Meng introduces legislation requiring corporations to disclose political spending

With the nation feeling the effects of the Supreme Court’s misguided decision in the Citizens United case, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) introduced legislation that would require corporations to disclose their political spending to shareholders.

The measure, the Corporate Politics Transparency Act (H.R. 2214), would require publicly-traded companies to disclose all the money they spend supporting or opposing candidates for federal, state and local office, including all independent expenditures, electioneering communications and political donations over $10,000 made to outside groups.

“The Citizens United case was a horrible decision,” said Meng. “It opened the floodgates for corporations to secretly spend unlimited amounts of shareholder funds to influence elections throughout the country. Although Congress cannot reverse the Court’s decision, we can ensure that shareholders are aware of how their money is being spent. Shareholders have a right to know if the companies in which they’re invested are using corporate funds to attack or prop-up candidates running for public office. Only by creating greater transparency can shareholders hold corporate management accountable.”

Under Meng’s bill, political spending must be divulged in registration statements, quarterly reports, annual reports and proxy solicitations. Disclosures must include:

• The name and political party affiliation of each candidate a corporation’s independent expenditure supports or opposes;

• The amount of each such expenditure;

• The public office that such candidate was or is seeking including the relevant state, city or district;

• A statement of the corporation’s interest in and reason for making the expenditure.

The legislation is cosponsored by 19 Members of Congress, and has been referred to the House Financial Services Committee.

The bill is endorsed by numerous organizations and good-government groups, including the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, League of Conservation Voters, Green Century Capital Management, Domini Social Investments, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, CREDO, Public Campaign, Public Citizen, the Reform Project, Sunlight Foundation and the New Progressive Alliance.

“Since the ill-fated 2010 decision of Citizens United, corporations have been able to spend money freely on elections, and often do so by giving funds to ‘dark money’ organizations not required to disclose the identities of their donors,” said Lisa Gilbert, Director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch. “But investors have a right to know how their money – a corporation’s profits –– is being spent. The trouble is, there is no requirement that companies share this information. This commonsense legislation would make that requirement a reality.”

"If the Supreme Court is going to say that corporations are people, a proposition with which we strongly disagree, then let's at least let the actual human beings who own the corporation, the shareholders, know if and when their money is being spent on elections," said U.S. Public Interest Research Group Democracy Advocate Blair Bowie. "It's long been held by bi-partisan consensus that the American people have the right to know who is trying to influence our votes. We applaud Rep. Meng for her work to bring post-Citizens United dark money into the light."

The Citizens United case was a Supreme Court decision in 2010 (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) which ruled that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as American citizens to independently spend unlimited amounts of money for or against candidates seeking public office.