DISCLOSE Act

Trumka: DISCLOSE Act Would Be Better For Electoral System

Brian Beutler | October 12, 2010, 12:30PM

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO

In the wake of a flood of independent expenditure ads attacking Democratic candidates around the country -- and a series of recent stories suggesting that the Chamber of Commerce may be financing its political activities with foreign money -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka now says the country would be better off if the DISCLOSE Act had become law.

A partial reversal from his previous position, Trumka today admitted that the DISCLOSE Act -- which the AFL opposed, and which failed in the Senate because of a GOP filibuster -- would be an improvement over the status quo.

"That'd be good for the system, I think," Trumka said at a breakfast meeting with reporters, in response to a question from TPM. "Because the system is awash -- there's more money in the system than there was oil in the Gulf, quite frankly. It's from people that you don't know. You eventually find out I guess, but it's this mysterious money coming in and targeting at three, four, five times what either of the candidates are doing."

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