Senate Democrats again failed to advance stalled campaign finance legislation on Thursday, dealing another blow to the bill's chances of final passage.
The legislation, known as the Disclose Act, is intended as a response to a Supreme Court decision earlier this year that relaxed limits on political spending by corporations and unions. A cloture vote Thursday afternoon to move forward on the legislation failed 59-39. Sixty votes were needed for passage.
Centrist GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe's (Maine) announcement earlier Thursday that she would again vote against the legislation, which came after she'd cast doubt on its constitutionality, virtually confirmed the second cloture vote would fail. A previous cloture vote on the legislation, in August, failed on a 57-41 vote.
“I am deeply disappointed by the unanimous Republican blockade in the Senate of the Disclose Act, a critical piece of legislation that would control the flood of special interest money into our elections," President Obama said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "Today’s decision by a partisan minority to block this legislation is a victory for special interests and U.S. corporations – including foreign-controlled ones – who are now allowed to spend unlimited money to fill our airwaves, mailboxes and phone lines right up until Election Day."
President Obama
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