May 9, 2015
I'm a US citizen who lived in Cambodia for 20 years, working with democracy and human rights groups most of the time. The US had a lot to say about how a democracy should be run.
Then I came back home and was appalled by how low our own democracy has fallen, with huge amounts of money poured into elections, much of it not even traceable, and much of it coming from companies using company profit for political purposes without shareholder oversight.
The SEC has a duty to protect investors and improve the transparency that can protect our economy, and you have the authority to issue a rule requiring disclosure of political contributions by publicly traded companies.
Please do this ASAP, so that there is a rule on this as per file number 4-637 by the end of May 2015. It will strengthen both our investment environment and our democracy - there are no downsides, except to corporations that want to secretly use their shareholders' money to buy political influence, perhaps even for things of which the shareholders would not approve.
Thank you, and I will look forward to information as to when the rule has been placed on the unified agenda.
Janet H Ashby