Ladies and gentlemen, were going to sit down and get started. The mayor will be here. Shes tied up right now the shoe will be here in just a minute, or maybe just ten or 15 minutes but she will be here. Our friends at cspan, are we ready . Dont want to heres the mayor. I said she is going to be tied up for just a minute. She was tied up for just a second. Madame mayor, thank you so much. Good to see you. Why dont you have [inaudible] she is our point person on Citizens United, and i represented the highest bill for very long period of time, all my period time in the congress of the United States, and hyattsville is a happening place. Hyattsville is, i like to say, is the georgetown of Prince Georges County. Its got all sorts of very diverse, very excited, very interesting things happening here, and mayor hollingsworth of course as a part of that happening. So madam mayor, where very glad to be in your city. We are happy to have you here, for a very important conversation. We appreciate your engagement on, i know i appreciate your engagement on this issue and the no citizens in the city of hyattsville definitely have high interest in this as well. Good. We are about to celebrate or to lament depending upon your perspective, the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court case that was called Citizens United. It was a Supreme Court case that had a profound effect on the financing of campaigns, and the exploding use of dark money. One of the things my mother used to tell me all the time was considered the source. I was talking to people and she would say, you heard me say this at her press conference last week, consider the source. Whos talking to you . You know, what is the background . What is their intent . What is their interest . Because you really want to know that, any of us who to talk to people and you say whats their angle . Why are they saying this . Because it makes a difference. And it certainly in a democracy makes a difference that people know whos talking to them, why they are talking to them, why their position is as it is, and then judge whether or not they believe the position is correct or credible or something of which the to take action. We and the congress of the United States have been working when we took over the leadershi leadership, the democrats took over the leadership on a piece of legislation to try to restore the peoples right and ability to know whos talking to them. And also to make sure that special interest money does not outweigh the peoples money, the peoples action, the peoples boat, so that democracy works for the people and not for the special interests. And thats what this discussion is about as we recognize this tenth anniversary of this case that has had such a profound effect and in our view a negative effect on our politics. Im glad to be joined, thank you, madam mayor, for welcoming us here. Glad to be joined by my colleagues in congress, con John Sarbanes. John sarbanes is the principal come he with the organizer, and author of much but organizer of others because not only do we deal with Campaign Financing reform, we dealt with Voting Rights and the ability of people to be encouraged and facilitated not impeded in the right to vote. And giving as well with redistricting. All three of those issues we think need to be dealt with in the last when we dealt with the course with ethics, ethics of officeholders and of Public Servants so that they would ethically and honestly carry out the duties of their office. Now before i recognize congressman sarbanes why do we go around the room and each of you introduce yourselves to the audience and to those watching on tv. Good afternoon. Im kim coble and its executive director for the Maryland League of conservation voters. Good afternoon. My name is willing to represent maryland state conference naacp. Im Tiffany Muller and im the president of end Citizens United. On emily scarf and director of the American PublicInterest Research group. Good afternoon on malcolm and a represent the naacp first Vice President of Calvert County branch. I name is bob ross, president of Prince Georges County naacp. Good afternoon, i represent Charles County as president of naacp. We are very pleased of a broad representation of people from my district but im also very pleased to have somebody from another district, the third Congressional District of our state, john senator daines who is a member of the Energy Commerce committee, one of the committees with the broadest jurisdiction in the congress of United States but also one of our most influential and consistent and powerful leaders on behalf of government reform, honesty in government, inclusion of people having the right to vote protected and reforming our Campaign Finance system. Congressman, thank you for being with us and a eulogy of. Thanks very much, congressman hoyer, thank you for your leadership in our caucus, in the house and for the nation. I think congressman hoyer approaches this issue from the standpoint as somebody who cares deeply about the institution of the United States congress. Ive seen you translate that conviction many, many times, editing to approach this in the same way that if we are truly want to be the peoples house and represent the people honestly and forthrightly, that we need to get these a special interests and big money out of the way because they are disrupting and corrupting the relationship that