Senate Action This Week on Historic Amendment to Get Money Out of Politics

The historic fight to wrest control of American politics from the super rich began this week in the U.S. Senate with a vote to allow debate of a Constitutional Amendment that seeks to invalidate recent Supreme Court rulings that flooded our political system with money from corporations and the 1 percent.

After several days of debate, Senate Republicans blocked a final vote on the amendment this afternoon.

"Money isn't speech and corporations aren't people," CWA President Larry Cohen said, "but over the past few years, working and middle class Americans have seen the billions of dollars spent by corporations and the wealthy result in special access, special tax breaks and special treatment. That's not what democracy looks like."

Read Cohen's Huffington Post column on the Amendment here.

S.J. Resolution 19, sponsored by Sens. Tom Udall (D-NM) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), is a Constitutional Amendment to enable Congress and the states to set reasonable limits on political spending and get big money out of politics. It would repair the damage to our democracy caused by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United, McCutcheon and other rulings, which determined that contributions by corporations and the richest Americans were actually free speech and entitled to protections. Those decisions warped our political process, allowing virtually unlimited political spending and giving the richest one-tenth of 1 percent the ability to control our elections and drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.

Add the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby decision on voting rights into the mix, and suddenly it's more difficult for ordinary Americans to vote but much easier for the super-rich to influence elections.

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), one of the co-sponsors of the amendment to get money out of politics, speaking at a rally before the Senate vote. In front of him were boxes containing 3.2 million petitions signed by ordinary Americans calling on senators to do the right thing.

The desire to overturn these decisions and their harmful effects on the political system has galvanized diverse groups of Americans.

CWA and other unions, Sierra Club, Public Citizen, Common Cause, People for the American Way and others began gathering petitions, making phone calls and sending email messages to their Senators. This week, 3.2 million petitions from ordinary Americans calling on their Senators to pass the Amendment were delivered to the U.S. Senate.

Udall, speaking at a rally Monday afternoon before the vote and flanked by boxes containing the petitions, thanked allies and supporters for their extraordinary efforts in collecting the signatures.

"We are here today to take back our democracy from billionaires who exercise undue influence, from special interests and from large corporations," Udall said as he was joined by demonstrators at the U.S. Capitol carrying signs saying "Democracy is Not for Sale;" "3 Million Americans Calling to #GettheMoneyOut;" "Protect Our Democracy;" and "Restore the First Amendment."

"Our elections are not auctions up for the highest bidder. Now, recent Supreme Court rulings have taken us back a hundred years when robber barons and large corporations had tremendous influence and control. We will not let that happen again," Udall said.

Rallies continued through the week outside the U.S. Capitol and across the nation as Americans waited to see whether the Senate would actually vote on the amendment.

CWA commends Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for cutting through Republican obstruction to get the amendment before the full Senate and Sens. Udall and Bennet for their leadership in the fight to get big money out of politics.