Obama Pushes Senate To Pass Disclose Act

With the August recess just around the corner, President Barack Obama urged the Senate Monday to pass an upcoming bill aimed at revealing entities responsible for funding respective campaign ads meant to influence elections.

The announcement comes in response to the Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee, where the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that corporate funding, both foreign and domestic, of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited under the First Amendment and the source of income for each broadcast is not obliged to reveal itself.

“These shadow groups are already forming and building warchests of tens of millions of dollars to influence the Fall elections,” Obama said. “Now, imagine the power this will give special interests over politicians.”

The president argued that these corporations will have overwhelming influence over the way Congressmen are voting threatening them with an “onslaught of negative campaign ads” if they do not vote a certain way.

The Disclose Act is a bill Obama said would change this before November’s midterm elections, requiring campaign ads to name their source of funding. Foreign contributors would also be restricted from spending money to influence American elections.

“Nobody is saying you can’t run the ads, just make sure the people know who, in fact is behind financing these ads,” he said.

Obama pushed Senate Republicans to discontinue efforts in preventing this measure from progressing and to vote to pass this legislation when it arrives at the Senate for vote Tuesday.

“This should not be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue, this is an issue that goes to whether or not we’re going to have a government that works for ordinary Americans, a government of, by and for the people,” Obama said. “That’s why these reforms are so important and that’s why I urge the Senate to pass the Disclose Act.”

McCain campaign could face millions in fines

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) General Counsel Joe Sandler hosted a teleconference today to discuss his request that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) put off a vote on whether to release Sen. John McCain from the federal matching funds program. The DNC filed an administrative complaint regarding what they call McCain’s unilateral decision to withdraw from the program without filing a request form with the FEC. If the Arizona senator were found to to be in violation of the law, Sandler says the McCain campaign could face a fine of millions of dollars.

According to federal campaign finance law, candidates may participate in a program in which the federal government matches donations from private campaign contributors. In return the candidates agree to limit their spending according to a statutory formula. However, they can opt out of this program, releasing them from the spending limit, as both John McCain and Barack Obama have done.

A representative of the DNC said that the Committee is asking the FEC to change its agenda tomorrow, instead pursuing a full investigation into McCain’s withdrawal. Sandler said that the appropriate course of action, should it be found that McCain violated the law, is to make the information public in time for the election in addition to administering appropriate financial penalties. He went on to say that if McCain is found to be in violation of the law, he could face penalties amounting to tens of millions of dollars the senator has spent over the $57 million limit since his unilateral withdrawal.

Sandler said he feels that because this is a high-profile matter, the FEC can conduct a swift investigation and issue a ruling before November.