Sending Office: Honorable John P. Sarbanes
Sent By:
Raymond.O’Mara@mail.house.gov
Support Removal of ‘Dark Money’ Campaign Finance Riders in FY2020
Fight Back Against Undisclosed & Unaccountable Money in Politics
Sign Here
Deadline to sign onto this letter is Friday. March 29 at 5:00 pm
**This is three report language requests**
Current Signers: John Sarbanes, Salud O. Carbajal, Tulsi Gabbard, Juan Vargas, Andy Kim, Joaquin Castro, Jason Crow, Mark DeSaulnier, Andy Levin, Antonio Delgado, Chris Pappas, Alan Lowenthal, C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Eleanor
Holmes Norton, Jan Schakowsky, Elijah E. Cummings, Adriano Espaillat, Anna G. Eshoo, Bobby L. Rush, David N. Cicilline, Julia Brownley, Mark Takano, Zoe Lofgren, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr., Cindy Axne, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Jamie Raskin,
Steve Cohen, Bradley S. Schneider, Ro Khanna, Jerry McNerney, Brendan F. Boyle, Peter Welch, Nanette Diaz Barragán, Mary Gay Scanlon, Carolyn B. Maloney, Dean Phillips, Donald S. Beyer Jr., Sean Casten, Diana DeGette, Julia Brownley, Ayanna Pressley, Ben Ray
Lujan, James P. McGovern, Jimmy Gomez, TJ Cox, Nydia M. Velazquez, Max Rose, Abigail D. Spanberger, Harley Rouda, Peter A. DeFazio, Josh Harder, Pramila Jayapal, Thomas R. Suozzi, Tom Malinwoski, John Yarmuth, Kim Schrier, M.D.
Dear Colleague:
We are writing to request your support for the removal of three policy riders that wrongly promote undisclosed and unaccountable money in our political system. Specifically, the letter asks the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee to exclude
three existing riders that block federal agencies from promulgating rules to require disclosure of certain political spending. Statutory language removing each of these riders was included in the recently passed For the People Act (H.R. 1).
To sign this letter, please complete this form. If you have any questions, please contact Raymond O’Mara (raymond.omara@mail.house.gov) in Representative Sarbanes’ office.
Sincerely,
John P. Sarbanes
Member of Congress
Jason Crow
Member of Congress
Andy Levin
Member of Congress
**
April XX, 2019
The Honorable Mike Quigley The Honorable Tom Graves
Chairman Ranking Member
Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations
Subcommittee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Services
and General Government and General Government
House of Representatives House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Quigley and Ranking Member Graves:
As you begin drafting the fiscal year 2020 Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriation bill, I/we respectfully request that you exclude three existing policy riders that intentionally promote undisclosed and unaccountable money in our
political system.
In prior years, Congress has, through the appropriations process, placed funding restrictions on certain federal agencies that prevent them from promulgating rules designed to promote transparency in our democracy. Specifically, the most recent FY2019 appropriations
bill expressly prohibited the Securities Exchange Commission (Sec. 629), the Internal Revenue Service (Sec. 124) and Executive Branch broadly (Sec. 735) from spending any appropriated funds on efforts to increase transparency of political expenditures and
contributions. In effect, these prohibitions prevent these federal agencies from even considering measures, rulemakings and guidance that could provide the American electorate with greater information about who is spending money in their democracy.
As we know all too well, Americans today view Congress and Washington with deep distrust and cynicism. Driving this doubt is the public’s belief that concentrated, dark money in politics has undue influence on our political system. In fact, a recent survey
found that Americans – from across the political spectrum – identified money in politics as the number one cause for dysfunction in Washington, D.C. In the face of this reality, it would be foolish to perpetuate these ill-conceived policy riders, which have
been cynically advanced to shroud the political activity of some at the expense of the public interest.
For these reasons, we respectfully request you exclude any language identical or similar to Sec. 629, Sec. 124 and Sec. 735 of the FY2019 appropriations bill. Thank you for your consideration of these requests.
Sincerely,
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