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In His First Bill, Crow Cracks Down on Dark Money Spending

January 30, 2019

Crow’s bill would stem dark money spending and increase transparency in elections

As his first piece of legislation, Congressman Jason Crow (CO-06) introduced the End Dark Money Act to crack down on dark money organizations. The bill is designed to stem the flood of dark money in our elections by helping to close the loophole that allows mega-donors to hide their political contributions through so-called "social welfare" organizations. Currently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is forbidden from stopping the abuse of social welfare organizations by mega-donors who use 501(c)s to hide their political contributions. Crow's bill would repeal this prohibition on the IRS to ensure non-profits adhere to their social welfare mission or forfeit their tax-free status.

"Coloradans deserve to know who is trying to influence their vote. Instead, we have a system that allows mega-donors to hide their identities. This is a critical threat to our democracy and yet politicians in Washington have allowed this to go on unchecked while Americans see their voices drown out by corporations and special interests." said Rep. Jason Crow. "This bill strikes at the root of the problem by giving the IRS the tools it needs to prevent mega-donors from using non-profits as vehicles for political contributions. By increasing transparency and accountability in our elections, we are returning power back to voters and restoring Americans' faith in our democracy."

"For too long, mega-donors and big money special interests, operating under the guise of ‘social welfare,' have abused this glaring loophole for their own gain. It's a scheme that's designed to keep the American people in the dark about who's trying to buy influence in our elections. Representative Crow's End Dark Money Act would put an end to this shady tactic. We thank him for his leadership and we look forward to working with him in support of the bill," said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United Action Fund.

"Jason came to Congress to fix our broken political system and make Washington work for the people," said Congressman Sarbanes, the lead author of H.R. 1 and chair of the Democracy Reform Task Force. "He's delivering on that promise today by introducing the End Dark Money Act, an important piece of legislation that will help pull back the curtain on political secret money groups by repealing rotten regulations that block transparency."

"Bad rules at the IRS have allowed bad actors to abuse the system for too long", said Emily Peterson-Cassin, coordinator of the Bright Lines Project at Public Citizen. "Representative Crow's bill finally allows the IRS to make better rules that drive political spending into the light, where it belongs."

A proud co-sponsor of H.R.1, Crow has a long history of fighting for reform and speaking out against the influence of corporations in our elections.