Al Franken: “The fact is, after Citizens United, the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies will be able to spend as much as they…”

“The fact is, after Citizens United, the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies will be able to spend as much as they want in our elections, even if they are under foreign control. President Obama alluded to this in his State of the Union Address, and Justice Stevens said it explicitly in his dissent. More and more American companies are coming under foreign ownership and control. According to the Congressional Research Service, between 1998 and 2007, there was a 50-percent increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions where a foreign firm acquired a U.S. firm. But our laws are out of date. They do not protect against election spending from those foreign-controlled companies. There are basically only three restrictions on election spending by foreign companies: One, you cannot be headquartered or incorporated abroad. The subsidiary has to be headquartered here, such as BP America. You cannot use money you have earned abroad in our elections. You can use money earned here. You cannot let foreign citizens decide how to spend that money. But the boards of these companies kind of know how, Citgo, say, might want to spend its money. One company that could pass the test and spend unlimited amounts of their money in our elections is Citgo, 100-percent owned by Hugo Chavez and the Venezuela Government. Here is another company that can pass the test: British Petroleum or, rather, its subsidiary, British Petroleum America. This is unacceptable.”