Archive for the ‘Congress’ Category

March30

Money and Democracy Update: $3 billion in ads, taking it to the SEC

By: Angela Bradbery

"Public Citizen Money and Democracy"Stunning Statistics of the Week

$3 billion: The estimated amount that media companies and their local stations will receive for running political ads this year

It’s not too late to launch a drive for a resolution in your town!
Activists across the country are hosting organizing parties next week to spearhead efforts in their cities and towns to pass local resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which gave the green light for corporations to spend unlimited sums to influence elections. Join the campaign! Sign up now to find an organizing party in your area. Or, if there is no organizing party in your area, host one yourself.

Taking it to the SEC
It’s not often that you see a rally outside the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it happened this week. Representatives from Public Citizen, Common Cause and the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending joined New York City’s public advocate Bill de Blasio in gathering outside the agency to demand that it require publicly traded companies to disclose their political spending. More than 75,000 people have submitted comments to the SEC on the matter.

Amendment resolutions advance in New York, Alaska and Santa Monica
A resolution supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United is advancing through the New York Legislature. The New York Assembly’s Election Law Committee this week gave its seal of approval. In addition, the Alaska Senate recently approved a similar resolution. The city of Santa Monica has approved a resolution as well.

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Posted in: Congress, Money & Democracy Update, Uncategorized0 comments

March28

Spending spotlight

By: Lisa Gilbert

This week has showcased a dire need, a need to spotlight the unregulated money overwhelming our democracy. Reform groups, investors, state elected officials and more have "Lisa Gilbert"demanded that Congress and federal agencies do their jobs and make elections transparent to the people voting in them.

First, on Monday morning organizations and investors gathered to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require publicly-traded companies to disclose contributions when they engage in electoral politics. Today, the DISCLOSE Act will come up for a hearing in the United States Senate.

Both SEC rules and congressional action are critical to closing the gaping loopholes in our system left by the Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) decision and ineffective FEC regulations on the disclosure of political spending.

Polls show the public overwhelmingly supports disclosure. According to a New York Times article on a New York Times/CBS News poll released on October 28, 2010, Americans significantly, “favor full disclosure of spending by both campaigns and outside groups.”

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Posted in: Campaign Finance, Congress, Open Government0 comments

March27

Vote Count for Bill Against Patient Rights

By: Rick Claypool

Photo of a hospital bed.Last week, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, an extreme bill that would severely undermine patients’ rights. The vote was 223-181.

We are extremely disappointed. Christine Hines blogged last week about the damaging impact of this bill, which would let the medical industry to go virtually unpunished when patients are harmed or killed by the industry’s negligence or recklessness.

We put together a vote chart (PDF) so you can find out how your representative voted. Here’s the basic breakdown:

Our efforts to thwart H.R. 5 resulted in a robust, bipartisan opposition. Most Democrats voted no, as did 10 Republicans: Amash (R-Mich.), Duncan (R-Tenn.), Garrett (R-N.J.), Gohmert (R-Texas), Griffith (R-Va.), Johnson (Ill.), Poe (R-Texas), Terry (R-Neb.) and Webster (R-Fla.).

Most Republicans voted in favor of the bill. Seven Democrats joined them: Boren (D-Okla.), Cardoza (D-Calif.), Hochul (D-N.Y.), Kissell (D-N.C.), Matheson (D-Utah), Peterson (D-Minn.) and David Scott (D-Ga.).

Four Republicans voted simply “Present”: Broun (R-Ga.), King (R-Iowa), Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Woodall (R-Ga.).

Twenty-three members (11 Republicans and 12 Democrats) did not vote: Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Austria (R-Ohio), Bachus (R-Ala.), Bishop (R-Utah), Bono Mack (R-Calif.), Brown (D-Fla.), Castor (D-Fla.), Chaffetz (R-Utah), Davis (D-Ill.), Duffy (R-Wis.) Gonzalez (D-Texas), Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Jackson (D-Ill.), Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Lee (D-Calif.), Lowey (D-N.Y.), Manzullo (R-Ill.), Marchant (R-Texas), Marino (R-Pa.), McIntyre (D-N.C.), Paul (R-Texas), Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Thompson (D-Miss.).

Follow this link for a full vote chart (PDF).

Share your thoughts about how your representative voted and the outcome of this vote in the comments below.

And let’s make sure the Senate stops this awful bill.

Flickr photo by Nathan & Jenny.

Posted in: Activism, Congress, Consumer Protection, Health, Regulation15 comments

March22

Senate bunts on STOCK Act

By: Craig Holman

"Craig Holman"One step forward was the name of the game today in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today followed the footsteps of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in both substance and procedure by forcing the Senate to approve a watered-down bill banning congressional insider trading without any chance for amendments to strengthen the measure. It is a victory of sorts – the legislation clearly applies the laws against insider trading to Congress for the first time, and provides a system of near real-time disclosure on stock trading by Congress to help enforce the law.

But it is also a missed opportunity for more sweeping ethics reforms.

Prompted by the leadership of Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the Senate more than a month ago approved by a 96-3 vote a strong “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge” (STOCK) Act that would have banned congressional insider trading, required political intelligence operatives who prowl the halls of Congress for information to use in stock trading to disclose their clients and activities, and provided the means to enforce ethics laws in the courts.

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Posted in: Activism, Congress, Ethics, Open Government, Uncategorized0 comments

March22

The truth about the JOBS Act

By: Lisa Gilbert

The toxic JOBS Act has now passed through both the House and Senate. It is a huge and embarrassing failure of the Congress that a measure such as this could pass with such ease."Lisa Gilbert"

Despite the outpouring of expert, investor and public concerns about the bill, several of the important measures that would have fixed some of the flaws in the bill and incorporated changes proposed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mary Schapiro and institutional investors failed, and the underlying flawed legislation passed.

We do applaud the passage of Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.)’s amendment requiring that crowdfunding investments go through an “intermediary” registered with the SEC. We are saddened by the failure of the Senate to pass Sen. Jack Reed’s (D-R.I.) amendment to improve disclosure at public companies.

The underlying legislation opens the door to great risk of fraud, and will strip the accountability and sunshine requirements that make U.S. markets work better for shareholders and businesses.

Following the 2008 Wall Street collapse, it should be blatantly obvious that we need stronger protections against fraud and stronger guarantees of transparency. We celebrate the senators who tried to push for such protections, and are horrified by how many enabled this to happen. As the bill moves back to the House we hope it can be improved further.

 

Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Congress, Financial Reform, Open Government, Regulation, Uncategorized0 comments

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