Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a new column recommending several executive actions that the incoming Biden administration should take to prohibit U.S. corporations from political spending if they have certain minimum levels of foreign ownership.
A bedrock principle of U.S. law is that foreigners are prohibited from influencing American elections. But due to a loophole in current law that was created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s misguided Citizens United decision, one avenue for foreign entities to exert influence over U.S. elections is through investment in American-based corporations. Foreign-influenced U.S. corporations continue to spend huge sums of money in American elections and on ballot measures, including tens of millions of dollars on last month’s passage of a ballot measure in California that overturned a pro-worker state law.
“Americans don’t want foreign governments and other foreign entities influencing our elections, including via their investments in U.S. corporations,” said Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at CAP and author of the column. “President-elect Joe Biden ran on a strong platform of protecting America from foreign interference in our affairs. There are several concrete steps that the Biden administration can take to help ensure that our elected representatives are accountable to Americans—not to corporate CEOs who are looking out for their foreign investors.”
Read the column: “How the Biden Administration Can Reduce the Political Spending of Foreign-Influenced U.S. Corporations” by Michael Sozan.
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For more information, or to talk to an expert, please contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202-478-6327.