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rCCMelROOtnJanuary 20,2016

57

The Honorable Tom Wheeler, ChairmanFederal Communications Commission445 12th Street S.W.Washington, D.C. 20554

Dear Chairman Wheeler,

We write to respectfully request that you ensure the full disclosure of the sponsors of politicaladvertisements, as required by Section 317 of the Communications Act of 1934. In today'spolitical reality of non-stop campaigning, our system continues to fail the American people byallowing special interests and shadow groups to flood our airwaves with anonymous ads, with nodisclosure whatsoever. We believe the Federal Communications Commission has theresponsibility and legal authority to require disclosure of the actual donors behind these ads.

Section 317 and the associated FCC regulations require broadcasters to ensure that the "trueidentity" of the sponsors of political advertisements be disclosed on the air during the ad.However, for decades the FCC has failed to engage in any meaningful enforcement of Section317. This is because the FCC currently enforces these regulations under a staff interpretationfrom 1979 which deems the organization that claims "editorial control" over the ad to be the truesponsor. In the new era of non-disclosing political organizations with intentionally opaquenames, this interpretation is woefully out of date. While a non-disclosing organization may infact have had editorial control over the advertisement, the true sponsors of the advertisement arethose who contributed the money to pay for it.

An overwhelming majority of the American public believe that groups spending money toinfluence our elections should be required to publically release their donors. The Supreme Courthas repeatedly upheld disclosure requirements. In fact, the Citizens United and McCutcheondecisions both discuss the importance of disclosure to protect the public from corruption, real orperceived. Strong enforcement of Section 317 will ensure a level of honesty currently missingfrom campaign discourse and improve transparency in our political system.

We therefore urge you to use the statutory authority granted to you in the Communications Actto require disclosure of the true sponsors of political advertisements so that the American publicknows exactly who is trying to influence them over the public airwaves.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation and we look forward to your timely response.

Sincerely,

~P~rP-Anna Gfishoo

~r of Congress

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Page 1 Dina TitusMike DoyleMichael E. Capuano

. Diana DeGetteRobert A BradyJanice HahnJohn DelaneyJohn C. Carney, Jr..Gerald Connolly

Page 2 Adam B. SchiffMark DeSaulnierSamFarrTed DeutchLouise M. SlaughterPaul D. TonkoNitaLoweyDoris MatsuiMike Thompson

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Page 4 Rick LarsenChaka FattahLloyd DoggettAlan GraysonJoaquin CastroSteve IsraelLuis V. GutierrezSteny HoyerEliot Engel

MarkTakaiKatherine ClarkJulia BrownleyAnn M. KusterDavid N. CicillineCheri BustosDonna F. EdwardsElizabeth H. EstyAnn Kirkpatrick

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Page 8 Lucille Roybal-AllardBrian HigginsWilliam R. KeatingSteve CohenJackie SpeierJohn LewisSanford BishopCedric RichmondChris Van Hollen

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