•HRES 1275 IH 
politically charged film made by the non-profit corpora-
tion Citizens United that was critical of a candidate for 
President constituted an electioneering communication 
under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 to 
a sweeping decision on the constitutionality of corporate 
use of general treasury funds for independent expendi-
tures on political advertisements in Federal elections; 
Whereas pursuant to the majority opinion in Citizens United, 
Federal law now permits the expansion of the role that 
special interest groups, including oil companies, Wall 
Street banks, health insurance companies, unions, trade 
associations, and companies that received money under 
the Troubled Asset Relief Program created by the Emer-
gency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public Law 
110–343) are able to play in politics; 
Whereas under such opinion, Federal law now permits Gov-
ernment-owned entities, including American International 
Group, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the 
Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and auto-
mobile companies that are now subject to Federal control 
to spend taxpayer dollars to expressly support or oppose 
candidates in Federal elections; 
Whereas under such opinion, Federal law now permits domes-
tic corporations owned or controlled by foreign govern-
ments, foreign corporations, and foreign individuals to 
make independent expenditures to expressly support or 
oppose candidates in United States Federal elections, in-
cluding— 
(1) CITGO Petroleum Corporation, which is owned 
and operated by the Government of Venezuela; 
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•HRES 1275 IH 
(2) Saudi Aramco and Motiva Enterprises, which 
are fully or partially owned by the Government of Saudi 
Arabia; and 
(3) Lenovo Group Limited, Haier Group, China 
Telcom Corporation, Limited, and the China State Con-
struction Engineering Corporation, which are fully or 
partially owned by the Government of China; 
Whereas in treating corporations and living persons equally 
with respect to free speech rights under the First Amend-
ment, the Supreme Court has effectively bestowed on cor-
porations aspects of personhood, which, as the dissenting 
opinion stated, ‘‘have no consciences, no beliefs, no feel-
ings, no thoughts, no desires’’; 
Whereas in effectively bestowing on corporations aspects of 
personhood, the majority opinion ensures that the voices 
of individual citizens of the United States must now com-
pete against voices funded by the vast resources of multi-
billion dollar, multinational corporations, thus dimin-
ishing the individual right of freedom of speech guaran-
teed to every individual citizen of the United States by 
the First Amendment to the Constitution; 
Whereas according to the Small Business Administration, 
half of all the individuals employed in the United States 
in the private sector are employed by small businesses; 
Whereas pursuant to the majority opinion in Citizens United, 
Federal law now permits large corporations to use gen-
eral treasury funds to influence public policy and to advo-
cate for regulations and promote deregulation designed to 
favor large corporations over small businesses; 
Whereas pursuant to such opinion, Federal law now permits 
corporations to exercise vast power to advocate for the 
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•HRES 1275 IH 
type of deregulation policies favoring large corporations 
that led to the 2008 global economic crisis and continue 
to jeopardize economic recovery in the United States; 
Whereas legal experts have stated that such opinion will un-
leash a flood of new corporate money into the democratic 
process in the United States that will separate voters 
from their representatives and make candidates more be-
holden to special interests; 
Whereas, on January 21, 2010, more than 40 current and 
former corporate executives sent a letter to the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, express-
ing the ‘‘corrosive influence of special interest money’’ 
and urging the House of Representatives to act to ad-
dress the Citizens United decision and reform the current 
campaign finance system; 
Whereas pursuant to the majority opinion, Exxon Mobil Cor-
poration could expend $8,000,000 on each congressional 
race in the United States, which would account for less 
than 10 percent of the corporation’s profits in 2008; 
Whereas the dissenting opinion asserted that after the deci-
sion by the majority, ‘‘[C]orporations with large war 
chests to deploy on electioneering may find democratically 
elected bodies becoming much more attuned to their in-
terests.’’; and 
Whereas the dissenting opinion stated that the majority opin-
ion in Citizens United— 
(1) ‘‘[T]hreatens to undermine the integrity of elect-
ed institutions across the Nation.’’; 
(2) ‘‘[I]s a rejection of the common sense of the 
American people, who have recognized a need to prevent 
corporations from undermining self-government since its 
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•HRES 1275 IH 
founding, and who have fought against the distinctive 
corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the 
days of Theodore Roosevelt.’’; 
(3) ‘‘[O]perates with a sledgehammer rather than a 
scalpel when it strikes down one of Congress’s most sig-
nificant efforts to regulate the role that corporations and 
unions play in electoral politics.’’; and 
(4) ‘‘[C]reates new opportunities for the mirror 
image of quid pro quo deals: threats, both explicit and 
implicit.’’: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) believes that multinational corporations, 
such as CITGO Petroleum Corporation, which is 
controlled by the Government of Venezuela, should 
not have a greater voice in the democratic process 
in the United States than citizens of the United 
States; 
(2) disapproves of the majority opinion in Citi-
zens United v. Federal Election Commission, because 
it allows the interests of corporations, both foreign 
and domestic, to supersede the voices of citizens of 
the United States in the democratic process; 
(3) believes the majority opinion in Citizens 
United will further increase the flow of money into 
elections in the United States and have a corrosive 
effect on the electoral process, the cornerstone of de-
mocracy in the United States, by separating the peo-
ple from their elected representatives; and 
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•HRES 1275 IH 
(4) encourages the House of Representatives 
and the Senate to work in a bipartisan manner to 
limit the influence of special interest groups in Fed-
eral elections in light of the decision rendered by the 
Supreme Court in Citizens United. 
Æ 
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