HARTFORD, March 11 – Due to this winter’s Supreme Court ruling in
Citizens United vs. FEC, corporations can now spend unlimited funds on
advertisements for or against Members of Congress, without seeking
approval or even informing their shareholders.
Investors should
have a voice in how the corporations in which they hold shares spend
money in politics.
Rep. Mike Capuano (D-MA) has introduced a bill
– the Shareholder Protection Act [H. R. 4537] – which requires
shareholder approval of political spending, and today, the bill receives
a hearing in the House Financial Services Committee.
Investors
should be protected from having their money used to support candidates
at odds with their values. Investing has expanded over the past few
decades, and today nearly one in every
two American households owns stocks.
“When we talk about
giving shareholders a say in how their money is spent, we are literally
talking about the public, not an elite class of investors,” commented
ConnPIRG Associate Jenn Hatch.
Rep. Capuano’s Shareholder
Protection Act will be a critical component of any legislative package
put in place to react to the catastrophic Citizens United decision.
“Congress
should quickly support Rep. Capuano’s Shareholder Protection Act and
work to attach it to any broader legislative package,” Hatch urged.
“We
need to create a world where no one will ever have to wonder if their
invested money is supporting a cause they don’t believe in, and the
Shareholder Protection Act is a step in the right direction,” she
concluded.
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