One of our members pointed out to us that the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act that Congress passed last night includes the now customary prohibition on the SEC spending any of its funds on rules requiring the disclosure of political contributions. Here it is, in all its glory:
I called this a “now customary” prohibition because Congress has been doing the exact same thing in appropriations bills for several years now. Disclosure of political contributions is a controversial issue, and the decision to ban the SEC from taking any action on it would likely be controversial too — if anybody had time to complain. Congress’s bipartisan willingness to repeatedly bury this kind of decision in one paragraph of 5,000+ page appropriations bills isn’t exactly a “profile in courage.”
-John Jenkins, TheCorporateCounsel.net December 22, 2020
