Rep. Pascrell Blasts The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce For Accepting More Than $300,000 From Foreign Corporations For Political Ads

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) today released the following statement in reaction to a report that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce accepted at least $300,000 from foreign corporations for political advertising before this year's midterm elections.

"Today's revelations regarding the foreign sources of the Chamber of Commerce's massive midterm campaign expenditures is exactly the type of foreign interference in our electoral process that I have been warning against since the Citizens United decision last January," said Pascrell, a House Ways and Means Committee member who immediately responded to the U.S. Supreme Court's unfortunate decision by introducing legislation that would put tougher restrictions of foreign corporate contributions to American political campaigns.

Rep. Pascrell's legislation included in the Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (DISCLOSE) Act, which passed the House in June.

"Because of the Senate's failure to pass the DISCLOSE Act due to a Republican filibuster, the Chamber is not even required to publically report who is funding this campaign, including state and foreign owned corporations. The Chamber claims that it has an internal firewall that prevents foreign donations from being spent on its election activities, but it doesn't take an economist to see that each dollar the Chamber gets from a state owned Chinese or Russian company frees up money in their general account to be spent on American elections this fall. The Federal Election Commission and Internal Revenue Service should immediately investigate the Chamber's campaign spending. American's deserve to have a fair and free election this November, not one that is hijacked by foreign corporations hiding behind the Chamber's veil of secrecy."

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