Sunday, May 20, 2012
Coming in response to a White House executive order that was never implemented, a bill is now moving through the U.S. Senate that would prevent the disclosure of campaign contributions by government contractors.
S. 1100, the bizarrely named “Keeping Politics Out of Federal Contracting Act,” would prevent the public from learning of any political spending on campaigns and elections by a contractor during the time it receives taxpayer dollars.
The bill cleared its first hurdle this week when the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved it.
Supporters of the legislation said it was needed to combat an executive order proposed by President Barack Obama in April 2011 that would have required federal agencies to collect information about federal contractor spending on elections.
When a draft of that executive order was leaked, however, the Chamber of Commerce and its cronies in Congress raised objections. So the rule has not been put into effect, critics of S. 1100 point out.
The American League of Lobbyists has taken a position similar to that of the contractors, claiming that being required to disclose their political donations would inhibit the ability of lobbyists to do their job.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
To Learn More:
POGO Opposes Legislation Allowing Contractors to Pay-to-Play in Secret (by Suzanne Dershowitz and Angela Canterbury, Project on Government Oversight)
Sanctioning Corruption in the US Senate (by Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight Foundation)
Flawed Logic, Extraordinary Irony Abound in Lobbyists' Arguments Against Contractor Disclosure Directive (by Ben Freeman, Project on Government Oversight)
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