February 2, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.
The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that disclosure of spending, while burdensome, is a reasonable restriction on political activity. With a public corporation, one that is funded by individual shareholders from across the country, that is no less the case.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Zach Bernstein