On the recordJuly 17, 2012
I rise in strong support of the DISCLOSE Act. It is important for Americans to know where the money is coming from that supports the political ads appearing on their television screens during election season. This bill is a much needed response to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United--a decision that is resulting in corporate money drowning out the voices of ordinary citizens. In Citizens United, the Supreme Court overruled decades of legal precedent when it decided that corporations cannot be restricted from spending unlimited amounts in Federal elections. The decision was astounding, not just because it was a display of judicial activism but also because it defies common sense for the Supreme Court to conclude that corporations or even labor organizations are citizens, as you or I am, in the eyes of the law. As Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in his dissent, ``corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires . . . they are not themselves members of `We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.'' In the aftermath of the Citizens United decision, special interest groups known as super PACs with innocuous names like ``American Crossroads'' and ``Restore our Future'' are primed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2012 election.…
