Subject: File No. 4-637

February 3, 2013

Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:

It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
 
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.

Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.  ALL money contributed to any political campaign, including that contributed to "issue-oriented" campaigns should have the list of contributors forced to be made public.

Thank you for considering my comment.

 

Sincerely,

Walter Birdwell