I have been talking about this issues since the Citizen United v. FEC case. The shareholders, not the CEO or the board of directors, are the real owners of any publicly traded corporation.
If you or someone you know has a 401(k), a similar retirement account or other investments, the corporations funded by these investments could be among those that secretly distort our elections by funneling money, your money, toward tilting our elections to favor corporate-friendly candidates.
My option would be the ability to opt-out, the percent of the value of my shares, from the corporation's political funding.
The Shareholder Protection Act, which was re-introduced yesterday in Congress, by Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), is a modest corporate accountability measure that would empower shareholders to decide if executives can spend the corporation’s money on political campaigns.
Specifically, the Act would:
Mandate prior approval by shareholders for an annual political expenditure budget chosen by the management for a publicly held corporation.
Require that each specific corporate political expenditure over a certain dollar threshold be approved by the Board of Directors and promptly disclosed to shareholders and the public.
Require that institutional investors inform all persons in their investment funds how they voted on corporate political expenditures.
Post on the Securities Exchange Commission web page how much each corporation is spending on elections and which candidates or issues they support or oppose.
Corporate propaganda outfits claim that such measures undermine “corporate speech” rights.
But the truth is that the language of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission actually emphasizes the power of shareholders to hold corporations accountable.
Make sure you have to power to make sure your retirement savings aren’t being used to elect politicians that let Big Business do whatever it wants.
So Public Citizen has created a process to Enter your Zip Code and tell your members of Congress to support the Shareholder Protection Act.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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