Keeping with efforts to protect American elections from foreign influence, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) today voted with the House majority in favor of the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, which passed the House with a vote of 219 to 206. The legislation includes Rep. Pascrell’s amendment that imposes tougher restrictions on political spending by foreign corporations in American campaigns.

“In a single decision the Supreme Court nullified a century’s worth of progress in working toward cleaner elections at all levels of government,” said Pascrell, who was a cosponsor of and voted for the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act. “I am happy that the House has acted before November’s elections to ensure that the American people, and not multinational corporations with near infinite resources, are the ones whose voices are heard loudest in our electoral process.  In particular, we must provide a more stringent guard against foreign influence, especially by foreign governments, in the DISCLOSE Act.”

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission reversed a 100-year-old prohibition against corporations and unions from making political expenditures, such as purchasing TV advertisements, from their general treasuries. The DISCLOSE Act was proposed to strengthen our country’s campaign finance laws in response to that decision.

In its previous form, the DISCLOSE Act would prohibit political expenditures by a corporation that has a single foreign shareholder with a 20 percent or greater ownership.  Rep. Pascrell’s amendment, co-sponsored by Reps. Tom Perriello (D-OH) and Alan Grayson (D-FL), lowered that threshold to five percent if the foreign shareholder is a foreign government, a foreign government official or a foreign government-controlled corporation.  The amendment added an additional prohibition on political expenditures by corporations that have multiple foreign shareholders that control a total of more than 50 percent of the corporation.

Shortly after the Supreme Court’s initial decision, Rep. Pascrell introduced of HR 4522, the Prohibiting Foreign Influence in American Elections Act, along with 45 bipartisan cosponsors. 

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