Senate Republicans introduced legislation Thursday aimed at blocking a White House plan that would require companies attempting to do business with the federal government to disclose their political contributions.
Entitled, “The Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act,” the legislation would bar federal agencies from both collecting any political information from companies or using any political information gained from third-party sources in their decision making process.
Senator Susan Collins (R-Me.), who introduced the bill along with Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), said the proposal could “create a perception that politics is something to be considered in selecting the winners and losers among businesses vying for federal contracts.”
McConnell described the plan as a “brazen power grab” and a “political shakedown of American job creators.”
The proposal, which would come in the form of an Executive Order, is widely considered to be a countermeasure to the Supreme Court’s controversial Citizen United ruling, a decision that many critics claim introduces unfiltered corporate influence in elections.
The White House has defended the proposal as a necessary step to ensure transparency.
“I would simply say that disclosure is a good thing,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a briefing earlier this month. “Disclosure used to be something that Republicans supported very much, and I think that the American people support it a great deal.”