December 5, 2013
I’m an ordinary citizen concerned about the corporate takeover of our democracy.
Nearly 700,000 comments have been submitted to you, the SEC, urging your agency to pass a rule requiring that a corporation’s election spending be disclosed to its shareholders (a.k.a. its actual owners) and to the public.
The public demand was so strong that you put issuing such a rule on your official to-do list for 2013. But you never got around to issuing the rule this year. And you just released your agenda for next year, which does not include passing a rule requiring that a corporation’s election spending be disclosed.
Because of the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” ruling, corporations can spend as much as they want trying to tilt elections toward candidates who will put profits before people.
And the lack of disclosure means the public — and even a corporation’s own shareholders — are kept in the dark when executives funnel corporate money into partisan political machines.
Please put transparency in corporate political spending back on your agenda.
Thank you for your consideration on this matter.
Mark Harris
Horsham, PA