ARA, others oppose DISCLOSE Act

Washington-The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) on May 20 joined more than 85 other trade associations and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in opposition to H.R. 5175, the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act. The organizations sent a letter to the House criticizing the campaign finance reform bill, which was drafted in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling in January that lifted some restrictions on the corporate funding of elections. The DISCLOSE Act, according to ARA, would place new limits on contributions to political campaigns and make public the names of all donors and their contributions to campaigns. In a May 20 letter to the House, ARA and the other groups charged that the DISCLOSE Act “would create a thicket of new regulatory requirements for American businesses.” They faulted several of the bill’s provisions, including one that they said imposes “an outright ban on campaign-related activity by companies that have contracts with the federal government valued at $50,000 or more.” The letter also charges that the bill would place similar “unconstitutional” prohibitions on corporations with as little as 20 percent foreign ownership. “The bill imposes no comparable restrictions on labor unions that receive federal grants, negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the government, or have international affiliates, even though unions and their political action committees are the single largest contributor to political campaigns and claim to have spent nearly $450 million in the 2008 presidential race,” the letter charges. “Unions, businesses, and individuals all have a constitutionally protected right to free speech that has been upheld by the Supreme Court,” said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue. “The DISCLOSE Act would undermine that protection and would allow for only the voices of politically favored groups ?Çô such as big labor unions ?Çô to be heard in national debates. It’s unconstitutional. It’s un-American. And it must be stopped.” A spokesman for Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), one of the bill’s main sponsors, along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), countered those claims, saying the bill “treats labor unions and corporations the same, plain and simple. The ban on political expenditures by federal contractors, for example, includes any entity that has a contract with the federal government, whether it is a corporation or a labor union.” Sources said the bill may be slated for floor action as early as Friday, May 28, just before the congressional recess begins. Van Hollen and Schumer reportedly want to send the bill to the president’s desk by the July 4 recess in order for it to go into effect before the midterm elections. President Obama criticized the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, and has indicated support for the DISCLOSE Act.