ought to exist between the people and the peoples representatives. So i thank you for your Leadership Today and over so many years, thanks for welcoming me to your district. Mad a, thank you for having this here as well. And to those around the table madam mayor those who understand importance of fighting back against bigmoney special interests, thank you for joining us for this conversation. Its hard to believe its been ten years since the Citizens United case. Those of us who cherish our democracy kind of feel it as a decision that came down yesterday because moments after it was delivered, and i think it was a broad recognition of how damaging it would be to our democracy. I remember in the state of union speech, president obama predicting what would happen as a result of this case. And all of that has come true, and more. One of the startling statistics you will hear it again i think tiffany will allude to this, but in the 20 years before the Citizens United case, the amount of outside spending those come into our politics was about 750 million over that whole time. And 80 of that was disclosed. Since the Citizens United case in the last ten years that number is or . 4 billion. Only 50 of it is disclose, so thats 2. 2 billion coming into billion dollars come into our politics from undisclosed sources. And its left i think him its largely explains why the public feels so disconnected from their politics and washington, and their own sense of ownership of the democracy, is even the money was having an influence before Citizens United for sure, with that decision came a kind of arrogance on the part of special interests, this i did that your checkbook is large enough, you can call the shots here and the swagger that you starting to see in the way to special interests operate i think was deeply offensive to Everyday Americans out there. And led to this frustration of citizens which we see, and is so corrosive toward democracy. People dont believe in the democracy, then elements that are more insidious can flood, come into the political town square and try to grab the power and the discussion here and we have seen that. So its really important that we fight back. We had the opportunity last year with the for the people act, h. R. One, which in many respects is the most transformative anticorruption and clean elections act that weve passed in the last 50 years. It covers a lot of territory in terms of restoring the voice of Everyday Americans, including demanding more accountability on where this money comes from, Disclosure Requirements so we know where the super pacs are getting their money and these other organizations that operate in the shadows. So if we could get h. R. One past, we could solve a lot of that frustration. It would bolster the authority of the federal election commission, so in the home stretch of any Campaign Cycle like we are about to enter into, not too long from now, they could be a cop on the beat and make sure that people that are not playing fair using their money to end run our democracy would be caught in the act and it would be penalties and consequences for that. And finally, it creates some real empowerment opportunities for Everyday Americans. It sets up a small donor matching system that can kind of democratize the way the funding of campaigns happen in america. And in that way allow Everyday Americans to step up, push back, and compete with the bigmoney crowd. And we did something very elegant in terms of paying for that, which is we said were going to pay for that system of matching small donations by putting a surcharge on corporate lawbreakers. So its not taxpayer money. If a corporation settles with the government and enters into settlement, we will take a little piece of that and thats going to support this fund that can match small donations and give how to Everyday Americans. And in that way we can say to the people that have been breaking our democracy for the last ten years, or more, youre going to help to fix it, the democracy and lift up the voices of Everyday Americans. So i really appreciate the focus on this at a critical moment, this ten Year Anniversary where we, as congressman hoyer said, lament the Citizens United case. But then talk positively and confidently about ways we can push back. Those fighting for our environment certainly understand why this is important because the influence of big money gets in the way of so many different, important substantive agendas like protecting the chesapeake bay, fighting Climate Change, and so we are going to hear that from lcv. Weve got folks who work very closely in Public Interest in green and understand how the voices of Everyday Americans are being pushed to the margins of their democracy. And im very glad to have the members of the naacp and various leadership positions joining us today for a couple of reasons. One is the naacp nationally has been huge but on h. R. One. Really one of the premier partners they came together and help us get this over the finish line in the house in march of last year, and continues to work as part of a broad coalition. Thats going to help us deliver on it again and hopefully ultimately get it passed in the congress and onto the desk of a president that will be willing to sign it. The reason that participation is so important is theres a lot of studies that show that the money, no surprise, the big money that flows into our politics right