U.S. Rep. John Katko (R-NY) signed on as a cosponsor of a new bipartisan resolution in the House of Representatives that would amend the U.S. Constitution regarding contributions and expenditures related to elections in America.
“I have long supported a constitutional amendment to reform our campaign finance system and firmly believe that we must take a bipartisan approach to make this happen,” Rep. Katko said.
The Democracy for All Amendment, House Resolution 2, was introduced on Jan. 3 by sponsor U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), along with original cosponsors U.S. Reps. Katko, Jim McGovern (D-MA), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and 37 other Democratic cosponsors.
“I’m proud to join Rep. Deutch and a number of my colleagues in reintroducing this legislation, as we take the first step in the new Congress towards real reform,” said Rep. Katko.
The constitutional amendment, according to the lawmaker, aims to get big money out of politics and would assert the rights of both states and the federal government to pass laws that regulate spending in elections.
Introduction of the proposed amendment coincides with the upcoming ninth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial 2010 ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case.
According to Britannica, the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2010 ruled 5-4 that laws that prevented corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds for independent political advertising violated the Constitution’s First Amendment freedom of speech guarantee.
The High Court’s action invalidated Section 203 of the federal Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 and Section 441(b) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. Then-President Barack Obama slammed the decision as a win for special interest groups.
Rep. Deutch echoed Obama’s concern last week, noting that since the Citizens United ruling, “election spending has exploded into billion-dollar races that corrupt our elections by drowning out the voices of American voters.”
“From climate change to gun violence, the issues that are most important to the American people are dominated by the will of the bottomless pockets that fund elections rather than the will of voters,” the congressman said. “We need to overturn Citizens United to get big money out of politics, strengthen our democracy, and restore power to the American people.”
Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, called the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United and related cases “antithetical to democracy.”
“They stand for the proposition that corporations and the super rich should be able to drown out the voices and votes of everyone else; and they have, in fact, enabled the big money donor class to dominate our politics,” he said. “As a direct result, we have a government responsive to corporate and super rich demands, but derisive of overwhelming public support to guarantee health care to all, slash drug prices, raise the minimum wage, avert catastrophic climate change and more.”
Weissman thanked Reps. Katko, Deutch, McGovern, and Raskin for introducing the Democracy for All Amendment, which he said would “return us to a government of We the People.”
Marge Baker, executive vice president at People For the American Way, Jeff Clements, president of American Promise, and John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of Free Speech For People, joined Weissman in supporting the proposed amendment and urged Congress to pass it and send it to the states for ratification.
The resolution has been referred to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee for consideration.