Disclosure & Transparency

Stephen Spaulding, senior counsel for public policy at good government group Common Cause, told The Daily Beast that disclosure rules are valuable precisely for these scenarios. “Disclosure of Members’ financial holdings is a way for their constituents to evaluate potential conflicts of interest and hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. That’s what the transparency concerning Rep. Luria’s financial holdings in Facebook affords the public in this example,” Spaulding said. He added that proposed reforms “ought to be a pillar of consensus” in Congress.

On April 20, sheriffs’ deputies in Georgia pulled over a bus transporting the women’s lacrosse team from Delaware State University, a historically Black university, and without probable cause brought in drug-sniffing dogs and hand-searched the women’s personal belongings. The officers were white, and almost all of the female athletes and staff Black.

A group of minority-owned media, civil rights, and public interest groups today filed a petition for rulemaking at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for new data collection and reporting on the diversity of content vendors used by FCC-licensed media and telecommunications companies.  FUSE, LLC, an independent, Latino-owned entertainment company dedicated to empowering young, multicultural voices, led the group that included Common Cause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Public Knowledge, and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry.  The petition proposes establishing a new report that tracks the diversity of content vendors used by FCC licensees, including on traditional platforms like broadcast, cable, and satellite TV, along with affiliated streaming services, like Disney’s Hulu+Live TV and Disney+, Amazon’s Prime, Fox’s Tubi and Alphabet/Google’s YouTube TV.

Aaron Scherb Common Cause Director, Legislative Affairs: Scherb co-led an umbrella advocacy group made up of 240 organizations to push for passage of the For the People Act, a comprehensive voting-rights package that Republicans opposed.

Today at 2:00 p.m., the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance’s Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight will hold a hearing on current laws and enforcement governing the political activities by tax exempt “dark money” groups. Beth Rotman, Common Cause Director of Money in Politics and Ethics, submitted written testimony to the subcommittee for today’s hearing record, detailing how a lack of enforcement by both the IRS and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has allowed “dark money” groups to evade existing disclosure laws related to political spending.

John M. Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, hailed the Supreme Court decision saying, “It’s good news for Rhode Island because it means that this fall Rhode Islanders will know the sources of money trying to influence their voters.” Marion described the 2012 Rhode Island law as “groundbreaking,” saying it was modeled after the proposed “DISCLOSE Act” introduced by US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat. Marion said the US Supreme Court was closely divided in the Citizens United case, but at the same time, eight of the nine justices upheld disclosure requirements – thereby rejecting the idea that the First Amendment protects the anonymity of donors in independent spending. “The Supreme Court has historically been very supportive of disclosure of campaign finance as a protection against corruption,” Marion said. “That is why this is important that the law remains strong.”