Expressing disappointment that the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer is scheduled to consider whether to adopt rules that would require public companies to disclose their political spending, Harvard Law School Professor Lucian Bebchuk and Columbia Law School Associate Professor Robert J. Jackson, Jr., continue to argue that there is a “compelling case and large support” for requiring such disclosure.

Writing today on The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Finance, Bebchuk and Jackson noted that, about two years ago, a committee they chaired filed a rulemaking petition urging the SEC to develop rules requiring public companies to disclose their spending on politics and that the SEC has received over 600,000 comment letters on the petition that were “overwhelming[ly]” in support of the petition.

Bebchuk and Jackson acknowledged “prominent opponents,” but argued that none of their objections provided “any basis for opposing rules that would require public companies to disclose their spending on politics.”

Bebchuk and Jackson believe that the SEC should consider the rule as soon as practicable, and urged supporters to continue to submit comments to the SEC.

Learn more: The SEC Delays its Consideration of Rules Requiring Disclosure of Corporate Political Spending.

Contact the author at smeyerow@optonline.net. 

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