Politics

Electronic Filing Provision included in DISCLOSE Act: A Win for Transparency

By Lisa Rosenberg

The Committee on House Administration marked up the DISCLOSE Act today, overcoming the first of many hurdles the bill will face before it becomes law. The bill, which passed out of Committee on a party line vote, included an important Sunlight amendment that will vastly improve the transparency provisions in the bill by ensuring that new disclosure reports detailing electioneering and independent expenditures will be electronically filed and disclosed on the FEC?s website within 24 hours.

Sunlight encouraged Members of the Committee to support this change, which is a real victory for transparency and improves upon an earlier version of the bill in the manner we called for here.  Now, anyone looking for information on corporate or union disclosures will be able to find them in one place, in real time, rather than engaging in a far-flung search across corporate and union websites.

In a rare show of bipartisanship, the amendment, which was offered by Rep. Susan Davis, passed unopposed. Sunlight thanks all the Members of the Committee for demonstrating their support for transparency.

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on May 20, 2010 (boomark / email).