Transparency is at the heart of a healthy democracy: Americans have a right to know who is spending money to influence their vote, and that their government is working for them, not to help special interests.
Without strong, well-enforced transparency laws, the people are left wondering if elected officials’ actions are for the public good or just for their personal interest.
Having clear information on who is spending money in our elections and influencing our politicians is essential so Americans can hold government officials accountable and make informed opinions at the ballot box.
However, government transparency has been on a troubling downward slide, even while the stakes for everyday Americans remain as high as ever.
By illegally firing the individuals responsible for ethics enforcement, and blatantly ignoring important disclosure deadlines and requirements, the Trump administration is attempting to keep the American people in the dark.
Now more than ever, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is committed to fighting for transparency.
Transparency in Campaigns and Elections
We need strong, robustly enforced transparency laws to ensure that Americans know who is spending money to influence their vote.
The key to more transparent elections are campaign finance disclosure requirements — laws that require campaigns and super PACs to file reports showing how they raise and spend money.
Disclosure requirements ensure voters know who is paying to influence elections. If those laws aren’t enforced, wealthy special interests have a green light to pump money into our elections without voters’ knowledge.
Wealthy special interests are constantly finding new ways to spend secret money on elections. When these laws are broken or special interests seek to hide information from voters, we rely on swift and strong enforcement to bring accountability and protect our elections.
That’s why we need to make sure that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) does its job. The FEC has the critical responsibility of enforcing campaign finance laws, like the ones that protect voters’ right to know who is spending money on our elections.
In recent years, CLC has fought for transparency in campaigns and elections by:
- Shedding light on bad actors: We are identifying and elevating cases that showcase the weaknesses of our current system by shedding light on dark money groups and “straw donors” who are pouring money into influencing our elections.
- Demanding accountability from the Federal Election Commission: For too long, special interests have gotten away with breaking the law because the FEC has failed to properly hold bad actors accountable.
- Working with lawmakers to advance legislative solutions: Bills like the Stop Illegal Campaign Coordination Act, which would prevent super PACs and campaigns from coordinating, and the DISCLOSE Act, which would require all major political contributors to disclose their funds, are powerful tools that can stymie the erosion of our campaign finance laws.
- Protecting state and local solutions: We are currently defending Arizona’s comprehensive election spending law, Proposition 211 and defending a Washington state transparency law that requires online platforms to provide information to the public about the funding and targeting of political ads.
Transparency in Government
To make sure our politicians are working for the American people, not just their own personal gain, we need to know what financial interests — like stocks or business ties — they have.
We must strengthen ethics laws that foster transparency and the enforcement of those laws across government, so the American people have visibility into how their elected officials are conducting themselves.
We must know what government officials may gain financially when working on behalf of the public. This means that officials must disclose conflicts of interest and recuse themselves from overseeing decisions that can impact their financial interests.
Most recently, CLC has been fighting for a transparent and ethical government by:
- Uncovering conflicts of interest for top government officials.
- Filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to access information the public has a right to know (like we did against Elon Musk and the so-called U.S. DOGE service).
- Demanding an independent Senate ethics body.
- Calling out the Trump administration for illegally firing those tasked with ethics enforcement, inspectors general.
- Calling for formal Supreme Court ethics enforcement.
- Demanding oversight of congressional stock trading.
Independent ethics officials across the government have the important job of holding investigations and enforcing transparency laws to hold all politicians accountable.
But we have seen a worrying trend of these ethics enforcement mechanisms being weakened. In both our elections and our government, there is a concerted effort to roll back transparency measures.
We need increased enforcement of and better adherence to existing laws that promote transparency in the government, not the rollback we are seeing now.
Shining a Bright Light on Government
Sunshine is the best disinfectant, as the saying goes. CLC plays a key role in shining a bright light on how our government works to promote more transparency and hold our elected officials accountable. Support our work today so we can make sure our government serves the American people.