Amendment Restores Authority to States, Congress to Regulate Campaign Finance
Cosponsors DISCLOSE Act to Crack Down on Anonymous “Dark Money” Spending
Washington, DC – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet has joined Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and 33 of his Senate colleagues to reintroduce a constitutional amendment that would restore authority to Congress, individual states and the American people to regulate campaign finance. Bennet has helped lead this effort in the past two Congresses.
“This amendment is about restoring confidence in our democracy and ending this unfettered spending by anonymous donors that overwhelms the rights of individual Americans to be heard,” Bennet said. “The Supreme Court’s misguided rulings in Citizens United and McCutcheon have led to out-of-control spending on ads that are overwhelming the airwaves. The source of this spending is concentrated in a very small group of people whose agenda has nothing to do with the concerns of Colorado families. As a result, the issues debated in Washington are far removed from the ones on the minds of Americans.”
Bennet also joined several senators today to reintroduce the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would crack down on so-called “dark money” by requiring organizations that spend money to influence elections to disclose their spending as well as their major sources of funding in a timely manner. The bill requires any covered organization that spends $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours, detailing the amount and nature of each expenditure over $1,000 and the names of all of its donors who gave $10,000 or more. Transfer provisions in the bill prevent donors from using shell organizations to hide their activities.
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