now, its not coming from communities of color. Its not coming from people who are carrying the burden of participation in our democracy in a significant way. Its coming from folks that already have a lot of power and a lot of influence. And theres also studies that show that if youve got the money, youve got the influence, and thats how the agenda gets set. So if were going to make progress on issues that matter to all americans, and push forward empowerment opportunities in all of the legislative endeavors we undertaken with got to solve this problem of money and politics. We got to break that dependence on bigmoney and special interest thats what h. R. One is designed to do. Also we bring attention to on this ten Year Anniversary. So again, thank you. And you say consider the source, is what you always told. Thats exactly what were trying to do at disclosure, allow people to consider the source. Because if you dont know where the money is coming from, you just know its in the millions and billions of dollars, its very demoralizing to the average person out there. So thank you for letting me join your. Thank you very much for your observations and thank you very much for the extraordinary work youve done not only enter on state with our own constituencies here in maryland, but congressman sarbanes has traveled throughout the country, and as a result of his proselytizing on behalf of of this legislation, when we brought it to a vote in the house of representatives, we have a very broad based 234 democratic members of the congress of the United States, some from trump districts, some from very liberal districts, so from eastwest and northsouth, 100 every democrat every democrat voted for this legislation. There was not a single democrat who did not vote for this because although they differ in terms of some other perspectives on issues, what you do not differ on is making sure that the American Public is being represented, not others because of big, dark money that flows into the system. Number one. Number two, included in this, one of our senators Chris Van Hollen has been a great leader over a period of time since the Citizens United case was passed of saying that full disclosure of contributions was necessary. So that no matter what Citizens United, which we probably would have to change by constitution, amendment, unfortunately, or have the Supreme Court changed its view, but we can require every contribution to a Political Campaign to be disclosed so that whether or not we can affect the amount of money, we can affect the fact that the public does so they can consider the source. So those two things i think are important, that we passes unanimously and that the United States senate has refused to bring it up. Notwithstanding and im going to recognize Tiffany Muller who heads up the organization that is been really focus on this, im sure she would give us some statistics, the overwhelming majority of americans support this legislation and notwithstanding that, it has not come to the floor of the city as so many, 275 plus bills have been passed to the house of representatives over the last year and at by a person fashion by 400 400 plus bills the pas5 i person have not been brought up on the floor of the senate for consideration by the senate. So tiffany, why did you give us an overview of what you have done, what you are doing and what you see as our next steps. Was thank you so much, leader hoyer. Its a real honor to be with you here today, and your work on this issue has been, its been fantastic to partner with you. One of the things leader hoyer didnt talk about it was actually we joined forces last year when he laid out a government reform speech, and in that speech in september before the election you laid out why this issue, h. R. One, needed to be the very first thing that a new house took on. And that really propelled h. R. One into those leadership conversations, so thank you so much for your leadership. Thank you. Congressman sarbanes, there is no greater champion on these issues than congressman sarbanes in the caucus, in the congress, and in my humble opinion, in the country, and it is always such an honor to partner with you on all of these things. And its such a pleasure to be with all of you today, so thank you. Tiffany muller, president of in the Citizens United not to be confused with Citizens United. Our name is her mission. We want to end citizen genetic want to overturn Citizens United. I like what a big challenges in life and so why not go for the biggest and the boldest . And we were formed in response to the truly awful Supreme Court decision. So were coming up on the ten Year Anniversary of Citizens United. Also coming up on the fiveYear Anniversary of the end Citizens United. So we are foreign fighters go there were grassroots powered. We have 4 million members across the country, and folks chip in five dollars, 10, 15, whatever they can to try to make sure that we have the resources needed to support great champions like the folks who are sitting up here with, and have the resources needed to make sure that we can push an agenda that will actually start to undo the damage caused by the Citizens United ruling. So i actually get the fun if i have a nice little deck and a promise i will not be going about it but we get to go through a couple of highlights, which is great. So first, who we are. We are end Citizens United action fund. Wh