Chris Van Hollen: “I want to start by thanking Chairman Brady, Ms. Lofgren, and the other members of the committee, as well as Chairman…”

“I want to start by thanking Chairman Brady, Ms. Lofgren, and the other members of the committee, as well as Chairman Conyers, Mr. Nadler, and those on the Judiciary Committee, and to Mike Castle and all the other cosponsors of this legislation, which addresses the very serious threats to our democracy created by the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, which in a very radical departure from precedent said that major corporations, including foreign-controlled corporations operating in the United States, will be treated like American citizens for the purposes of being able to spend unlimited amounts of money in our elections. This bill addresses this issue in three ways. First we say, if you're a foreign-controlled corporation--if you are British Petroleum, if you are a Chinese wealth fund that controls a corporation here in the United States, if you are Citgo, controlled by Hugo Chavez, you have no business spending money in U.S. elections overtly or secretly. And if we don't do something about that now, they will be able to do either of those things. Number two, we say if you are a Federal contractor, if you are getting over $10 million from the American taxpayer or you are AIG, you shouldn't be recycling those moneys into elections to try and influence the body that gave you the contracts because there is a greater danger of corruption in the expenditure of those moneys. Third, we require disclosure.…”