July 25, 2013
I urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to disclose, publicly and within 24 hours, all their political spending.
Please do so no later than December, 2013.
“Dark money” groups that accept contributions from corporations need not identify their corporate donors publicly. Such groups spent millions of dollars during the 2012 elections.
This loophole is an invitation to secret intervention in U.S. elections by foreign interests.
It furthermore violates its fiduciary duty for the board of a publicly traded corporation to use investors' money for political campaigns.
Shareholders may well NOT agree with a board's choice of candidates to back or to attack. So this secrecy directly undercuts shareholders' ability to police corporate governance.
Of course, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission enables this secret spending, The SEC, however, has the authority to end the secrecy.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to be fully informed of how much corporations spend on politics and for (or against) which candidates.
Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Shining searchlight on what is now secret corporate campaign spending will increase confidence in the U.S. markets.
The S.E.C. should issue a rule requiring prompt public notice of publicly-traded corporations' campaign spending, and do it now.
Sincerely,
Sarah McKee