S.E.C. Gets Plea: Force Companies to Disclose Donations
Source: nyt
A loose coalition of Democratic elected officials, shareholder activists and pension funds has flooded the Securities and Exchange Commission with calls to require publicly traded corporations to disclose to shareholders all of their political donations, a move that could transform the growing world of secret campaign spending.
S.E.C. officials have indicated that they could propose a new disclosure rule by the end of April, setting up a major battle with business groups that oppose the proposal and are preparing for a fierce counterattack if the agencys staff moves ahead. Two S.E.C. commissioners have taken the unusual step of weighing in already, with Daniel Gallagher, a Republican, saying in a speech that the commission had been led astray by politically charged issues.
A petition to the S.E.C. asking it to issue the rule has already garnered close to half a million comments, far more than any petition or rule in the agencys history, with the vast majority in favor of it. While relatively few petitions result in action by the S.E.C., the commission staff filed a notice late last year indicating that it was considering recommending a rule.
In response to the growing pressure, House Republicans introduced legislation last Thursday that would make it illegal for the commission to issue any political disclosure regulations applying to companies under its jurisdiction. Earlier this month, the leaders of three of Washingtons most powerful trade associations the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable issued a rare joint letter to the chief executives of Fortune 200 companies, encouraging them to stand against proxy resolutions and other proposals from shareholder activists demanding more disclosure of political spending
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/us/politics/sec-is-asked-to-make-companies-disclose-donations.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130424
[center][font size=4]''Please help us SEC Kenobi you're our only hope!''[/font]
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sofa king
(10,857 posts)Corporations can effectively provide unlimited support to candidates because it is "free speech."
But the free speech itself can be secret and remain undisclosed to the people who fucking own the corporations!?!
That is too simplistic and ridiculous-sounding to be entirely true. Will someone please do me the favor of setting me straight?
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)- You couldn't have it any straighter. Welcome to USA, Inc. Where freedom can be bought, wholesale!!!
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Coservative owned media ignores a petition with a million signatures to sell us Rand Paul, Glenn Beck and Alex Jones. People buy into that but never notice that their heroes are in support of this.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)The GOP House can't block this without help of the Democrat Senate and the POTUS.
I guess the SEC could block it. I think 3/5 of them were Bush appointees.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has five Commissioners who are appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. Their terms last five years and are staggered so that one Commissioner's term ends on June 5 of each year. To ensure that the Commission remains non-partisan, no more than three Commissioners may belong to the same political party. The President also designates one of the Commissioners as Chairman, the SEC's top executive.
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Ooops. Edited my post trying to make it more realistic.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)By the way when I looked at the list for my zip code there were 3 people listed as donating the max, $2500. to romney campaign the day after he won the primary.
Was odd those 3 names, scrambled gibberish names, weren't listed in any phone directory as living here or business owners. Most all my neighbors are small donors, low population middle class zip code.