Agenda Document No. 24-19-A: Proposal Is Contrary to the Commission’s Fundamental Mission to Facilitate Donor Disclosure in Federal Elections Public Citizen and Transparency International U.S. sternly oppose this effort to undermine

The opening line of the proposal reads: “The Federal Election Campaign Act’s disclosure requirements are not absolute.” Dickerson’s proposal then goes on to call for posting a form on the FEC web site to allow any individual donor, or an organization acting on behalf of one or more of its contributors, to request exemption from the disclosure requirements if that donor or organization feels that t. [...] BACKGROUND The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended, established a system of contribution limits and enshrined transparency of the sources and expenditures of money in federal elections as a critical means to curtail corruption and, more importantly, to inform voters of the interests behind that money. [...] Socialist Workers Party after documenting a full factual record of a long history of government surveillance and disruption of SWP, including the creation of a Custodial Detention List by the FBI that targeted all SWP members for arrest in time of a national emergency.5 These exemptions to the donor disclosure requirements are extremely rare, as-applied to but a few minor parties, and only upon an. [...] Disclosure of the sources of political spending is a necessary check on the power of money and bolsters the citizens’ moral responsibility to stand behind their speech. [...] This does not resemble the Home of the Brave.”6 CONCLUSION The proposed rulemaking before the Commission today to vastly expand the donor exemption far beyond its original purpose would undermine effective disclosure of the sources of political spending, deprive voters of critical election information, swamp the FEC under a wave of new paperwork, and runs contrary to the core mission of the agency.