Senate Rules Committee Vets DISCLOSE Act

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The Senate Rules Committee is holding a hearing Thursday on the DISCLOSE Act, a bill that would require the Super PACs, corporations, unions and nonprofits who can directly fund political ads to better identify the source of that funding in those ads.

The bill is a pared-down version of a bill introduced following the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision allowing such funding of electioneering ads in the run-up to federal elections.

In written testimony for the hearing, the Sunlight Foundation, which tracks political spending and backs the enhanced disclosures, says the latest version of the bill, which focuses on disclosure, does not chill speech, but instead "shines a light on the dark money now infecting the our elections."

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.