Former Vice President Biden Yesterday Announced A Far-Reaching Campaign Finance and Ethics Reform Plan

| |  by

Former Vice President Biden Yesterday Announced A Far-Reaching Campaign Finance and Ethics Reform Plan

Statement of Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer

Former Vice President Joe Biden yesterday announced a far-reaching campaign finance and ethics reform plan that included the creation of an essential small donor, public matching funds system to finance federal elections.

The former Vice President has been an advocate of public financing of elections longer than any other figure in public life today. Biden sponsored public financing legislation shortly after he came to the Senate in 1973, and in the decades that followed, he continued to be a lead sponsor in the Senate of public financing legislation.

As long as Citizens United remains the law of the land, we will not stop political money corruption in Washington until we provide federal candidates with an alternative means to finance their campaigns that allows them to run for office without becoming dependent on or obligated to influence-seeking funders. The small donor, public matching funds system accomplishes that goal.

In addition to a number of necessary campaign finance reforms, the Biden proposal includes a number of reforms that address the ethics abuses that have taken place in the Trump Administration. They include the creation of a new Commission on Federal Ethics to provide a single agency to oversee and enforce anti-corruption and ethics laws. This would address the widespread failure to enforce these laws in Washington.

###