U.S. Sen. Tom UdallU.S. SENATE News:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), author of the For the People Act and the Democracy for All Amendment, reiterated the need for strong transparency requirements for dark, secret money campaign contributions in a comment submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with 16 of his colleagues.
The comment urges the commissioner of the IRS to reverse the agency’s new rule allowing political advocacy groups to stop disclosing donor lists to the IRS and Treasury Department.
In the 2018 alone, $100 million in secret, so-called “dark money” from unknown sources influenced U.S. elections. Tax-exempt political advocacy groups designated as 501c(4)s are not required to disclose donor lists to the public, only to private filings to the IRS and Treasury Department. The rise of dark, secret money in politics means the American people cannot be sure if a candidate will be responsive to them or to financial campaign backers like special interest groups, wealthy individuals or possibly foreign interests. The IRS’s rule change strips the last layer of accountability for groups using dark money, no longer even requiring that these organizations disclose their donors to the government.
“Americans have a right to know who is paying to influence our democracy. Rolling back transparency standards is wrong and it undermines our political system, which rests on the idea that each voter has an equal say in our democracy. As foreign adversaries ramp up their efforts to target our elections and look for new ways to influence our democracy, we need stronger rules for transparency and accountability in campaign finance, not weaker ones. For these reasons, and the issues discussed below, we strongly urge you to reject the proposed rule,” the senators wrote.
“Both Congress and executive agencies like the IRS should be focused on exploring ways to increase transparency in our political system. Instead of engaging in rule-making to increase the amount of dark money in our system, the IRS should require political nonprofits to record all of their donors over $5000 and share that information with the public,” the senators noted.
Udall has led efforts to remove money from politics. In March, Udall introduced the Democracy for All Amendment, a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and other disastrous court decisions, help get big money out of politics, and put power back in the hands of the American people. Udall also introduced the For The People Act in March, a sweeping package of comprehensive reforms that would end special interest corruption of our politics, make government work for the people, and secure American elections from foreign interference.
In addition to Udall, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The full text of the comment can be found HERE.