March 21, 2012
I am a shareholder in BP, Schlumberger, Covance, and about six other publicly traded corporations. It bothers me deeply as a stockholder to know that some of the money of these corporations is being used without my approval and too often against my own interests. Phone calls to my corporations asking to which political campaigns the corporations donated money and how much has been donated are always met by a very polite but very firm refusal to disclose this information.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investor’s money on political activity in secret.
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Both shareholders like myself and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
George E. Milkowski
IL