It was a bad day for democracy when, in January, the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United that corporations had the same free speech rights as human beings.

In a 5-4 ruling that overturned longstanding provisions of the McCain-Feingold Federal Election Campaign Act, the Court said corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money on American elections.  The ruling nullified Minnesota’s prohibition on corporate spending on elections—a 20 year-old standard—and opened the door for foreign governments to interfere with American democracy.

The fact is, since the Citizens United decision, the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies can spend as much as they want in our elections, even if they're under foreign control.

Companies that don’t have our nation’s best interest at heart – companies like CITGO (owned and operated by the Venezuelan government) and BP America – can now anonymously run ads against politicians who support tougher regulations on oil companies, stronger environmental laws, or better regulation of Wall Street.  Thanks to Citizens United, corporations can unload their company coffers against candidates who support policies that are good for the American people—but bad for the corporate bottom line.

This is unacceptable.

Last month, the Senate tried to do something about this.  I am a proud cosponsor of the DISCLOSE Act, a common-sense measure that would help bring back some of the transparency we have lost in our elections. It will force corporations to tell the American public where they are spending their money in elections and divulge their involvement when they purchase political media ads. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans refused to even allow debate on the legislation.

One of the bill’s key provisions, which I authored, will make sure that foreign interests, foreign governments, and foreign corporations can't use American subsidiaries that they own or control to influence our elections.  It would update our laws so that if a foreign entity has a controlling stake in a company—as defined by most states' corporate control standards—or if a foreign entity controls the Board of Directors of a company, that company should not spend one dime in our elections.

Minnesotans and Americans should know who is paying for their elections— and they should rest assured that American elections will be just that— American.  This legislation is just too important to wait.  I will keep fighting until the DISCLOSE Act becomes law.