June 8, 2009

Dear Senator:

The undersigned groups make up the coalition behind Pass482, an effort to ensure S. 482,
The Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act, is enacted this year. This commonsense
legislation would simply require Senate candidates and committees to file their campaign
finance reports electronically, as House candidates, presidential candidates and other
political committees have been doing for many years. The bill is necessary to correct the
current wasteful process by which Senate campaign finance information is manually
keyed into FEC databases at a cost to taxpayers of $250,000 per year. The cumbersome
process delays public access to campaign finance data. By doing so, it undercuts one of
the key purposes of disclosure by delaying online access to information in many third-
quarter and pre-election reports until after Election Day. By virtue of the fact that this is
“public information,” it should be made available immediately. There is no rationale for
delaying disclosure of the information. We hope you will support this long-overdue piece
of legislation.

We oppose any amendment that would impinge the bill’s chances of passage. We are
especially concerned that Sen. Pat Roberts has indicated that when S. 482 is brought to
the Senate floor, he will offer an amendment that would require any nonprofit
organization filing an ethics complaint against a sitting senator to publicly disclose its
donors. During the 110th Congress Sen. John Ensign insisted on a vote on a similar
amendment, ultimately thwarting efforts to bring the bill to the Senate floor.

We ask you to oppose this amendment, which is designed to discourage nonprofit

organizations from filing ethics complaints against Senators and is not germane to the
underlying piece of legislation. By shielding Senators from legitimate inquiries into
alleged violations of Senate rules, the amendment is antithetical to the underlying bill,
which will, when enacted, result in more, not less, transparency of the political process.

This amendment not only jeopardizes a noncontroversial bill, but also raises serious
constitutional questions. The Supreme Court, in NAACP v. Alabama prevented the state
of Alabama from obtaining the names of the NAACP’s members, noting that doing so
would interfere with their rights of free association. In recognition of this case, well-
established tax law and IRS rules protect the identity of donors to nonprofit organizations
to encourage membership and respect donors’ rights of free association and speech.

The Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act provides voters with timely online access to
critical information. Its enactment should no longer be delayed by the prospect of an
unrelated controversial amendment. We hope you will support the bill and oppose any
amendment to it.
Sincerely,

Lisa Rosenberg Dan Newman

Government Affairs Consultant Executive Director
The Sunlight Foundation MAPlight.org

Michael Malbin Patrice McDermott

Executive Director Director
The Campaign Finance Institute OpenTheGovernment.org

Sheila Krumholz Nick Nyhart

Executive Director President and CEO
The Center for Responsive Politics Public Campaign

Japhet Els Angela Canterbury

Political Director Director of Advocacy
Change Congress Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division

Sarah Dufendach Lee Mason

Vice President for Legislative Affairs Director, Nonprofit Speech Rights
Common Cause OMB Watch

Thomas Fitton
President
Judicial Watch

Contact Lisa Rosenberg at the Sunlight Foundation, 202-360-7895 or

lrosenberg@sunlightfoundation.com