Patriotic Millionaires: Senate Republicans Go to Bat for Their Dark Money Donors

Today, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats in the Senate from passing the DISCLOSE Act, which would require corporations, Super PACs, and other advocacy groups that engage in electioneering to publicly disclose donors who contribute more than $10,000 over two years.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

"Half the Senate just showed us their true colors. By blocking the DISCLOSE Act, Senate Republicans have gone to bat for their dark money donors and made a public declaration that they want an America run by shadowy billionaires. Today's vote gives a green light for rich people to have way more influence over our nation's policies than voters.

There is no way to justify our country's current disclosure laws. It's bad enough that we live in a country where the wealthy and corporations can contribute unlimited funds to their preferred candidates and causes. But until Congress acts on this front, Americans at least deserve to know who exactly is engaging in political bankrolling. We should not be finding out about a $1.6 billion political donation through a tip-off to The New York Times.

The American people should know the source of every major political contribution. Billionaires should not be able to spend millions influencing our elections for their own selfish reasons and face no accountability whatsoever.

Blocking the DISCLOSE Act is the latest attempt in a long string of recent attempts by Republicans to dismantle our democracy. They want an America where the rich and powerful make all the decisions and where the votes of ordinary people either don't matter or aren't counted at all. They must be stopped if we want to pull our country back from the precipice of authoritarianism."