Foster Introduces Legislation to Increase Political Transparency for Investors

Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL) introduced 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."

"Corporations spend billions of dollars to influence our elections, which is one reason the American people have lost faith in their government." said Congressman Malinowski. "Until we can overturn the Citizens United decision, the least we can do is to empower shareholders to know and control their companies' political spending."

This bill is cosponsored by Reps. Malinowski (D-NJ), Schakowsky (D-IL), Welch (D-VT), Norton (D-DC), Velazquez (D-NY), DeFazio (D-OR), Carbajal (D-CA), Meng (D-NY), Nadler (D-NY), Phillips (D-MN), Crow (D-CO), Raskin (D-MD), Heck (D-WA), Cleaver, (D-MO), and Lynch (D-MA).

A copy of the bill is available here.