Getting Dark Money Out of Politics, Overturning Citizens United are Aims of Tester’s First Two Bills of 118th Congress

Senator reintroduces his Sunlight for Unaccountable Non-profits (SUN) Act and Constitutional Amendment declaring “Corporations Are Not People”

Getting dark money out of politics and overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision are the aims of U.S. Senator Jon Tester’s first two bill introductions in the new Congress. As part of his continued push to hold corporations accountable and fix our broken campaign finance system, these critical pieces of legislation would increase transparency and accountability, while shedding light on the influence of dark money in U.S. elections.

His “Corporations Are Not People” Constitutional Amendment would overturn the Citizens Uniteddecision and give Congress greater authority to regulate our campaign finance system. The Sunlight for Unaccountable Non-profits (SUN) Act requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to make public information about big money donors who give more than $5,000 to certain tax-exempt groups that engage in political activity.

“Too many politicians are in it for the wrong reasons and care more about what their donors want than what is good for the people,” said Tester. “Montanans sent me to the Senate to defend our way of life, not massive corporations. These bills will bring back the transparency and accountability that Citizens United took from our political system when the Supreme Court told us that corporations have the same rights as people. And I’ll keep fighting until they become law.”  

“Thirteen years ago, the Supreme Court handed down one of the worst decisions in modern history in Citizens United,” said Tiffany Muller, President of End Citizens United. “Since then, we have seen corporations and mega-donors spend billions to buy elections. We thank Senator Tester for standing up to dark money, working to overturn this disastrous decision, and ensuring that the people decide who wins elections.” 

Tester has led the charge to fight dark money in politics and has been recognized as a champion for reform by campaign finance reform advocates, receiving top marks from End Citizens United for his work fighting the influence of special interests and receiving praise from the Sunlight Foundation for his fight to make Senate campaigns more transparent.

More information on Tester’s work to clean up campaign finance is available HERE.