Senate Democrats said they may try to limit election spending by government contractors and US units of foreign companies after last month’s Supreme Court decision that lifted restrictions on corporate political money.
Other proposals include boosting requirements to disclose corporate campaign spending and requiring shareholders’ approval for the expenditures.
The high court’s 5-4 ruling on Jan. 21 reversed decades of congressional efforts to limit corporate cash in political campaigns. The majority, invoking the Constitution’s free-speech clause, said companies and unions can use their general treasury funds to buy ads supporting or opposing candidates.
“This terrible decision deserves as robust a response as possible,” Senator Russell Feingold said yesterday at a Senate Rules Committee hearing in Washington. The Wisconsin Democrat cowrote a 2002 campaign-finance law that was partially overturned by the decision.
Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, the top Republican on the rules panel, applauded the court’s ruling.
“All Americans know they’re free to speak their minds without having to get permission from the government,” he said.
Committee Chairman Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he was drafting legislation to try to limit the decision’s impact.
“If Congress fails to act, our country will be faced with big, moneyed interests spending, or threatening to spend, millions on ads against those who dare to stand up to them,” Schumer said.
Schumer probably would need 60 votes to get a measure through the Senate. Democrats will control 59 seats when Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown is sworn in.
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, who bucked a majority of his party when he cosponsored the 2002 law with Feingold, won’t back efforts to address the court decision, said his spokeswoman, Brooke Buchanan. McCain was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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