Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act

Floor Speech

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Chair, I rise to urge my colleagues to support the rule and the underlying bill, the DISCLOSE Act. I strongly support the DISCLOSE Act, which recognizes the significant contributions of libraries, librarians, and library workers to our nation's communities.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates to unrestricted special interest campaign donations in American elections--even from entities controlled by foreign governments. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that all organizations, corporations, and unions are free to take unlimited corporate money and make unlimited political expenditures.

The DISCLOSE Act would strengthen disclosure of election ads and would force corporate CEO's to stand by their ads by appearing on camera to say that he or she ``approves this message.''

This bipartisan legislation would control the flood of special interest money into America's elections. Powerful special interests and their lobbyists should not be able to drown out the voices of the American people with their pocketbooks.

The DISCLOSE Act would establish touch disclosure requirements for election-related spending by big oil corporations, Wall Street and other special interests, so the American people can follow the money and see clearly which special interests are funding political campaign activity and trying to buy representation in our government. This legislation would also prohibit foreign entities from manipulating the outcomes of American elections and help close other special interest loopholes.

Further, the DISCLOSE Act would ensure that social welfare organizations with membership of 500,000 or more, stand by their political ads and prohibits them from using corporate dollars for campaign purposes, while respecting privacy of their contributors.

I believe that people need to know who is paying to influence their elections.

According to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll, the American people agree. Eight in ten Americans opposed the high court's ruling, including seven out of ten Republicans, and 72 percent favored congressional action to curb the ruling.

Congress should act now to pass this important bill.

I strongly support the DISCLOSE Act and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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