Today, U.S. PIRG released an overriding priority for the 111th Congress: Repair the public financing system for presidential elections and create a new public financing system for congressional elections.
Other Campaign Finance Issues
• Close major campaign finance loopholes: ban joint fundraising committees used by presidential candidates to circumvent candidate contribution limits; prevent presidential candidates from using candidate/party “hybrid ads” to avoid counting full costs of ads against public financing spending limits; curb Leadership PACs;
• Reform and strengthen the Federal Election Commission; press for Commissioners to be appointed by the President based on qualifications and experience;
• Ensure that independent groups making expenditures for TV ads and other public communications to influence federal elections comply with federal campaign finance laws;
• Strengthen existing bundling disclosure rules to require federal candidates to disclose the total amount raised by each bundler (not just by each registered lobbyist) who raises more than a threshold amount for their campaigns.
Ethics and Lobbying Issues
• Ensure that the new congressional ethics rules and lobbying disclosure law enacted in the 110th Congress are properly interpreted and effectively enforced;
• Ensure that the new Office of Congressional Ethics is properly implemented;
• Reform the Executive Branch Office of Government Ethics; strengthen Executive Branch ethics rules;
• Support "Public Corruption Prosecution Improvements Act” to close loopholes in the public corruption laws and strengthen their enforcement.
