A bill that would have required so-called dark money groups to reveal their donors was blocked by Republicans.
The Democracy is strengthened by the Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act, which requires political nonprofits and super PACs to reveal donors who have contributed more than $10,000. Money spent on ads supporting or opposing judicial nominees is subject to the measure.
49 Republicans voted against the legislation. The Republican senator from Idaho didn't vote.
The bill was first introduced in 2010 by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The nonprofits are not required to reveal their donors. Federal campaign finance disclosure laws don't apply to Super PACs, which are funded by dark money groups.
Whitehouse believes the GOP's opposition is a sign of the party's dependence on dark money.
Whitehouse said that the Republican party has become dependent on dark money. Even though my colleagues know that the public dislikes this stuff, they still try to paint us as a dark-money party. They don't have a choice but to vote against the act.
At least 10 times in the past 12 years, Republicans have succeeded in blocking the bill from reaching the necessary 60 votes to open debate on legislation, including with two separate votes in 2010, two in 2012 and an amendment to the budget in 2015.
The For the People Act was a sweeping elections and campaign finance bill that Republicans blocked last year.
McConnell once compared efforts to reveal dark money groups' donors to the creation of a modern day Nixonian enemies list. He said the bill would undermine the First Amendment.
Insider talked to a few Republican senators about their opposition to the bill.
The NAACP's local affiliate in Alabama was blocked from revealing its membership lists by the Alabama Supreme Court in a 1959 case.
Cruz said that the NAACP was going to go after the supporters of the group. Democrats have wanted to do this for a while.
"That's the lens through which I think about this and analyze this," he said. I don't want them to be hassled, and harmed, and that's what this bill is about.
Republicans and conservatives have made the argument many times.
Whitehouse said, "If you can't tell the difference between a regular member of the NAACP in the Jim Crow South, with organized violence constant, and a secretive billionaire donor manipulating American democracy through a fake front group, it's going to be very difficult to explain any reality to you
He said there was a huge difference.
Dark money spending has increased since the Citizens United ruling. According to Open Secrets, nonprofits have poured $2 billion into elections, most of which can be linked to dark money groups. Most of the $1 billion in dark money spent in the 2020 election was for Democrats, though dark money has aided Republicans in the past.
President Joe Biden said in a speech on Tuesday that Democrats benefit from dark money spending just like Republicans.
I think sunlight is the best way to kill bugs. Biden acknowledged that it's an issue for both sides. Democrats in the congress support more openness and accountability.
Whitehouse has long held that conservatives have been able to push forward their interests by using dark money to get justices to the Supreme Court. His bill would have required groups to reveal their funders.
Whitehouse's bill applies regardless of political affiliations, and sets the threshold for disclosure at $10,000, meaning that only the wealthiest and most powerful political donors would have faced scrutiny.
The Federal Election Commission requires donors to reveal their identities when giving to political action committees.
Cruz wouldn't say if there's a threshold at which it's in the public interest to know who contributes to political causes.
The senator wanted to know if George Soros' contributions should be public.
The senator from Alabama who voted to block the bill was not aware of its contents when he was asked about it on Tuesday, but he spoke favorably of the idea when he was told about it.
He told you that he was not against people being identified. This business has a lot of money put into it.
He said that he hadn't yet read the bill.
Tuberville said he had to look at the text to see all the details.
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