[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 12 (Thursday, January 21, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S152-S153]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

  Ms. WARREN. Madam President, we have a problem--money. Six years ago 
today, the U.S. Supreme Court made the problem worse, a lot worse. 
Thanks to the Supreme Court, our system of elections is riddled with 
corruption. Money floods our political system--money that lets a 
handful of billionaires shape who gets into Congress and may decide who 
sits in the White House.
  As Congress has become more beholden to billionaires and less worried 
about the American people, look at what has happened in Washington. 
Armies of lawyers and lobbyists flood the hallways of Congress and 
regulatory agencies, urging just a little tilt for every law and every 
rule--a sentence here, an exception there, and always tilted in favor 
of the rich and powerful. Corporate executives and government officials 
spin through the revolving door, making sure the interests of powerful 
corporations are always carefully protected. Powerful Wall Street 
businesses pay barely disguised bribes, offering millions of dollars to 
trusted employees to go to Washington for a few years to make policies 
that will benefit exactly those same Wall Street businesses. 
Corporations and trade groups fund study after study that just so 
happen to support the special rule or the exception that the industry 
is looking for.
  Washington works great for a handful of wealthy individuals and 
powerful corporations that manipulate the system to benefit themselves. 
It works great for the lobbyists and the lawyers who slither around 
Washington day in and day out, handsomely paid to troll for special 
deals for those who pay them. But for everyone else, Washington is not 
working so well, and if we don't change that, this rigged political 
game will break our country.
  Change is needed in many areas, but we can start with how we fund 
elections. In 2012, about 3.7 million Americans gave modest donations--
under $200--to President Obama and Mitt Romney. Those donations added 
up to $313 million. In the same election, 32 people gave monster 
donations to super PACs. Thirty-two people spent slightly more on the 
2012 elections than the 3.7 million people who sent modest dollar 
donations to their preferred Presidential candidates. When 32 people 
can outspend 3.7 million citizens, it is pretty obvious that democracy 
is in real danger.
  We are headed into another Presidential election, and I speak out 
today because I am genuinely alarmed for our democracy. I am genuinely 
alarmed because 6 years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court said that the 
privileged few are entitled under the Constitution to spend billions of 
dollars to swing elections and buy off legislators. Six years ago today 
the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a century of established law and in 
doing so unleashed a flood of secret corporate money into our political 
system.
  The Supreme Court created a big problem, but that does not mean that 
anyone with any integrity must just roll over and play dead. No, it is 
time to fight back. Sure, the Supreme Court has a lot of power, and, 
yes, they have used it to do a huge amount of damage. But even under 
the Supreme Court ruling there is room to fight back against the 
complete capture of our government by the rich and powerful.
  Let's start right here with three examples of what this Congress 
could do right now today--what this Congress could do if we had the 
political courage to stand up to the superwealthy few and a handful of 
corporations.
  No. 1, pass Senator Durbin's Fair Elections Now Act. This legislation 
would create public funding for congressional elections. Imagine the 
contributions of small donors so working families would have a louder 
voice and could begin to compete with the rich and powerful. This is a 
bipartisan solution--well, at least bipartisan outside Washington. 
According to a recent poll, Democrats and Republicans both agreed 
strongly with the idea of citizen-funded elections; 72 percent of 
Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans said yes.
  No. 2, pass the DISCLOSE Act, Senator Whitehouse's bill to force 
super PACs out of the shadows and make them tell where the money comes 
from. According to that same poll, 91 percent of Democrats and 91 
percent of Republicans agree that super PACs and other special 
interests should have to disclose the source of their funding.
  No. 3, pass the Shareholder Protection Act, Senator Menendez's bill 
to force companies to tell their shareholders how much money they are 
giving to politicians and which politicians they are giving it to. This 
is the shareholders' money, and they have a right to know how it is 
spent. If they don't like how the money is being spent, they can put 
somebody else in charge.
  Those are three things Congress could do right now, but there is even 
more.
  No. 4, the President could finalize an Executive order requiring 
government contractors to disclose their political spending. Why should 
companies that do business with the government be allowed to give money 
in secret to benefit elected officials? Seventy-eight percent of 
Democrats and 66 percent of Republicans want to see this done.
  No. 5, the SEC has the authority right now to begin to put together 
rules that would require opinion corporations to disclose the money 
they spent in elections. Despite Republican efforts to try to block 
this rule through a rider in the recent government funding bill, legal 
experts agree that the agency still has all the authority it needs to 
prepare a disclosure rule.
  The public demands action. The SEC has received more than a million 
comments from the people across this country urging the agency to issue 
this rule--88 percent of Democrats and 88 percent of Republicans. That 
is right, 88 percent of both sides support public disclosure of 
political spending.
  Three former SEC Commissioners, one Republican, two Democrats, wrote 
a public letter to Chair Mary Jo White urging her to adopt this rule. 
It is time for the agency to stop making excuses and start doing its 
job.
  No. 6, the FEC has the authority right now to require ads run by 
super PACs include disclosure of the main people or corporations that 
paid for them. If they want to run the country, then the billionaires 
shouldn't be allowed to hide in the shadows. Make them step out in the 
open where the American people can see who is calling the shots.
  There is one more step we can take, a full-blown constitutional 
amendment, such as the one pushed forward by my colleague Senator Udall 
to restore authority to Congress and to the States.
  I have to say, I am reluctant to take on a constitutional amendment, 
but we need to defend our great democracy against those who would see 
it perverted into one more rigged game where the rich and the powerful 
always win, and that means taking every step possible, including 
amending the Constitution.
  These are six ideas that would help bring an end to a corrupt 
political system; six ideas that Congress, the administration, the SEC, 
and the FCC could put together right now.
  A seventh idea is a constitutional amendment that we could begin 
working on today. This Congress doesn't lack for workable ideas for how 
to root out the influence of money in politics. This Congress just 
lacks a spine to do it.
  Six years ago the U.S. Supreme Court turned loose a flood of hidden 
money that is about to drown our democracy. We can blame the Supreme 
Court--heck, we should blame the Supreme Court, but that is no excuse 
for doing nothing.
  A new Presidential election is upon us. The first votes will be cast 
in Iowa in just 11 days. Anyone who shrugs and claims that change is 
just too hard has crawled into bed with the billionaires who want to 
run this country like some private club. All of us were sent here to do 
our best to make government work--to make it work not just for those at 
the top but to make government work for all people, and it is time we 
start acting like it.

[[Page S153]]

  Madam President, I yield back the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.

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