Congress must revamp campaign finance online reporting, watchdog says

Congress must act quickly to set up a robust electronic online reporting system to track campaign donations in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited corporate and labor union donations to political campaigns, a nonprofit citizen watchdog group recommended.

The court on Jan. 21 overturned decades of limitations on corporate campaign contributions. Congress should act swiftly to set up a new reporting regime before the next federal elections get into full swing, the Sunlight Foundation said in a seven-point proposal. The new reporting system ought to be electronic and should be based on open-source software to allow for full interoperability and maximum transparency, according to the proposal. Ideally, the system and its databases should be searchable, sortable, machine-readable and downloadable, the foundation said.