Sunlight on Campaign Finance Disclosure

June 2, 2014, 2:30 p.m.

The recent Supreme Court decisions in the Citizens United and McCutcheon cases opened the door to an unfettered, unregulated influx of money into elections from corporations and labor unions.  A first step in addressing the multitude of problems the decision created is disclosure.  It is incumbent upon Congress to immediately create a robust, rapid transparency regime that takes full advantage of technology.  This requires real-time, online transparency on every level of influence, from independent expenditures to lobbying to bundled campaign contributions. 

Now that the Supreme Court has struck down overall contribution limits, the only remaining pillar of our campaign finance system is disclosure.  Unfortunately, our current system of disclosure is not up to the task imposed by the Supreme Court.  The Real Time Transparency Act Of 2014 is a crucial move toward a more transparent system that requires campaign contributions of $1,000 or more to candidates, committees and parties to be public within 48 hours.