Anna Eshoo: “I come to the floor this afternoon to offer an amendment to this bill that probably, for most people, as they were tuned…”

“I come to the floor this afternoon to offer an amendment to this bill that probably, for most people, as they were tuned in and listening to the discussion and the debate of the bill, may not have gotten too excited about it because it deals with the innards of an agency. But this amendment, I think, is probably one of the most important parts of the bill, and I'm very pleased that the Rules Committee found it in order. This amendment goes to the heart of our democracy, and it's all about disclosure. We have the opportunity today to secure disclosure in political reporting for the voting public. There's something very sick about our system today. People across the country are deeply and profoundly upset about the undisclosed sums of money that are being poured over and through our political system. And when that happens, it goes right to the heart of democracy. Why? Because it's undisclosed. We do not know who is contributing. We don't know how much they're contributing. We don't even know if foreign countries are involved in this. So this is really a very simple amendment. It's an amendment that adheres to the same principles that many of my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, have supported before, and it works like this: If an organization buys political advertising time on broadcast television, on radio, on cable, or on satellite, they would be required to disclose their large donors, those who give $10,000 or more to air the ad.…”