holdings; require timely disclosure, recusal, independent administration, and meaningful enforcement; and make my own compliance record public. My campaign will state whether it accepts contributions from corporate-sponsored PACs and identify the legislation or constitutional proposal I support concerning independent corporate election spending and public financing.

A5-2. Term limits and anti-entrenchment.

Practical demand: state the personal service limit and the exact constitutional or chamber-rule reform the candidate will support.

I will cosponsor and vote for a clearly identified Article V amendment limiting service to three terms in the U.S. House and two terms in the U.S. Senate. Separately, I personally commit to seek no more than that number of terms. This personal promise does not itself create a legal qualification for office.

A5-3. Single-purpose legislation and germaneness.

Practical demand: support a clear rule, make every waiver visible, and put the procedural decision on the record.

I will support chamber rules requiring legislation to state and maintain one principal purpose, requiring amendments to be germane, and requiring any waiver or emergency exception to be identified publicly and decided by a recorded vote. I will publish the reason for any vote to waive those rules.

A5-4. Constituent–Capital Parity.

Practical demand: show who receives policy access, what action was requested, and how the office responded; support lawful routes that broaden citizen participation.

I will maintain a public record of scheduled policy meetings and substantive written requests from paid representatives of private interests, citizen groups, and constituents, subject to lawful privacy and security limits. I will publish the issue, represented interest, date, requested action, and office response so citizens can compare access and treatment.

A5-5. Forced consideration and blocker accountability.

Practical demand: take the next available step on a named proposal, then identify who controls the next decision and the reason given if it stops.

For each identified public measure I support, I will pursue an act within my control—introduction or cosponsorship, a hearing or markup request, an available procedural motion, and a recorded vote—and publish the request, response, next decision-maker, and stated reason when the measure does not advance.

04 / Part II · Rights Eight

Economic security and the Second Bill of Rights

These eight commitments are part of the same pledge as the Accountability Five. The candidate signs the complete pledge. Afterward, citizens may track each commitment separately by attaching the relevant bill or agency route and recording the act, next decision-maker, and measure of delivery.

R8-1. Family-supporting work.

I will support a defined federal measure intended to make useful work support a household, state the wage, labor, training, procurement, or tax mechanism it uses, and publish the measure used to assess household results.

R8-2. Income security and benefit cliffs.

I will support a defined measure for adequate income and the reduction of benefit cliffs, identify the programs and eligibility rules changed, and publish the expected and observed household effects.

R8-3. Producer and farm viability.

I will support a defined measure intended to give farms and independent producers a fair opportunity to remain viable, identify the market, contract, credit, or program rule affected, and publish the measure of delivery.

R8-4. Competition and anti-concentration.

I will support enforcement and legislation addressing monopoly power, unfair competition, and concentrated control, identify the transaction or practice at issue, and publish the responsible agency or court record and result.

R8-5. Housing.

I will support a defined measure intended to secure decent and stable housing, distinguish financing, rental, land-use, ownership, and anti-speculation tools, and publish the household outcome being measured.

R8-6. Health care.

I will support a defined measure intended to secure adequate care and the opportunity for good health, pursue an observable step toward consideration, and publish the effects on access, coverage, price, service, and public cost.

R8-7. Disability, unemployment, retirement, and benefit security.

I will support defined protections against the economic risks of disability, unemployment, sickness, accident, and old age, identify the benefit and eligibility rules involved, and publish delivery, delay, denial, and appeal measures.

R8-8. Education.

I will support fully funded, high-quality public education from early childhood through higher education and vocational preparation, identify federal, state, and local responsibilities, and publish access, completion, cost, and debt measures.

Public follow-through. I will publish what I did and what happened.

Within the first 100 days after taking office, and every six months thereafter, I will publish the action taken on each accepted commitment, link to the bill, rule, request, hearing, vote, or other public record, state what has and has not occurred, and name the next decision and check date.

After the candidate responds, track the same candidate’s entire pledge. The action guide lets the citizen choose one commitment at a time, find the current route, make a request, and record what that officeholder does. It does not divide the pledge among different candidates.

Open the pledge follow-through guide →

Date sent to candidateReturn date requestedCandidate response or exact qualification

Candidate statement

By signing below, I accept the core statement, all five Accountability Five reforms, all eight Rights Eight commitments, and the public follow-through promise. Any departure written above makes this a qualified response rather than an unqualified signature of the complete pledge. I understand that citizens may compare this public commitment with later public acts and outcomes.

Candidate signatureSignature dateWitnessed by citizen or civic groupDistrict or state

05 / Keep the public record

The pledge begins the measurement.

Signed, declined or no responseRoute identifiedAction requestedDecision recordedLaw or implementationCitizen outcome

Record each stage only when a public document supports it. A candidate or minority Member can promise actions within that person’s control. The candidate cannot guarantee an outcome controlled by a committee, chamber, another branch, an agency, or the states.

Check who controls the next decision Inspect the source and legal limits for each expectation

Legal distinctions and sources

U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779 (1995): states may not add qualifications for service in Congress; the pledge therefore uses the constitutional route for a binding term limit and identifies the separate personal promise.
National Archives: constitutional amendment process: proposal and ratification are distinct steps; the President has no constitutional role in the amendment process.
Constitution Annotated, Article I, section 5: each chamber determines its rules, the route used here for single-purpose and germaneness commitments.
House Ethics Committee: financial disclosure: current disclosure duties are distinct from the broader ownership and trading restriction proposed in the pledge.
FEC campaign-finance guides: corporations may not make treasury contributions to federal candidates, but may sponsor separate segregated funds.
FEC summary of Citizens United v. FEC: the decision concerns corporate independent expenditures and electioneering communications; it did not remove the ban on corporate contributions to candidates.
FEC: presidential public financing: public financing exists for eligible presidential candidates; a broader system would require a separate legal design.

The 1994 Contract with America is retained as a precedent for a short list of scheduled, measurable legislative acts. Operation Citizen tracks consideration, passage, enactment, implementation, and citizen outcomes separately so a procedural milestone is not presented as a complete policy result.

This form records proposed policies and candidate commitments. It does not certify enactment, constitutionality in every formulation, fiscal effect, or policy outcome. Verify the office, election, candidate, current text, and controlling law before use.