DISCLOSE Act

The DISCLOSE Act (S. 3628) was designed to increase transparency regarding the sources of funding for political advertisements and campaign activities. The bill would have required corporations, labor unions, and advocacy groups to publicly disclose their major donors when spending $10,000 or more on "electioneering communications" or independent expenditures. Additionally, it sought to prohibit government contractors with contracts over $10 million and recipients of TARP bank bailout funds from spending money to influence federal elections.

For the average citizen, this legislation aimed to provide more information about who is paying for the political ads seen on television and the internet, particularly by requiring the leaders of organizations to appear in their ads and claim responsibility for the message. It also aimed to limit the influence of foreign-controlled domestic corporations in U.S. elections by expanding the ban on foreign national contributions. Although the bill received a majority of votes in the Senate in 2010, it did not reach the 60-vote threshold required to overcome a filibuster and therefore did not become law.