Disclose Act of 2012--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak in strong support of the DISCLOSE Act, which will help put an end to secretive campaign spending and close the glaring campaign finance loopholes that have been opened up by the Citizens United ruling. I thank the Senator from Rhode Island for his tremendous leadership on this critical issue and all his work which has gotten us to this point today on this very important bill.

This Supreme Court ruling was truly a step backwards for our democracy. It overturned decades of campaign finance law and policy, and it allowed corporations and special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts of their money influencing our democracy. The Citizens United ruling has given special interest groups a megaphone that they can use to drown out the voices of citizens in my home State of Washington and across the country. The DISCLOSE Act would return transparency to this process. It would return accountability to this process. It would be a major step to returning citizens' voices to the important election decisions we make in our country.

This is a very personal issue for me. When I first ran for the Senate back in 1992, I was a long-shot candidate without a lot of money or wealthy corporate backers. But what I did have was amazing and passionate volunteers who were at my side. They cared deeply about making sure the voices of Washington State's families were represented. They made phone calls, they went door to door with us, they talked to families across our State who wanted more from their government.

We ended up winning that grassroots campaign because the people's voices were heard loudly and clearly. To be honest, I don't think it would have been possible if corporations and special interests had been able to drown out their voices with this unlimited barrage of negative ads against candidates who did not support their interests. That is why I support this DISCLOSE Act. I want to make sure no force is greater in our elections than the power of voters across our cities and towns, and no voice is louder than citizens who care about making their State and country a better place to live.

The DISCLOSE Act of 2012 should not be contentious. It simply does what a majority of American people view as a no-brainer. It requires outside groups to divulge their campaign-related fundraising and spending, plain and simple.

It does this by shining a very bright spotlight on the entire process and by strengthening the overall disclosure requirements on groups who are attempting to sway our elections.

Too often corporations and special interest groups are able to hide their spending behind a mask of front organizations because they know voters would be less likely to believe ads if they knew the motives behind their sponsors. For instance, an indication of who is funding many of these shell organizations can be seen in the delayed disclosures of the so-called super PACs. In fact, a Forbes article recently reported that 30 billionaires now are backing Romney's super PAC. It is unknown how much these same billionaires or their corporate interests are already providing to other organizations with even less scrutiny.

The DISCLOSE Act ends all that. Specifically, the act requires any of these front organizations who spend $10,000 or more on a campaign to file a disclosure report with the Federal Election Commission within 24 hours and file a new report for each additional $10,000 or more that is spent. This is a major step in pulling back the curtain on the outlandish and unfair spending practices that are corrupting our Nation's political process. It is a major step toward the kind of open and honest government the American people demand and deserve.

The DISCLOSE Act brings transparency to these shady spending practices and makes sure voters have the information they need so they know who they can trust. It is a commonsense bill. It should not be controversial, and anyone who thinks voters should have a louder voice than special interest groups should be supporting our bill.

This bill aims to protect the very core of our Federal election process. It protects the process by which our citizens fairly assess the people they believe will best come here and be their voice and represent their communities. It exposes the hidden hand of special interests, and it creates an open process for who gets to stand before them as representatives.

I am proud to support this bill and proud of the efforts by Senator Whitehouse and so many others in the Senate. I urge all our colleagues to vote for this bill. Let's move it forward. Let's do what is right for America.

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