WASHINGTON, DC (KERO) — President Joe Biden is pushing Congress to pass a bill aimed at targeting dark money in campaigns. The proposed legislation would require greater transparency into who is behind much of the secretive, often negative, campaign advertising.
The president says the DISCLOSE (Democracy Is Served by Casting Light On Spending in Elections) Act is important to preserving American democracy. In a speech Tuesday, Biden explained what the act would strive to do.
“Advocacy groups that run ads to influence elections would have to disclose any contribution above $10,000 that they received, and foreign entities would be banned from making any contributions for these ads, period,” said Biden.
Biden said the act, partly authored by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, had already been approved by House democrats and that Republicans should join Democrats in moving the act to his desk to be signed into law.
The president’s speech comes one day after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the chamber will take a procedural vote on the DISCLOSE Act on Wednesday.
The legislation is likely to fail due to GOP opposition.
President Biden’s renewed push for funding transparency in campaign advertising comes more than ten years after the same legislation failed to pass in the Senate.
