Nelson Invokes Virtues of the Disclose Act, Slams Outside Money Funding TV Ads
The likely incoming top Senate Commerce Committee Democrat invoked a controversial partisan piece of legislation on the Senate floor Monday, one that initially derailed the confirmation of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in late 2013 (see 1310300065). Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.,…
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brought up the Disclose Act, which is designed to force certain funders of political advertising to be more transparent. “We had 59 votes, we needed 60 to cut off debate so we could get to the Disclose Act,” Nelson said, citing a failed cloture vote on S-3628 in 2010. Three years later, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blocked the confirmation of Wheeler’s FCC chairmanship for months over concerns that the agency may try independently to impose the requirements of the Disclose Act. Nelson lamented the losses of several Democrats in the November midterm elections, including Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; and Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo. Republicans won control of the Senate. Nelson slammed the “the avalanche of outside money” that is used to define political candidates with statements that are untrue. “When you talk to the TV stations, the broadcast stations, and you show them the fact checkers, they’ll still run the TV ads,” Nelson said. Pryor also spoke on the floor, delivering a farewell address in which he called the Senate “broken,” with a system full of “dysfunction,” recognized by the American people. “If we had been able to pass that, then all of this money would not be flowing because it’s hiding behind this masquerade of the Committee for Good Government or the ABC Committee for Whatever,” Nelson said of the Disclose Act’s failed cloture vote. These political spenders “masquerade behind that veil to spend all of that money” to defeat candidates and “it caught a number of our people,” he said.