Dark Money To Be Subject of King-Led Committee Hearing

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) announced he will chair a Senate Rules Committee Hearing on Wednesday, April 30th to examine the influence of undisclosed money on elections in the United States, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court decision McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which abolished caps on an individual's aggregate donations to all federal candidates, parties and some political committees. The hearing, entitled "Dollars and Sense: How Undisclosed Money and Post-McCutcheon Campaign Finance Will Affect the 2014 Election and Beyond" will be the first to focus on campaign finance since the Supreme Court decision and will underscore the urgent need to increase transparency of campaign contributions.

"No matter who you are, or whether you live in a "red state' or a "blue state,' you deserve to know who's funding the ads on your TV during an election year," Senator King said. "But tracing the origin of campaign money -- so-called dark money -- has become nearly impossible. While this hearing can't change the way campaign laws work overnight, it is a much-needed first step. It's far past time we shine a bright light on the dark money dominating campaigns."

The witnesses for the Majority will be: Ann Ravel, current Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC); Trevor Potter, former FEC Commissioner and Chairman, General Counsel to Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Legal Counsel to Stephen Colbert's Super PAC; and Norm Ornstein, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and former Codirector of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. For additional information on the witnesses, see below.

On April 2nd, King introduced the Real Time Transparency Act of 2014, which would require that all campaign contributions of $1000 or more be filed with the FEC within 48-hours.

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