Wertheimer Testifies in Support of S. 1 before Senate Rules Committee

Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer Testifies in Support of S. 1 before Senate Rules Committee

Testimony Supports Landmark Democracy Reforms, Including Campaign Finance And Voting Rights Provisions

Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer testified Wednesday before the Senate Rules Committee in support of S. 1, the For the People Act. S. 1 is a comprehensive democracy reform bill which is the Senate companion to H.R. 1 in the House. (The video is here.)

Wertheimer’s testimony focused on the dangers of influence-seeking big money in Congress and the necessity of enacting the small donor matching funds system in H.R. 1/S. 1 to provide candidates with an alternative way of financing their campaigns. (The written testimony is here.)

The testimony also addressed the need to enact the essential voting rights reforms in the legislation to combat the voter suppression efforts being pursued in state legislatures around the country that would take us back to the Jim Crow era. The testimony stated that “the purpose of voting rules should be to make it easy, not difficult, to vote safely and securely,” and noted:

Trump’s Big Lie that there was massive voter fraud in the 2020 elections is flatly contradicted by the reality that no meaningful fraud has been found to have taken place in the 2020 elections. Yet under the guise of “protecting the integrity” of elections, laws are being pursued in state legislatures to make it as hard as possible for millions of Americans to vote in federal elections.

In the testimony, Wertheimer called for campaign finance reforms:

• To provide an alternative way for federal candidates to finance their campaigns that frees them from being dependent on and obligated to influence-seeking, big money funders;
• To close the gaping disclosure loopholes for groups that spend unlimited, secret contributions in federal elections and for the sources of online campaign-related ads;
• To strengthen the rules prohibiting coordination between candidates and outside spending groups, including individual-candidate Super PACs; and
• To reform the ineffectual and deadlocked Federal Election Commission.

The testimony stated:

The campaign finance system today is flooded with funds coming from influence-seeking billionaires, millionaires, lobbyists, bundlers, business executives, dark money groups, Super PACs and special interest PACs.

As a result of Supreme Court decisions, the American people have been treated to the spectacle of the top donor and his spouse by themselves giving $218 million to influence the 2020 federal elections. The next leading individual donors provided $153 million, $72 million, $68 million and $67 million respectively.

The national median family income in the United States in FY2020 was $78,500.

The top 100 individual and organizational donors during the 2020 national elections gave $2.1 billion to Super PACs, evenly divided between liberal and conservative Super PACs.

The current system may benefit the interests of the donors, the Super PACs, the dark money nonprofits, and the candidates being supported. But it does not benefit the interests of the American people who have good reason to believe that big money interests drown out their voices and obtain influence over policy results in response to their giving.

The testimony continued:

S. 1 addresses this fundamental problem by creating an alternative financing system that allows federal candidates to finance their campaigns with small non-influence buying contributions up to $200 which are matched by public funds at a 6 to 1 ratio.

The new system is entirely voluntary. It leaves in place the existing system for financing federal campaigns for those candidates who choose the status quo, while giving candidates an option to participate voluntarily in the new system.

The testimony also stated:

There is one basic difference between the presidential public financing system enacted in 1974 and the proposed new small donor, matching funds system.

The presidential system was financed with tax revenues. The new system prohibits the use of taxpayer revenues to finance the matching funds payments. Instead, the new system is financed entirely by a small surcharge on civil and criminal penalties, and civil settlements, paid to the government by corporations, corporate executives, and wealthy tax cheats.

Anyone who claims that the new system is paid for with tax revenues is not being truthful.

The testimony stated:

The new, small donor-based system serves multiple public interests. It is important to

• • ordinary Americans who believe their interests are being overwhelmed by the interests of big money funders.
  • millions of small donors who believe their participation in the political process is seriously undercut by influence-seeking, monied interests.
  • women and people of color who are repeatedly shortchanged in raising the money needed to run for Congress.
  • Members of Congress who do not want to be obligated to big money funders.
  • Members of Congress who want to spend more time serving their constituents and less time raising campaign money.

Wertheimer noted in his testimony:

I first testified before this Committee on campaign finance reforms in 1973. As I was waiting to testify, Senator Joe Biden, newly elected in 1972, appeared before the Committee.

Senator Biden urged Congress to enact public financing for federal elections, stating that the reform “would allow candidates — incumbents and challengers alike — to compete more on the basis of merit than on the size of the pocketbook — free from … special interest backers.”

Senator Biden described public financing as “the swiftest and surest way to purge our elections system of the corruption that, whatever the safeguards, money inevitably brings.”

In response to the Watergate campaign finance scandals, Congress created the presidential public financing system in 1974 as part of [the Federal Election Campaign Act.] […]

Following the enactment of the presidential financing system, Senator Biden continued to lead on campaign finance reform during his Senate career, introducing bills to create a similar system for congressional races.

The testimony stated:

The new presidential financing system worked well for the country and for presidential candidates for decades. Almost every major party candidate participated in the voluntary system for seven presidential elections. …

Every president elected from 1976 to 2004 participated in the public financing system, including three Republicans and two Democrats. This included Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan (twice), George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton (twice) and George W. Bush (twice).

The system broke down in the 2000s only when dramatic growth in the costs of presidential campaigns greatly outstripped the funding provided to participating candidates and greatly exceeded the spending limits of the presidential system, and Congress failed to modernize the system in response.

The testimony also pointed out that S. 1 contains two important measures to close disclosure loopholes: the DISCLOSE Act, which would close a disclosure loophole by which nonprofit groups have spent more than $1B in federal elections, and the Honest Ads Act, which modernizes disclaimer and disclosure requirements for internet ads.

The testimony concluded:

S. 1 incorporates reforms that are essential to repairing our political system, campaign finance system and democracy. These reforms have been developed over a number of years and are not being placed before the Senate for the first time.

Democracy 21 urges the Senate Rules Committee to report S. 1 promptly and further urges the Senate to pass the bill promptly and demonstrate to the American people that Congress is committed to our representative system of government working for all eligible voters and working for the American people, not just for monied interests.

Read the full testimony here.

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