Washington, DC— Today, on the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, which paved the way for unlimited corporate political spending, U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) announced his support of legislation covering a host of solutions to the problem of big money domination of our elections. These reform measures will allow Congress and the states to establish campaign finance regulations, and will help put an end to secretive campaign spending by strengthening disclosure laws.
Additionally, two dozen reform groups issued a statement commending members of Congress for moving forward on critical money in politics reform measures.
“The Citizens United ruling significantly increased the power of corporate special interests by giving them the ability to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections,” said Senator Casey. “The ruling has allowed a handful of wealthy individuals and corporations to skew the national debate at the expense of hard working Pennsylvanians. The Democracy for All Amendment and the DISCLOSE Act are commonsense bills that respond to the increased power of corporate special interests and the role of money in politics.”
Democracy for All Amendment: Provides Congress and the states with the authority to determine reasonable regulations on campaign financing and distinguish between natural persons and other artificial entities under campaign finance laws.
DISCLOSE Act: Establishes a system of disclosure of campaign spending and the sources of those funds for all entities that make independent expenditures (at any time) and electioneering communications (in calendar year of an election for Congress; 120 days before the primary for presidential elections).
###
