President Barack Obama has been railing against a recent Supreme Court decision that could result in a flood of corporate-sponsored campaign ads.
Obama to push Hill on foreign cash
By KENNETH P. VOGEL
And a source with knowledge of the administration's interactions with Congress told POLITICO that the White House is also open to proposals to require shareholders to vote before a corporation could spend money in elections, require companies that pay for ads supporting or opposing candidates to more clearly identify themselves in the ads, restrict the ability of companies with big government contracts to air such ads and tighten rules prohibiting outside groups from coordinating their ads with candidates.
The Senate Rules Committee, which Schumer chairs, has scheduled a hearing for Feb. 2 to examine ways to mitigate the impact of the decision as a whole.
Schumer told POLITICO that blocking foreign-controlled corporations from airing ads "is a definite no-brainer, and we're working with the administration to get it done."
Van Hollen said he's working with "a number of lawmakers" on provisions including the one restricting foreign corporate ads, but conceded the group included no Republicans yet. He said the goal is to introduce legislation "within about two weeks" that could be passed and implemented in time for the 2010 midterm elections.
That could be tough, though, both because congressional primaries start next month and because there hasn't been political will for significant campaign finance changes since the 2002 McCain-Feingold act, which was partially overturned by Citizens United. Plus, campaign finance experts say that even if legislation to diminish the impact of Citizens United is approved, the court's ruling was so sweeping that it's likely to view efforts to rein it in skeptically.
But within hours of the decision's release, Obama issued a strongly worded statement blasting the court and vowing to work with members of Congress from both parties "to develop a forceful response to this decision."
Obama also used his weekly address over the weekend to rail against the ruling, and pledge again to work with Congress to roll it back, saying "I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest. The last thing we need to do is hand more influence to the lobbyists in Washington, or more power to the special interests to tip the outcome of elections."
The anti-special-interest rhetoric comes as Obama and Democrats are trying to tap into populist anger that has been directed largely at them, and it also echoes campaign themes that – combined with some specific promises – made Obama a champion of the so-called government reform community.
Yet, through his first year in office, Obama mostly ignored campaign finance issues, even as his administration enacted new transparency requirements and unprecedented lobbying restrictions. While advocates for stricter campaign finance and ethics laws applauded those, they grew frustrated with Obama's inattention to their two top campaign finance priorities: overhauling the Federal Election Commission and the presidential public financing system.
The source with knowledge of the administration's interactions with Congress said the White House doesn't appear to consider the FEC or the public financing overhauls as immediate priorities, and it seems unlikely those will be mentioned in the State of the Union.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.
State Of The Union Speech