Senate Democrats have introduced a Bill to mitigate the effects od the Extreme Court’s anti-democratic, corporatist decision.
Last week Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Chris Van Hollen previewed their legislative response to the Citizens United ruling. Today, Schumer along with Sens. Russ Feingold, Ron Wyden, Evan Bayh, and Al Franken announced the details of the new legislation, with their stated goal of the Senate passing the new measure by July 4 so the law can take effect in time for the 2010 midterm elections. Van Hollen is expected to introduce the House companion bill today.
The legislation is dubbed the "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections" Act, or The DISCLOSE Act (pity the intern who had to come up with that acronym). From the e-mailed press release:
The legislation is a response to the Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case last January. That decision overturned a decades-old law banning political expenditures by corporate interests. The new Senate legislation would partly restore those limits – by barring foreign-controlled corporations, government contractors and companies that have received government assistance from making political expenditures – and also require corporations, unions, and other organizations that make political expenditures to disclose their donors and stand by their ads….
Under the senators’ proposal, the heads of any organization sponsoring an ad—including corporate CEOs—would be required to appear during the ad, as is currently required of candidates for federal office. In cases where special interests funnel their money into shell groups, the top five organizations that have donated to the group would have to be identified on screen during any ad sponsored by that group. The CEO of the group’s top funder for that particular advertisement would also be required to appear on screen to deliver a "stand by your ad" disclaimer.
Also, the bill would effectively require, for the first time, all corporations and advocacy groups that make political expenditures to establish easy-to-track campaign accounts. All donations to these accounts that exceed $1,000—as well as all expenditures funded through these accounts—would be reported within 24 hours to the Federal Election Commission once the money is spent, as well as to the public on the organization’s website, and to company shareholders in their corporate filing statements. If a company or organization did not wish to establish these transparent accounts, it would be required to disclose all its donors, not just those whose contributions are earmarked for political activities.
The legislation will also strengthen a candidate’s ability to respond to corporate attack ads by ensuring they can purchase air time at the lowest possible rate in the same media markets where these attacks ads are airing. The bill would also make sure that private corporations don’t coordinate their political activities with candidates.
President Obama responded with a strong statement in support.
"I welcome the introduction of this strong bi-partisan legislation to control the flood of special interest money into America’s elections. Powerful special interests and their lobbyists should not be able to drown out the voices of the American people. Yet they work ceaselessly toward that goal: they claim the protection of the Constitution in extending this power, and they exploit every loophole in the law to escape limits on their activities. The legislation introduced today would establish the toughest-ever disclosure requirements for election-related spending by big oil corporations, Wall Street and other special interests, so the American people can follow the money and see clearly which special interests are funding political campaign activity and trying to buy representation in our government. I have long believed that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and this legislation will shine an unprecedented light on corporate spending in political campaigns. This bill will also prohibit foreign entities from manipulating the outcomes of American elections and help close other special interest loopholes….
The legislation doesn’t truly fix Citizens United, which would take a Constitutional amendment or another ruling… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Daily Kos>
Though most welcome, this does little to help. The best solution is to keep the GOP out of the white house until the last rabid reactionary ideologue had retired from the Court.
2 Responses to “Steps Against Citizens United”
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I like this bill – at least we’ll know (without having to look it up at opensecrets.org) who gave what to whom.
I welcome it, Lisa. However the notion that inhuman coroprations have human rights needs to be overturned, as does the notion that money equals speech.