U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Wednesday on the Senate floor regarding the DISCLOSE Act:
“Finally, with all these national crises hammering families, the Democratic majority is using the Senate schedule to demonstrate that they do not care.
“The Democratic Leader is not spending floor time on a bill to combat Democrats’ inflation crisis, or their immigration crisis, or their violent crime crisis, or their energy crisis.
“Not on legislation to help American families’ daily lives in any way.
“Instead, the Democratic Leader is setting up a vote on a bill to erode the First Amendment and make political speech more difficult.
“Instead of trying to address the root causes of their unpopularity, Democrats are attacking the American people’s ability to speak out against them.
“The Democrats try to ram through political-takeover bills like this zombie ‘DISCLOSE Act’ once or twice every year.
“This legislation would give Democrats’ friends in the unelected bureaucracy even more power to police the political speech and activism of private citizens.
“Remember, donations to political action committees and electioneering nonprofits are already publicly disclosed. That’s already law. What Democrats want is a huge new step that would reduce private citizens’ privacy and chill Americans’ constitutional rights.
“The same Democrats who wouldn’t condemn angry mobs gathering outside the private family homes of federal judges now believe that vastly more information about private citizens’ political views should be made public.
“It’s no mystery how those things fit together.
“Even the liberal ACLU warned years ago that what the Democrats want to pull off, quote, ‘unconstitutionally infringes on freedom of speech and the right to associational privacy.’
“Instead of addressing the reasons why Americans are upset with Democrats, Democrats are trying to legislate our citizens into sitting down and shutting up.”
