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Democrats carve exception for NRA to salvage campaign law
Several open-government advocacy groups said Tuesday that they support a deal crafted by the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives that would exempt the National Rifle Association and other groups from some provisions of a proposed campaign finance disclosure bill.
The bill was written to close the vacuum created last January by the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that struck down decades-old law barring corporations and unions from directly supporting campaigns.
The bill would ban government contractors from contributing to campaigns, prevent federal TARP money recipients from using that money to influence elections, and prevent foreign nationals and countries from contributing to campaigns.
The measure also would require corporate chief executive officers to appear in political ads that their companies help pay for and say that he or she "approves this message."
While calling it distasteful, some open-government advocates said that the NRA exemption was the only way that Democrats could remove NRA opposition to the so-called DISCLOSE Act and get the bill to the floor of the House for a vote as early as this week.