Should Corporations Disclose Their Political Contributions to Shareholders? (H.R. 5670)

What is H.R. 5670?

(Updated January 31, 2019)

This bill would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue regulations to require public corporations to disclose political expenditures. Under current law such disclosures to shareholders are voluntary, although corporations must abide by Federal Elections Commission reporting rules.

Argument in favor

Corporations have an outsize influence when it comes to political spending, and many don’t disclose their political expenditures to their shareholders. This bill protects shareholders by ensuring they’re aware of how politically active companies they’ve invested in are.

Argument opposed

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) already requires that companies file reports with it when they spend their own money advocating for the election or defeat of a candidate — if shareholders want to see companies’ political spending they can view those reports.

Impact

Public corporations; political campaigns; and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Cost of H.R. 5670

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Sponsoring Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) introduced this bill to require publicly-traded corporations to disclose their political expenditures to shareholders:

“The Citizens United decision unfortunately opened the door for large corporations, even foreign-controlled ones, to spend unlimited amounts of money on influencing American elections… Unfortunately, Congress has recently prevented the SEC from requiring political disclosures for corporations and that must change. The public has a right to know how powerful, multinational corporations are spending money to influence our political process.”

Of Note: In recent spending bills, Congress has included language to prevent the SEC from implementing new reporting requirements regarding the disclosure of political contributions. This bill would overturn this restriction.

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) Press Release