Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here today to mark 16 years since the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which opened the floodgates to unlimited special interest money in our elections.

We had a campaign finance system. It wasn't perfect. There was a bipartisan effort to put some limits on things. The problem with the way it is now is that it opens it up, and it is impossible to even trace what money is coming in and from where.

I want to thank Senator Kelly for bringing us to the floor today to discuss such an important issue for our democracy and thank my colleagues who are here today.

In the 2024 Federal election, secret money groups spent $1.9 billion, nearly double the amount spent just one cycle before. This undermines our democracy and shakes the public's trust because unlimited, anonymous Federal spending in our elections doesn't encourage free speech. It drowns out the voices of the American people who are seeking to participate.

I have long supported a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and restore the authority of Congress and the States to establish reasonable limits on campaign spending, and I will keep making the case to build support for that effort. In the meantime, there are things that we can do to make our campaign finance system stronger and more transparent.

That is why I have led the effort, alongside Ranking Member Padilla, to advance commonsense bills, including the Freedom to Vote Act, to shine light on secret money and make sure Americans know who is trying to influence their votes. We came very close to passing my bill in the last Congress. The Freedom to Vote Act would provide important new tools to rid our politics of Big Money and root out foreign interference.

It includes the DISCLOSE Act, which I have cosponsored--Senator Whitehouse's bill--in every Congress since 2012, to end secret money in our politics. The DISCLOSE Act also makes it harder for billionaires and others to hide their contributions by ending the use of transfers between organizations in order to cloak the identity of donors. It requires organizations that spend money on political activities to disclose the true owner.

The Freedom to Vote Act also includes my Honest Ads Act, bipartisan legislation that I first introduced with Senator John McCain, whom we miss very much and his leadership when it comes to campaign finance. This bill would require online platforms to take steps to prevent foreign nationals from buying ads. It would ensure that all online platforms disclose their buyers of digital political ads if the platforms reach 50 million or more unique U.S. visitors per month, meaning online platforms would finally have to follow the same rules that TV and radio stations already follow for political ads.

It is simply insane that, in one medium, there are some rules and, in another, there are not. These changes will increase transparency while including commonsense exemptions to protect the First Amendment rights of websites that are simply part of traditional media.

Third, the Freedom to Vote Act would strengthen rules banning the coordination between candidates and super PACs to make sure candidates cannot evade contribution limits by working with their super PACs.

Finally, the Freedom to Vote Act includes important reforms to the Federal Election Commission to improve the enforcement of our campaign finance laws. Since the Citizens United decision came down, 16 years ago, new technologies have emerged that only make the need for reform more pressing. AI videos are making their way into political ads, giving dark money groups a new and cheaper tool with which to influence politicians and mislead the public.

That is why I lead bipartisan bills to ban the use of AI to create deceptive campaign ads--that is a bill that Senator Hawley and I lead-- and to require disclaimers on political ads that have content substantially generated by AI.

Think about it. If they are blatantly deceptive and are not satire or parody, which is allowed by our Constitution, then they are banned. Otherwise, at least there is a label that says ``Created by AI.'' That will let the voters know something is up. Maybe this isn't really the politician I love or the politician I don't love.

Whether it is a question of who is funding an ad or whether or not the content of the ad is real, voters deserve transparency. We need to end secret money in our politics to make sure the American people know their elected officials work for them, not the wealthy and the powerful few, and to make sure we have a government that works for everyone.

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