September 20, 2014
Dropping the rule requiring publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending from the unified agenda greatly weakens the SEC's oversight ability.
After the Supreme Court’s absurd 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. 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. 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.
How is corporate money "speech", when the people who contributed the money have no say in how their money is used? Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Edwina White