Former White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray published an editorial in Newsweek on March 24, 2021 arguing that H.R. 1 is a constitutional disaster in the making. He writes,
The former Georgia state legislator and gubernatorial candidate recently told CNN that “the Elections Clause in the Constitution guarantees that the Congress alone has the power to regulate—to regulate the time, manner and place of elections.” Abrams added that Democrats’ H.R. 1 bill, which would make the mess of the 2020 mail-in election both permanent and nationwide, “demands that the entire U.S. Senate acknowledge that protection of democracy is so fundamental that it should be exempt from the filibuster rules.”
But no such power exists. Gray writes,
Contrary to Abrams’ claim, Congress has only a secondary, concurrent power over congressional elections, an even smaller role in presidential elections and no specific role in state elections at all. H.R. 1 greatly undermines this structure. If enacted, it would be a Washington, D.C. takeover of elections on a collision course with the Constitution’s text, structure and principles—all of which put the states in the driver’s seat.
The full editorial can be found at Newsweek.