Subject: File No. 4-637
From: Patricia Vargo

September 18, 2014

What right does the Securities and Exchange Commission have to drop the rule requiring publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending from the unified agenda.

You need to return the rule requiring all publicly traded companies to divulge where all monies they spend for political campaigns and to whom any monies they are given immediately.

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After the Supreme Court’s appalling Citizens United ruling, followed by 2012’s tsunami of election spending, bringing corporate “dark money” into the light should be a high priority for an agency charged with looking out for the interests of investors like me.

Giving CEOs the green light to use our retirement savings and investments as a political war chest for partisan interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is exactly the wrong thing to do.

It would be absurd for a small business owner not to know if his or her company’s money is being spent to help elect politicians. The same holds true for shareholders. Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much corporations spend on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.

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It is your responsibility to see that this is done immediately.  It is bad enough that our Supreme Court is unable to take a neutral stand on political issues but the SEC should certainly be above this.

Sincerely yours,
Patricia Vargo

Thank you for considering my comment.

Patricia Vargo