McCain Feingold Act

Throughout our history, we have taken comfort in the belief that the brilliance of our Constitution, the security provided by our oceans, our natural resources and general good fortune have protected the United States from democratic backsliding. But during the last several years, we have discovered how truly fragile our democracy turns out to be, how norms that we thought were inviolate could be broken with seeming impunity, and how vulnerable our system is to the deluge of special interest money.

For this reason, I have made strengthening our democracy and ending dark money expenditures a hallmark of my service in Congress. One of the very first pieces of legislation I introduced when I came to Congress was the House version of the landmark McCain-Feingold Act — the bill banning soft money and setting reasonable limits on contributions.

That bipartisan bill closed a gaping hole in campaign finance law that allowed outside groups to spend unlimited amounts of “soft” money on so-called issue ads that were, for all intents and purposes, campaign ads. But as we closed one loophole in the campaign finance laws, large corporations and PACs found new ways in: through dark and anonymous money funneled into our elections via Super PACs. This was a practice made possible by a long line of misguided Supreme Court decisions going back to Buckley v. Valeo.

In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that money was the equivalent of speech, and that Congress needed a compelling state interest to limit campaign expenditures. It upheld contribution limits to candidates, but allowed unlimited spending on independent expenditures on behalf of the same candidates. Sadly, this has become a distinction without much of a difference, and the practice has been made far worse by the Court’s subsequent decision in Citizens United, unleashing unlimited spending by special interests and without any transparency.

This is why I have introduced the Democracy For All Amendment, a landmark constitutional amendment which would overturn the court decisions that have permitted unrestricted political spending and dark money to poison American democracy. My amendment would distinguish between people and corporations, prohibiting the latter from spending unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, allow limits on expenditures, and ensure states can enact public campaign financing systems to restrict the influence of corporations or wealthy individuals.

In short, the amendment would make clear the Constitution does not limit Congress’ or the states’ power to set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others.

The 2020 federal elections included at least $100 million in dark money expenditures. As we approach the 2024 election cycle that number is only projected to grow. The Democracy for All Amendment can help stop this escalating trend in dark money spending, and return power to the voters.