Foster Introduces Legislation to Increase Political Transparency for Investors

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) reintroduced the Shareholder Political Transparency Act to shed light on corporate political spending by public companies and increase transparency to investors and the public. The bill would mandate public companies periodically share political spending information with their shareholders.

The Shareholder Political Transparency Act would amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require public companies to make quarterly disclosures to their shareholders to provide them with descriptions of the kinds and amounts of political spending that they engage in.

"Investors deserve transparency when it comes to the political spending of the companies they invest their hard-earned money in," said Congressman Foster. "The political contributions of publicly-held companies should not be a secret. This bill is a commonsense step to providing investors with the facts necessary to make informed decisions about where to invest."

When multi-national and domestic corporations spend secret money in politics, our communities and our children often suffer as a result of the flawed policies that these corporations are pushing," said Beth Rotman, Director of Money in Politics & Ethics at the non-partisan watchdog Common Cause. "We commend Congressman Foster for introducing the Shareholder Political Transparency Act because the owners of a company—the shareholders—deserve to know how their hard-earned money is spent."

This bill is cosponsored by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Peter Welch (D-VT), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Grace Meng (D-NY), Dean Phillips (D-MN), and Jason Crow (D-CO).

A copy of the bill is available here.