Litigation

Disclosure Bill Blocked in Senate

By Peter Hardin

Senate Republicans have blocked efforts by Democrats to advance  a bill with more stringent requirements for special interest groups, unions and corporations to disclose their political spending.

Democrats were unable to muster the 60 votes needed Tuesday to get past a filibuster by Republicans against The DISCLOSE Act, as the bill is called, and it could mean the bill is dead for this year, according to a Reuters article. The procedural vote was 57-41.

“The DISCLOSE Act seeks to protect unpopular Democrat politicians by silencing their critics,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said.

President Obama, in Rose Garden remarks on Monday, had called for passage of the bill. A vote against it, he said, “is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections,” the San Francisco Examiner reported.

The House voted earlier this year to pass the bill (see Gavel Grab), which was shaped by Democratic leaders to soften the impact of the Supreme Court?s Citizens United decision in January. Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many other business groups opposed the measure, contending it was unconstitutional and would disadvantage corporations.

The legislation would force corporations and unions to completely disclose political spending,  including for what are called ?issue ads.? These typically are intended to elect an individual candidate, without directly asking voters to do so. The legislation also would require CEOs to appear in a company?s political advertising and state support for its message.

The Senate vote Tuesday, and Democrats’ failure to win a single Republican vote for the legislation, cast doubts “over whether any campaign finance measure can pass the upper chamber before the November elections,” according to Politico.

Democrats, nonetheless, pledged not to give up, the Wall Street Journal reported. “We will be back to this bill again and again and again, until we pass it,” said Sen. Charles Schumer of New York.

Election law expert Rick Hasen of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles said in a commentary in Politico:

“What a shame that moderate Republicans would not come out with their own proposal to do the important things that need to be done with campaign finance disclosure after Citizens United, and what a shame that Democrats used the bill as an opportunity to try to do things beyond disclosure that lost the possibility of bipartisan compromise and gave opponents talking points against the entire bill.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on July 27, 2010 (boomark / email).