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Sunlight Foundation launches billboard campaign on campaign-finance transparency |
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By Ilan Wurman
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Posted: 06/01/07 12:03 PM [ET] |
The Sunlight Foundation announced Friday a new campaign to persuade Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to reveal the Republican senator who has put a hold on legislation that would require senators to file their campaign-finance reports electronically.
As part of the campaign, a new billboard has appeared along I-65 in Louisville, Ky., that asks passers-by, “What’s McConnell Hiding?”
As Senate minority leader, McConnell is reportedly the only lawmaker who knows which senator has put an anonymous hold on the legislation in question, the Senate Campaign Disparity Act. The bill is cosponsored by Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
“Twice, an unknown Republican senator has stood in the way of greater transparency in the Senate,” said Ellen Miller, executive director of the Sunlight Foundation. “We’re calling on Sen. McConnell’s constituents to help make this information public so the problem can be addressed and the legislation passed.”
The legislation was blocked on April 17 and again on April 26.
The Foundation is offering a $500 prize for the first person who captures McConnell on video answering or refusing to answer as to who is blocking the legislation. The billboard directs readers to www.whatsmcconnellhiding.com, a new Sunlight website that prompts citizens to press for the passage of the legislation.
McConnell’s leadership office defended his position on the matter. “The unanimous request that Senators Feingold and Feinstein offered for the bill was to bring it to the floor without debate, without amendment,” McConnell’s communications director, Don Stewart, told The Hill. “The reason it hasn’t gotten unanimous consent is because people want to debate the bill and possibly offer one or two amendments.”
Stewart added, “A billboard in Louisville, Kentucky, will not convince the majority leader in Nevada to schedule the bill to the floor. The majority leader schedules floor debate, not the Republican leader.”
The Senate can break a hold only if the majority leader files for cloture and secures 60 votes to end debate.
Unlike in the Senate, the House is already required to file campaign-finance reports electronically. Senate reports are only accessible as hard copies in the Capitol Hill office that stores them.
This campaign comes one month after the Sunlight Foundation petitioned Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to make all personal financial disclosure reports by members of Congress available on the Internet. Those recommendations were included in the Honest Leadership bill that was recently introduced in the House.
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