February 11, 2012
Dear SEC Commissioners,
Please do not give in to industry pressures on Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act (the Cardin-Lugar Amendment) - and make sure that ALL companies are covered, every country and every project gets reported, and loopholes that would allow large sums of money to go unreported are closed.
My Comment:
I am sure there are completely legitimate and defensible reasons to provide exceptions to Section 1504 for one industry or another. But America is a free society, with a freedom of information act, freedom of the press, and we represent freedom to the world. When we hide information, or are found helping others hide it, then we lose face before the world, and lose a part of what makes America worthwhile. If anything, America should err on the side of freedom of information, and hold our citizens (individual and corporate) to the same standards in international business than we do with US-based contracts. Contracts between private companies and governments (local or abroad) should always be public knowledge.