Members of Senate Banking Committee, Former SEC Commissioner Urge SEC Nominees to support Political Disclosure Rule

U.S. PIRG commends the Democratic members of the Senate Banking Committee and the Republican former Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission William Donaldson, who today urged President Obama's new nominees to the SEC to make a corporate political spending disclosure rule a priority during their time in office.

"Following the infamous 2010 Citizens United decision, the past few elections have been flooded by corporate dark money and this secret spending creates real risks for investors who have no way to evaluate how corporations are spending their money. The SEC has a responsibility to protect investors and shed light on this spending," said Elise Orlick, Democracy Associate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

The announcement was made via a letter released this morning. The letter noted that, "We support disclosure policy that brings accountability to shareholders and transparency to corporate political spending. We believe this is consistent with the SEC's requirement for public companies to disclose meaningful financial information to the public."

The proposed disclosure rule has received unprecedented support from numerous sources in recent years. It solicited a record 1.2 million comments from the public on the SEC website, the vast majority of which were supportive. In late August 44 Democratic Senators, another record number, signed a letter to SEC Chair Mary Jo White urging her to approve the rule.

The Senators were joined by former Republican SEC Chair William Donaldson. Former Democratic Chair Arthur Levitt and former Democratic Commissioner Bevis Longstreth have also voiced support for the rule in the past.