On the recordNovember 17, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman. So after the Citizens United decision, that terrible decision, what happened? Special interests were able to spend millions and millions of dollars at a time. They weren't constrained by any limits on what kind of contributions they could make. So we got a lot more money, but we also got something else. We got essentially a political underground in spending. We had this system now where people try and channel their moneys in secret ways to hide themselves from the public. So if we get to vote on the Disclose Act, we will see where we stand on the simple question of whether this body supports transparency, because, honestly, if you have got nothing to hide, you have got nothing to fear. Right now we have these commercials out there. They say, ``Paid for by Committee for a Better America,'' ``Paid for by mom and apple pie,'' but the people who are paying for them don't want the voters to know who they are. They want it to be a closed process. We are asking that they disclose their identity. In fact, in the Citizens United case, eight of the nine Supreme Court Justices said they were for more disclosure. And, in fact, recently, Justice Kennedy, who was one of the five in the 5-4 majority, said that the disclosure that he thought would work is not working. But they said the legislature can always act on this issue and improve the transparency and disclosure of the political process.…
