A group of U.S. Senators announced today that the Senate will soon take action on legislation to put an end to secret campaign spending, according to a statement from Sen. Whitehouse's office. On Monday, July 16, the Senate will take up the DISCLOSE Act of 2012, which will address the flood of unlimited secret money in elections unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.

The DISCLOSE Act, introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), has 28 cosponsors, including Whitehouse’s colleagues on the Senate’s Citizens United Task Force: Rules Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Sens. Michael Bennet (D-CO), Al Franken (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

“The flood of secret money unleashed by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision threatens to drown out the voices of middle class families in our democracy,” said Whitehouse in remarks distributed to media. “The DISCLOSE Act will uphold every citizen’s right to know where this secret money is coming from and whom it is going to, and will help protect the interests of middle class families from the special interests who already have too much power. It’s time for Congress to act.”

The DISCLOSE Act requires any organization that spends $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report within 24 hours, identifying any donors who gave $10,000 or more. It will require political groups posing as social welfare organizations to disclose their donors and will prevent corporations and other wealthy interests from using shell corporations to funnel secret money to super PACs.

“We believe that all of the unlimited cash allowed by the Citizens United decision must at least be disclosed,” said Senator Schumer. “This legislation seeks to limit the damage of the Supreme Court decision that has given corporations and the very wealthy unprecedented sway over our elections, and represents one of the most serious threats to the future of our democracy.”

The DISCLOSE Act is supported by a broad coalition of voting rights, civil rights, and good government groups including Democracy 21, Common Cause, People For the American Way, the League of Women Voters, Credo Action Network, and Greenpeace, as well as by nearly 180,000 “citizen cosponsors.”

Editorial note: Written from a press release.