We should at least make Big Money transparent

The funding of American politics is entering a new era - the likes we have never seen before. How did we get here? Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court paved the way for a radical change in how political campaigns operate, opening the door to an unfettered, unregulated influx of money into elections from corporations, labor unions and wealthy individuals.

This is not a return to the "bad ol' days" of Watergate, but a new era of exponentially more unlimited and undisclosed campaign spending. In the wake of the game-changing Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision and the subsequent District Court ruling in the Speech Now v. Federal Election Commission case, outside groups often called "super PACs" have proliferated, fundamentally changing the relationship between money and politics and stimulating new ways for big donors to influence elections - often in secret.

Super PACs first emerged during the mid-term 2010 elections, when dark money spending to elect or defeat candidates topped $454 million dollars, or about 15 percent of total spending on elections. Most significantly, $126 million of the $454 million spent by outside groups to pay for things like those negative political ads came from groups with secret donors. As of Jan. 17, super PACs already spent more than $24 million on the presidential race, and that dollar figure increases every day.

The Supreme Court believes that disclosure is the cure to these ills. In its Citizens United ruling, the court even prescribed online transparency as the antidote to address any concern about the new landscape of campaign finance it created.

"With the advent of the Internet," Justice Kennedy wrote, "prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters."

With all due respect to the justices, the disclosure regime they referenced does not yet exist, but it can.

Congress has yet to legislate a meaningful disclosure system. (Its last legislative effort on this front, the DISCLOSE Act, passed in the House but died in the Senate in late 2010, one vote short of overcoming Republicans' obstruction.) Whether or not any legislators have since fought for the necessary campaign finance transparency is moot; no bill has yet to be introduced by either party in the 112th Congress.

Congress should immediately create a robust, rapid transparency regime that takes full advantage of technology. This requires real-time, online transparency on every level of influence, from independent expenditures to lobbying to bundled campaign contributions.

To help spark a dialog about what a proper legislative response to the proliferation of unaccountable super PACs should be, the non-partisan Sunlight Foundation has drafted the Stop Undisclosed Payments in Elections from Ruining Public Accountability in Campaigns Act (the SUPERPAC Act). This bill, if enacted, would be one step toward addressing the corrupting influence unlimited, secret super PAC money has on our elections and our elected officials. It would:

• Ensure disclosure of donors who fund independent expenditures and electioneering communications made by Super PACs or other 501(c) organizations. Donors giving to an organization for other purposes may remain anonymous if the organization establishes separate accounts for non-election related spending.

• Require real-time, online disclosure of all reports. Data must be in searchable, sortable, machine-readable formats and reports must include unique IDs for all filers.

• Require disclaimers and identification of top funders in the ad.

• Require registered lobbyists to report their spending on independent expenditures and electioneering communications.

• Require all candidates and committees to file electronically with the Federal Election Commission.

Voters have a right to information that will tell them whether the Super PAC that paid for an ad they just watched was paid for by a corporation, union or other special interest to whom the candidate will be beholden if he or she is elected.

Gabriela Schneider is communications director for The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan non-profit dedicated to making government transparent and accountable.