Everyone has a right to know who is trying to influence our views and our representatives.

Transparency in government is key to a healthy and strong democracy. But since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, hundreds of millions of dollars has been raised and spent through secret money groups, denying Americans’ their right to know who is funding political campaigns. That’s why Common Cause works to strengthen money in politics disclosure laws across the country.

In recent years, we have led successful campaigns to pass new money in politics transparency laws in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California, Montana, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, and numerous other states. Some of these stronger disclosure laws require the campaigns to disclose their top donors in campaign ads, reveal secret money funneled between political groups, and ensure that outside group spending is disclosed.

At the federal level, Common Cause is advocating for several different disclosure reforms, including:

  • Passing the DISCLOSE Act and Honest Ads Act in Congress
  • Petitioning the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to approve a new rule governing secret money groups that abuse the tax law
  • Advocating for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to adopt a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending to shareholders
  • Pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve new rules for broadcasters that increase transparency on political advertisements
  • Petitioning the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to strengthen and enforce disclosure rules
  • Urging the President of the United States to sign an executive order requiring federal government contractors to disclose their political spending
Next Campaign

Enforcing The Rules