WASHINGTON – Today Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley urged swift passage of a Constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, a ruling that opened the floodgates to unlimited secret spending by corporations to influence elections. The proposed amendment – introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) – would allow Congress to regulate the raising and spending of money in elections, including Super PAC independent expenditures.
“Our founding fathers established our American government to be, as President Lincoln summarized, ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.’ That vision is fundamentally inconsistent with the Citizens United ruling, which has unleashed a wave of secret, corporate campaign cash that operates as a stadium sound system drowning out the voice of the people,” Merkley said. “To save our democracy we must rein in this tsunami of special interest cash that is replacing our ‘We the People’ government with a ‘We the Powerful’ reality.”
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