Yesterday Senator Chuck Grassley and other Republicans blocked an effort to bring new campaign finance disclosure rules to a vote in the U.S. Senate.  

The DISCLOSE Act would “amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, Super PACs and other entities, and for other purposes.” Congressional Democrats drafted the original version of this bill in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010. That version would have required

organizations involved in political campaigning to disclose the identity of the large donors, and to reveal their identities in any political ads they fund. It would also bar foreign corporations, government contractors and TARP recipients from making political expenditures. Notably, the bill would exempt all long-standing, non-profit organizations with more than 500,000 members from having to disclose their donor lists.

A Republican filibuster kept the original DISCLOSE Act from reaching a vote on the Senate floor. Grassley supported that filibuster, while Senator Tom Harkin voted with fellow Democrats to advance the bill.

The latest version of this bill is slightly different, Ramsey Cox reported for The Hill.

The bill would require companies, unions and other entities to report campaign spending of more than $10,000. […]

The Senate failed to advance a similar bill in 2010, which would have required reporting after $600 in campaign spending.

While the DISCLOSE Act almost advanced in 2010, the smaller Democratic caucus fell far short of the 60 votes needed to approve a cloture motion yesterday. The roll call on cloture on the motion to proceed with considering the DISCLOSE Act failed by 51 votes to 44. All Republicans present voted against cloture, including Grassley. Harkin voted for cloture along with the rest of the Democrats present, with the exception of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He switched from “yea” to “nay” in order to preserve his ability to bring up the DISCLOSE Act for another vote today. Democrats spoke on the Senate floor for hours last night to protest the latest filibuster.

Neither Grassley nor Harkin issued a statement regarding yesterday’s votes. Republican Senator John McCain, who sponsored the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law more than a decade ago, explained why he refused to back the DISCLOSE Act.

“In its current form, the DISCLOSE Act is closer to a clever attempt at political gamesmanship, than actual reform,” McCain said. “By conveniently setting high thresholds for reporting requirements, the DISCLOSE Act forces some entities to inform the public about the origins of their financial support, while allowing others – most notably those affiliated with organized labor – to fly below the Federal Election Commission’s regulatory radar.” […]

Last week McCain told the Hill that it would take a major scandal before there is enough political will on Capitol Hill to pass another campaign finance reform bill.

“What I really think is that it’s going to take a scandal and there’s going to be one. There’s just too much money washing around,” McCain said. “Every time in history there have been these reforms it’s been following a scandal. It’s what it’s going to take, I think.”

I would have thought that the massive spending by outside groups on campaign ads would be scandal enough to prompt bipartisan action on disclosure. Grassley postures as an openness and transparency advocate on some issues, but he is noticeably quiet about this problem.

UPDATE: Democrats failed to pass a cloture motion on the DISCLOSE Act again in a party-line vote on July 17 (roll call).