As expected, Republicans filibustered the DISCLOSE Act last night, as the legislation that would have forced disclosure on political campaign expenditures failed 51-44. Republicans who voted all united against the bill, and they were joined by West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who is sure to have a wide variety of independent expenditure ads funded by secret [...]

On Monday, the Senate will vote – and fail – on a measure to increase transparency in campaign finance. The DISCLOSE Act, which was fashioned in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling but which failed to become law by one vote in 2010, would require large organizations spending over $10,000 on any activities [...]

A year ago, in the wake of the Citizens United decision, the White House floated a plan to issue an executive order which would require federal contractors to disclose their political contributions. This mirrored the kind of transparency they wanted out of the DISCLOSE Act. In the absence of that, this would serve as a [...]

Obviously the case below hasn’t reached the terminus of the judicial gauntlet yet, and given the Citizens United ruling it’s a candidate for being overturned. But the Supreme Court will now be given the opportunity to be as good as their word. In that ruling, they said that any issues with their ruling could be [...]

After Citizens United, which was decided two days after Democrats lost their 60-seat majority in the Senate, there was a push to respond to the Supreme Court ruling with some legislation adding transparency and disclosure to the process. If the Massachusetts race went another way it would have passed; Democrats consistently got 59 votes in [...]

The DISCLOSE Act would have mandated disclosure of most campaign spending. Having failed to achieve that through Congress, Chris Van Hollen is attempting to force the FEC to make certain rules to that effect through a lawsuit. This comes days after a leaked draft executive order which would also force disclosure on campaign spending by [...]

The DISCLOSE Act was one of the more egregious failures of the 111th Congress. Because Republicans held together and obstructed any change to campaign finance laws, Congress offered no response to the Citizens United decision, which led to an explosion in corporate fundraising. The White House was strongly behind the transparency protections of the DISCLOSE [...]

A year ago today, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Citizens United case, which opened the door to a flood of corporate campaign spending in the 2010 election cycle, and promises to unleash more for 2012. Democrats never completed a response to the ruling, despite the President highlighting it in the State of [...]

I can’t believe people are falling for Mark Kirk making moon eyes at the DISCLOSE Act, as if this portends progress for getting the bill passed in the lame duck session. First of all, Kirk will show up in the lame duck, but he’ll replace Roland Burris – who was already a vote for the [...]

Democrats have seized on the Center for American Progress Report that the Chamber of Commerce has taken foreign money from subsidiaries to its 501(c)(6) account, and is also using that account to spend on attack ads in campaigns. Candidates across the country are accusing the Chamber of facilitating foreign money to buy elections. Here’s a [...]

Senate Republicans created another roadblock today, stopping debate on the DISCLOSE Act, a campaign finance bill meant to be a response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The cloture vote was 59-39, one short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill. Republicans were lockstep in opposition. Democrats tried to entice [...]