January, 23 2012, 04:19pm EDT
Citizens Urge President Obama to Sign Executive Order Requiring Government Contractors to Disclose Political Spending
Public Citizen and MoveOn.org Deliver Petitions With More Than 100,000 Signatures
WASHINGTON
Public Citizen and MoveOn.org today submitted to the White House petitions with more than 100,000 signatures urging the president to sign an executive order mandating full transparency of political spending by government contractors.
Public Citizen and MoveOn.org are asking for President Barack Obama to take up the transparency executive order related to the disastrous U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, during Tuesday's State of the Union address.
"There would be no better time for the White House to stand for full transparency of corporate political spending than during tomorrow's State of the Union address, as the 2012 election cycle begins in earnest," said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen. "The executive order must be signed soon or it will become irrelevant late in the election season."
Even though Congress approved Republican-sponsored riders to various unrelated bills that prohibit the administration from mandating transparency of political spending by government contractors during the bidding process, nothing in these riders would prohibit such disclosures after the contracts are awarded.
Public Citizen has been collecting signatures in support of the proposed executive ever since last summer, when the organization submitted 22,000 signatures to the White House. Public Citizen's petition now has more than 31,000 signatures. MoveOn.org launched its petition drive just in the last few days, appealing for citizens to call on Obama to sign the executive order and declare his support to reverse the damage caused by Citizens United. MoveOn.org's petition currently has more than 69,000 signatures.
"Now that the election season is heating up, Americans are about to see their TVs flooded with attack ads secretly funded by corporations - all thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling," said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org. "The overwhelming majority of Americans want to get corporate money out of our political system, and have the power put back into the hands of the 99 percent. President Obama should use his executive power to help protect our democracy from the overflow of corporate influence, and take a strong stand against big money in politics in his State of the Union address. The American people need to hear from the president that our elections are not for sale."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Trump has picked Harmeet Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She has stated that it must be "made unsafe" for hospitals to provide trans care, and frequently shares Libs of TikTok posts. She intends to target trans people in blue states. Subscribe to support my journalism.
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— Erin Reed (@erininthemorning.com) December 10, 2024 at 8:14 AM
Reed continued:
Dhillon's most prominent work includes founding the Center for American Liberty, a legal organization that focuses heavily on anti-transgender cases in blue states. The organization's "featured cases" section highlights several lawsuits, such as Chloe Cole's case against Kaiser Permanente; a lawsuit challenging a Colorado school's use of a transgender student's preferred name; a case against a California school district seeking to implement policies that would forcibly out transgender students; and a lawsuit against Vermont for denying a foster care license to a family unwilling to comply with nondiscrimination policies regarding transgender youth.
Reed also highlighted Dhillon's attacks on state laws protecting transgender people, as well as her expression of "extreme anti-trans views" on social media—including calling gender-affirming healthcare for trans children "child abuse."
Last year, The Guardian's Jason Wilson reported that the Center for American Liberty made a six-figure payment to a public relations firm that represented Dhillion in both "her capacity as head of her own for-profit law firm and Republican activist."
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