Public Citizen to Senate: Pass the DISCLOSE Act and End ‘Dark Money’ in Federal Elections
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) on Monday reintroduced the DISCLOSE Act, which would shine light on the sources of secretive corporate slush funds flooding into our elections. Public Citizen whole-heartedly supports this effort to expose “dark money” in politics.
“This is a call to Congress that Public Citizen has made over and over since the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous 2010 Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates of secret corporate political money,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. “And we repeat it again: open the books on campaign money.”
Groups and concerned citizens from all across the nation have been calling upon Congress to approve the DISCLOSE Act for years. Citizen petitions, coalition letters, editorials, and letters to the editor have appealed to Congress in each recent legislative session to address the corrupting influence of dark money in elections. In 2021, Public Citizen provided testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration in support of the legislation.
“Public Citizen appeals to the Senate in the strongest terms possible to finally move forward with this extremely popular transparency legislation,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen. “We will try over and over again to get enough Republican support in the Senate to pass the DISCLOSE Act, and lift the veil of secrecy over money in politics. Americans on both sides of the aisle think this is commonsense, there is no reason not to move forward.”