Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) released the following statement on the Supreme Court’s decision in McCutcheon v. FEC:
“With the McCutcheon decision, the Supreme Court has eradicated the total limits that special interests can spend on federal elections. Now, millionaires and billionaires can funnel as much money as they like – hypothetically donating to every Congressional candidate and political party they choose. This is not what the Founding Fathers intended when they wrote ‘freedom of speech’ into the First Amendment. In a democratic society, those with deep pockets should not have such an outsized influence in our elections or in Congress. We are a government ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people,’ but this decision, and Citizens United four years ago, threaten to turn this principle on its head, creating a government ‘of the special interests, by the special interests, and for the special interests.’ Today’s action by the Supreme Court once again reminds us that our campaign finance system is broken, and that we need to pass a Constitutional Amendment allowing us to set reasonable limits on campaign donations to ensure that our democracy does not become a full-blown plutocracy.”
Issues: 113th Congress, Campaign Finance Reform