{"id":18756,"date":"2010-06-25T07:55:30","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T13:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18756"},"modified":"2010-06-25T08:18:03","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T14:18:03","slug":"house-oks-transparency-bill-nm-politicos-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/house-oks-transparency-bill-nm-politicos-comment\/","title":{"rendered":"House OKs transparency bill, NM politicos comment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The U.S. Capitol building (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

On a vote of 219-206, the U.S. House passed on Thursday a bill<\/a> aimed at placing new disclosure requirements and limits on corporations and special interest groups in political campaigns.<\/p>\n

The final bill exempts some of the most powerful interest groups \u2013 according to ABC News<\/a> that includes the NRA and AARP \u2013 but here\u2019s what ABC says the bill would do:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe so-called\u00a0Disclose Act\u00a0requires the heads of companies, unions and nonprofit groups to appear personally in any sponsored political ads and endorse the message. It would also require them to reveal the names of the top five donors who helped foot the advertising bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cForeign companies and those that hold lucrative U.S. government contracts or that have benefitted from federal bailouts would be banned from engaging in any independent political activity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

New Mexico\u2019s three House members \u2013 all Democrats \u2013 voted for the bill, which now heads to the Senate for consideration. Here\u2019s what they and others from New Mexico had to say about it.<\/p>\n

From U.S. Rep. Harry Teague<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis bill shines a light on special interests and fly-by-night groups looking to manipulate and influence American elections. Without the DISCLOSE act, there is nothing stopping big corporations and limitless corporate money from anonymously drowning out the voices of American citizens. This is a commonsense bill that requires corporations to stand by their ads.\u00a0 Anyone who thinks it\u2019s OK to allow big corporations and foreign entities to secretly spend millions to influence American elections is out of touch with 89 percent of Americans and cares more about politics than protecting the basic principles of our democracy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From U.S. Rep. Martin Heinrich<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DISCLOSE Act closes some of the biggest election loopholes created by the\u00a0Citizens United\u00a0case<\/a>, the Supreme Court decision that gave the green light to unlimited political influence by Wall Street banks, credit card companies, Big Oil, and insurance companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur government belongs to the American people, not foreign corporations and powerful special-interest groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the\u00a0Citizens United\u00a0case erased 100 years of campaign finance reform, there became an urgent need for Congress to begin restoring accountability and transparency in the election process.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur nation\u2019s democracy is founded on the right to vote and the ability of every citizen to participate in that process equally. Ordinary Americans deserve that kind of transparency and to know who\u2019s trying to influence their vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis DISCLOSE Act is not perfect, but it will increase the integrity of our political process by providing the toughest-ever disclosure laws for big money interest campaign spending; doing so is fundamental to the future of our nation\u2019s Democracy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecial interest groups seeking to influence elections must be accountable to the American people. This legislation increases transparency, improves accountability, and makes sure that elections are not subject to the influence of foreign entities.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce<\/a>, the Republican who is challenging Teague this year:<\/p>\n

\u201cHarry Teague and his Democrat colleagues are rushing legislation forward to stifle political debate in an effort to protect themselves in the upcoming election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is yet another sign that Harry Teague has given up on New Mexico and is more concerned about his own self-preservation.\u00a0Like his support of the Employee Free Choice Act, he has proven to worry more about Washington special interests and less about the citizens of New Mexico.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From state Democratic Party spokesman James Hallinan, in response to Pearce\u2019s statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cSteve Pearce has made it clear that instead of pushing for campaign finance transparency and accountability, he is standing with the big corporations on this issue.\u00a0Pearce wants to keep the door open for interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to come in and do the dirty work by anonymously spending unlimited sums of money to benefit his campaign.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Update, 8:15 a.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Tom Mullins<\/a>, the Republican challenging Luj\u00e1n this year:<\/p>\n

\u201cRep. Lujan votes to take away your Constitutional rights to become a grassroots activist. We need transparency and ethical honest leadership from our representative. I agree with many who have characterized this law as the \u2018Incumbent Protection Act.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: On a vote of 219-206, the U.S. House passed on Thursday a bill aimed at placing new disclosure requirements and limits on corporations and special interest groups in political campaigns. Here’s what New Mexico politicians had to say about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[109,116],"class_list":["post-18756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics-reform","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}