Crow Leads DISCLOSE Act to Restore Transparency in Government
AURORA — Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO), Co-Chair of the End Corruption Caucus, helped introduce the DISCLOSE Act, legislation to combat special interest control in our elections and promote greater transparency over financial disclosures.
“Corporate special interests are hiding behind loopholes to influence our elections. It’s distorting our politics and screwing over working Americans,” said Congressman Crow. “I’ve fought for years to get dark money and corrupt special interests out of our politics, and this bill helps do that. Elected officials should work for their voters, not billionaire donors, special interests, or big corporations.”
This bill, led by Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH), has the support of leading pro-democracy and anticorruption organizations, including Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy Defenders Action, Public Citizen, Democracy21, End Citizens United, Common Cause, Center for American Progress, and the Brennan Center.
The DISCLOSE Act would restore transparency in American elections and restore fairness and accountability in our political system by:
- Requiring super PACs, 501(c)(4) “dark money” groups, corporations, and other organizations spending more than $10,000 in elections and on judicial nominations to promptly disclose donors who contribute more than $10,000;
- Shutting down the use of transfers between organizations to cloak the identity of the original contributor;
- Strengthening prohibitions against foreign actors participating in election spending in the United States, including in state and local referenda;
- Prohibiting the establishment of corporations to conceal election contributions and donations by foreign actors;
- Expanding “stand by your ad” disclosure requirements to online ads and ads that may promote or attack a candidate but stop short of expressly advocating for a vote for or against a candidate; and
- Requiring identification of top funders of outside groups paying for video, text, or audio political ads.
The bill has also been adapted to the modern political ecosystem. The DISCLOSE Act would:
- Capture payments made to social media influencers to promote or oppose a candidate as political spending that must be disclosed and disclaimed;
- Narrow and specify what constitutes threats and harassment to qualify for an exemption to disclosure, and put commonsense guardrails on the process to grant such exemptions; and
- Allow more flexibility for disclaimers for short political ads instead of limiting it to hyperlinks.
Throughout his time in Congress, Congressman Crow has stood up to special interests and has not taken a dime of corporate PAC money. He is leading the fight to root out corruption in our elections, including through his End Dark Money Act to crack down on dark money’s influence on U.S. elections and his bipartisan Shell Company Abuse Act to limit foreign interference in U.S. elections.
Crow is also an original cosponsor of the TRUST in Congress Act to ban members of Congress and their families from owning or trading stocks.
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