Washington, DC – As the U.S. Senate prepares for a key vote Monday on a bill to end secret spending in American elections, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the bill’s lead sponsor, released a new video message urging support for the measure. Whitehouse’s DISCLOSE Act is up for a procedural vote on Monday evening.
“The story of our American democracy has been the fight to make sure that every citizen’s voice is heard – that each of us can claim equal ownership of the government we’ve formed together,” Whitehouse states in the video. “But the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has threatened that fundamental notion by allowing secretive special interests to make limitless and secret campaign donations, secret donations that give them an unfair advantage over the average voter.”
Whitehouse continues, “But there is something we can do about this, this special interest influence. A bill is coming up in Congress that would shine a bright light on the secret money streaming into our elections. It’s called the DISCLOSE Act, and it would require any organization that conducts political activity to make public the sources of its funding—in real time—so voters can decide for themselves what to think.”
The Senator then concludes by urging citizens to make their voices heard in the debate, saying, “As citizens, we have the right to know who is trying to influence our votes, and what their motives are. By standing up for the DISCLOSE Act, you can help take back our democracy and make that right a reality.”
The full video can be viewed here.
The DISCLOSE Act requires any organization that spends $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report within 24 hours, identifying any donors who gave $10,000 or more. It will require political groups posing as social welfare organizations to disclose their donors and will prevent corporations and other wealthy interests from using shell corporations to funnel secret money to super PACs.
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