November 6, 2013
SEC Comment file 4-637
Dear Comment file 4-637,
I taught Environmental Science at a California secondary school for 30 years. I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process.
I told my students we polluted and contaminated the environment in the pursuit of free enterprise and we would only clean it up through the same process, however allowing corporate money to drive the process is wrong. They will continue to pollute as that is the easier way to their bottom line but it backfires on their ability to really profit.
In particular a company in Southern California paid the $10,000 a day fine for polluting instead of retrofiting their plant and moving forward to modern production. They are out of business, bypassed by Japan who modernized and produced the product chapter and without the old polluting techonology.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investor's money on political activity in secret.
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC's web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Caroline Brown