For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Contact: Adam Bozzi, [email protected], 202-798-5253
Constitutional amendment is introduced in House and Senate
End Citizens United Executive Director Tiffany Muller released the following statement praising the introduction of the ‘Democracy for All’ constitutional amendment designed to overturn Citizens United.
“The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision has been a disaster for our democracy. It fundamentally rigged the system to accommodate the needs of billionaires and corporate special interests, while shutting out the rest of us. There’s no accountability and no transparency.
“This constitutional amendment would limit the corrosive, corrupting influence of money in politics and transfer power back to where it rightfully belongs – with the people. End Citizens United will fight to pass this amendment because it will restore the voices of everyday Americans in our democracy.”
The proposed amendment strikes at the heart of the Citizens United ruling, which opened the door to the creation of Super PACs, as well as a flood of unlimited and untraceable spending in elections. It would affirm the right of the people to pass state and federal laws by restoring Congress’ and the states’ authority to place reasonable limits on political spending. The bill is sponsored by Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22), Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02), and Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08) in the House and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) in the Senate.
Since the 2010 Citizens United decision, Super PACs alone have spent more than $2 billion influencing elections. Their funding comes almost exclusively from less than one percent of the population. Furthermore, the influence of this small group of multimillionaires and billionaires is growing exponentially. According to Politico, about a third of the first 200 people who met with President-elect Donald Trump since his election gave large contributions to support his campaign and other Republicans this election cycle. At the time of the analysis, Politico also found that donors represented about 40% of the people Trump reportedly considered for high-level government jobs.
End Citizens United, a grassroots-funded political action committee (PAC) with 3 million members nationwide, was established in March 2015 to counter the disastrous effects of Citizens United and reform our campaign finance system.