Statement of Democracy 21 President: New Disclosure Legislation Introduced Today By Representative Chris Van Hollen to Deal with Problems of Secret Contributions, Untimely Super PAC Disclosure

Democracy 21 applauds Representative Chris Van Hollen for taking the lead again in proposing new disclosure legislation to close gaping loopholes in the campaign finance disclosure laws which allowed more than $135 million in secret contributions to be spent by tax-exempt groups to influence the 2010 congressional races.

The loopholes have occurred as a result of the destructive and misguided Citizens United decision along with fundamentally flawed FEC regulations that have gutted existing contribution disclosure requirements.

The Van Hollen legislation is being introduced in the House today.

Democracy 21 also applauds House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi for again providing strong national leadership in support of this important legislative reform effort.

We also greatly appreciate the important leadership being provided by Representative Robert Brady as a prime sponsor of the new legislation.

House Democratic Leader Pelosi and Representative Van Hollen provided outstanding leadership in the last Congress for the DISCLOSE Act of 2010, sponsored by Van Hollen, which passed the House in 2010. The DISCLOSE Act was sponsored in the Senate by Senator Charles Schumer who effectively led the fight for the legislation which fell just one vote short of the sixty votes needed to break a filibuster and enact the bill in 2010.

Democracy 21 worked closely with Representative Van Hollen and Senator Schumer in the development of the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 and our organization has again worked closely with Representative Van Hollen in the development of the new legislation being introduced today.

The new legislation, unlike the DISCLOSE Act of 2010, focuses solely on disclosure requirements. It does not contain any of the nondisclosure provisions from the 2010 bill, such as the restrictions on independent expenditures by government contractors.

With this new bill, the issue for members of Congress is clear and straight forward: do you support disclosure or do you support secrecy?  Do you support disclosing to the American people the donors who are funding campaign expenditures to influence their votes or do you support keeping this information secret from the American people?

According to a New York Times article on a New York Times/CBS News poll released on October 28, 2010, Americans overwhelmingly, “favor full disclosure of spending by both campaigns and outside groups.” The poll found that found 92 percent of Americans believe it is important, “that campaigns be required by law to disclose how much money they have raised, where that money came from, and how they have spent it.”

There is no legitimate basis for any member of Congress to oppose this legislation. If they do oppose it, it can mean only that they believe the donors financing expenditures to influence elections should be kept hidden from the American people.

The new legislation would ensure that citizens know on a timely basis the identities of the large donors who are funding campaign expenditures by tax-exempt organizations.

The legislation would also fix the problem of untimely disclosure of the donors to Super PACs supporting presidential candidates. This problem arose in the 2012 Republican presidential nominating process when the disclosure of most of these donors did not occur until after the critical Iowa caucus and New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida primaries were over.

The new legislation also requires Super PACs along with other “independent” outside entities that make campaign expenditures for broadcast ads to list their top five donors in each ad and to have the top official of the group appear in each ad and take responsibility for it.

Companion disclosure legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate in the near future.