Citizens United

Floor Speech

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. I am here today also to talk about something that is very important to the future of our democracy; that is, campaign finance reform and the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court which had its second anniversary a few days ago.

I see Senator Gillibrand from New York is also here to speak on this important issue. She is a leader. The Presiding Officer has done some very important work in this area as well, which I will get to in a minute. Most fundamentally, I am here to talk about the public lack of trust and our need to ensure that the American people have a government that is responsive to their concerns.

It is vital that the American people have trust and confidence in their government. Right now it is clear they do not have either. The American people believe Washington is focused more on scoring political points for special interests and not looking out for their interests, for the interests of the people of this country, for the interests of the middle class. They have seen the preservation of oil company subsidies while at the same time the price of gasoline has remained painfully high. Simply put, they think the system is broken.

While most people probably do not have the time to study the intricate details of campaign finance law, which unfortunately has loopholes and things written in it that make it hard to figure, the American people have a pretty good sense there is something wrong with how we conduct our elections. The American people know spending on campaigns has gotten out of control and that spending by special interest groups is contributing greatly to that problem--and they are right.

The Supreme Court Citizens United decision has made it profoundly worse by loosening the rules on special interest spending on political campaigns. We are now in a situation where candidates have to report every single contribution they raise over a certain amount. That is good. But literally millions of dollars in special interest money can come in in attack ads, can come in and do whatever it wants, and you literally cannot prove who that person is who put in that money. It shakes the very foundation of our democracy when the people who are voting in these elections cannot even tell where the money is coming from that is paying for the ads.

Citizens United has unleashed a new wave of special interest spending, and the American people have been inundated with negative ads on their televisions. Worse, they are constantly hearing about the increased role that special interests are playing in our elections, and that heightens their suspicions that Washington is working only for the powerful, only for the people who can pay for issue ads. The public justifiably believes the more money outside groups spend on campaigns the less their voices are heard. How can they have a voice when people are drowning out their voices with multimillions of dollars? This is a big problem and it is something I think we need to address.

The President touched on this issue of money in politics in his State of the Union this week, and in his address last year he took on Citizens United directly. He knows we need change, and I agree. Unfortunately, the Citizens United decision makes it very difficult to take action legislatively. That is why I am a sponsor of a constitutional amendment which would allow Congress to pass laws regulating campaign fundraising and spending.

Tom Udall has worked on one. I know the Presiding Officer also has a similar bill as well. I hope we can advance this amendment, but I realize it will be an uphill battle, especially as we enter an election year. But we must change this system. In the meantime, even before the election, I am hopeful we will take some steps to make it more transparent so at least we can start finding out who is spending this money--the people of Vermont or the people of New York or the people of Minnesota can find out who is putting in millions of dollars, and they can draw their own conclusions--they are pretty smart--about why they are spending that money.

We need it to be transparent. We also have to stem this great abuse of power, this great amount of money that is coming into the system. But in the end we will need a constitutional amendment.

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