Al Franken offers bill to limit foreign influence in U.S. elections

[mucifer]

By Derek Wallbank | Published Thu, Jan 28 2010 1:19 pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than an hour before President Obama began his State of the Union remarks last night, Sen. Al Franken introduced a bill aimed at curtailing foreign influence in U.S. elections, a measure prompted by a Supreme Court ruling last week his office said overturned not just federal campaign finance laws but also a 20-year-old Minnesota law prohibiting corporate spending on elections.

A short time later, Franken gained a powerful ally.

"I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities," Obama said. "They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems."

Franken's bill would ban election spending and contributions by corporations primarily financed by foreign nationals, whose boards of directors or stock ownership are controlled by a majority foreign nationals. Companies that allow foreign nationals to participate in political activities like political action committees would also be barred.

All other companies would be required to disclose exactly how much of their firm is controlled by foreign nationals or, if they can't, how much of their financing comes from foreign nationals....snip

http://www.minnpost.com/derekwallbank/2010/01/28/15414/franken_offers_bill_to_limit_foreign_influence_in_us_elections?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter



I love Al Franken!

[hatesthegop]

1. Way to go Al!!!

He's great!!!

[Lorien]

2. I'm less worried about what foreign Nationals have in mind for us

than what Exxon-Mobile, Walmart, United Heath Care and AIG have up their sleeves. But it's a start.

[w4rma]

3. I would argue against *any* foreign national ownership or funding. Not just "primarily*.

That word "primarily" or "a majority of foreign nationals", and even that line of thinking, will create loopholes and problems down the road.

[gristy]

4. This was posted yesterday. It was a bad idea then.

And it's still a bad idea today.

The narrow concern of unlimited foreign corporate contributions is simply a distraction from the real problem.

Unlimited corporate contributions, foreign or domestic, should be every American's concern.

Franken is wrong on this one.

[Ozymanithrax]

5. But the only two ways to fix the problem is either a Constitutional Amendment

or have the court reverse itself.

I can't see 66 Senators voting to amend the Constitution to stop corporations from donating money. I don't see getting enough states to sign on to an amendment if you could get it past the Senate.

As long as we have the current court majority, they won't reverse themselves. And when that happens, we would still have to wait for the right case to percolate up.

Something has to be done now, and Franken's law would be a good beginning. It would certainly be interesting to see the SCOTUS take a case that tried to show it was unconstitutional to refuse foreign nationals the right to donate to U.S. Campaigns because they owned a company.

[emsimon33]

6. God bless Al Franken!