Senate must repeal Citizens United

Sen. John Walsh made the following remarks on the Senate floor on Sept. 9, 2014, about the need to repeal the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign regulations in the Citizens United case. The Senate will vote in the coming days on a proposed Constitutional amendment that would stop the unregulated flow of corporate funds to political campaigns.

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Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of Senate Joint Resolution 19, a constitutional amendment that would give both States and Congress the power to undo the damage caused by Citizens United and restore our democratic traditions. Passing this amendment is vital if we are to begin to roll back the corrosive influence of money in our democracy.

Because of the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, political power is becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of corporations and modern day copper kings.  In fact, less than one percent of Americans provide over two-thirds of the money spent on elections. The voices of everyday Americans are simply are being silenced.

In Montana, we’ve seen firsthand the damage to the process. Turn-of-the-century mining companies made rich off the copper seams under Butte, Montana, my home town, bought up the state press and bought off the state legislature.

In response to these abuses, Montana banned corporate political spending by citizen initiative over 100 years ago. However, the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision overturned this century-old protection in an instant, silencing Montanans voices with dark secretive money and corporate political spending.

Montana’s experience with the Butte copper kings shows that corporate political spending, even if it is supposedly independent, corrupts the political process. We cannot let anonymous, unaccountable corporate spending drown out the voices of everyday Americans.

When the voices of individual voters become less relevant to politicians, policy decisions are divorced from the folks they impact.

We simply cannot allow a dysfunctional system of campaign finance to eliminate our government’s responsiveness to its citizens or its ability to tackle our most pressing issues. Montana’s history should be learned from — and it is our responsibility to ensure it never happens again.

That is why this amendment is so important to the American people. In 2012, Montana voters overwhelmingly directed the Congressional delegation to work to overturn Citizens United to get corporate money out of politics.

I’ve heard from thousands of Montanans that they want Congress to refocus on issues that are important to them, to come together and do our jobs. Passing this amendment will help us do just that.