Washington, D.C. – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined a group of his colleagues to reintroduce the Democracy for All Amendment. This constitutional amendment would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, as well as other alarming decisions concerning campaign finance that have produced a flood of dark money in politics and diminished the voice of the American people. These decisions have wrongfully equated money with free speech, and unfairly determined that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as people.
“As political spending has continued to rise in the eleven years since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, the American people’s confidence in our democratic institutions has continued to fall,” said Bennet. “They rightly perceive that, instead of their voices, it is the checkbooks of wealthy campaign contributors that shape the agenda in Washington year after year. The need to pass the Democracy for All Amendment to overturn Citizens United has never been more urgent.”
The Democracy for All Amendment would empower Congress and states to set reasonable campaign finance rules and limit corporate spending, putting power back in the hands of the public and getting big money out of politics. The amendment would enshrine in the Constitution the right of the American people to regulate the raising and spending of funds in public elections while curbing the concentration of political influence the wealthiest Americans hold.
Bennet is a leading advocate for reforms to fight the influence of money in politics. Last year, he introduced the ZOMBIE Act to require politicians no longer running for office to close their old campaign accounts. Previously, he has introduced the Close the Revolving Door Act to ban Members of Congress from ever becoming lobbyists and the CLEAN Politics Act to prohibit them from soliciting campaign contributions from lobbyists while Congress is in session, among other reforms. Bennet is also an original co-sponsor of the DISCLOSE Act to crack down on “dark money” organizations by requiring them to disclose their spending and major sources of funding in a timely manner.
The text of the amendment is available HERE.
In addition to Bennet, the Democracy for All Amendment is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.).