Pass S. 223!

It's the final weeks before the 2008 Senate elections and you want to find out which companies are contributing to the candidates. How much is the telecom industry dumping into Norm Coleman's campaign coffers? What about the lobbyists giving to Mitch McConnell's campaign? Guess what? Thanks to outdated rules, Senate campaign finance information takes weeks, if not months, to reach the public after it is disclosed. Now it's time to change that.

The Sunlight Foundation launched a new web site, Pass223.com, to help pass a bill -- S. 223, the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act -- sponsored by Russ Feingold to increase the timeliness of campaign finance disclosure in the Senate by requiring senators to file their campaign contribution reports electronically. Please follow the link to Pass223.com and call your senators to find out where they stand on S. 223. The site has full instructions on who your senators are, how to call, what to say, and how to report back to the Sunlight Foundation.

Currently, presidential candidates and candidates running for the House of Representatives file their campaign contributions in electronic form. Electronic filing speeds the process by which campaign contribution data reaches the public over the Internet, allowing citizens and journalists to more easily spot a conflict of interest or an inappropriate contribution. Filers in the Senate do not file electronically, delaying disclosure by weeks and possibly months.

Passage of S. 223 appears to be a "no-brainer," and isn't publicly opposed by any senator. However, at every step of the way over the past year and a half the bill has been interrupted and blocked by Republican senators.

Right now, Sen. John Ensign of Nevada is blocking the bill, insisting on adding a poison pill amendment. This poison pill is meant to protect senators from legitimate ethics complaints filed by outside groups. The amendment would impose an unconstitutional burden on charities, religious organizations and other nonprofits by forcing them to disclose their donors when they file ethics complaints against sitting senators. Ensign's amendment is opposed by a group of non-profits, religious groups, and charities from the right and the left.

Here's a video I made earlier this year explaining S. 223 and the Ensign amendment:

If you want to know who is giving money to Mitch McConnell, Norm Coleman, Ted Stevens, Susan Collins, and all the other senators and challengers facing election this year, S. 223 has to pass and Ensign's amendment must be defeated. To do that, we need your help in identifying senators who OPPOSE Ensign and SUPPORT S. 223. This is a great chance to help pass a long overdue bill.

Go to Pass223.com and get started calling your senators (remember, you have two of them). Don't forget to report back so that we know where these senators stand on increasing campaign finance disclosure.

Pass223.com is a joint project of the Sunlight Foundation, Public Citizen, Public Campaign, Center for Responsive Politics, Campaign Finance Institute, Change Congress, and Open the Government.

Comments

[tea in the harbor]

Russ is my Senator, and I applaud his efforts to open the records of our elected officials.
The problem is that it goes nowhere near far enough.
Our Constitution guarentees free speech to the People, not corporations. As far as I can see, they have no legitimate role in elections under that document. Unless there is a clause missing from my copy. That would make it the case that their campaign donations are unlawful tampering with our elections.
What we need is a law that restricts campaign contributions to those given a legitimate role in elections. (ie citizens with the right to vote.) Lobbiests should be relegated to the role of an information service for legislators, and the accuracy of their information should be publicly tracked with appropriate penalties for misinformation.