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Common Cause is pleased to announce that two Common Cause veterans have stepped into the role of vice president at the government watchdog. Longtime Common Cause leader Kathay Feng will step into the role of Vice President for Programs and Stephen Spaulding is returning to Common Cause from his role as Policy Director of the U.S. Senate Rules Committee and will serve as Vice President for Policy & External Affairs. Together the two will help lead Common Cause’s national efforts to reduce barriers to a more representative democracy. They will also support efforts for the organization’s 30 state operations working to create a 21st Century democracy that works for everyone.

Just days before the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual meeting in Austin, Common Cause and the Center for Media and Democracy released a new report uncovering the recent influence of the secretive special interest lobbying group in the Texas legislature.

Just days before the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual meeting in New Orleans, Common Cause released a new report uncovering the recent influence of the secretive special interest lobbying group in the Louisiana legislature.

ExxonMobil became the latest company to announce it is cutting ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a secretive corporate lobbying group. According to a report by Bloomberg News, the oil giant is leaving the organization due to disagreements over climate change policy.

The American people do not expect that their charitable contributions will be used for partisan political ends. The tax bill amendment offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) and passed on a party-line vote expands the bill’s previous rollback of the Johnson Amendment – buried more than 400 pages into the legislation – to now allow all charities to enter partisan politics, including well-funded front groups like the American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC). This takes the bill beyond just a massive giveaway to the nation’s billionaire class to now allow wealthy special interests to manipulate the charitable sector for partisan political ends, all with a subsidy from American taxpayers.