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Secretary of State Jena Griswold Testifies in Support of "Preventing Foreign Influence Act"
Denver, March 18, 2021 – Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold today testified in front of the Colorado Senate Affairs Committee in support of the “Preventing Foreign Influence Act,” a bill to prevent foreign influence in Colorado’s elections. The bill is sponsored by Senator Jeff Bridges and Representative Steven Woodrow. The bill was officially introduced in the Colorado Assembly by Senator Bridges last week. After the testimony, the “Preventing Foreign Influence Act” passed 4-1 out of committee with bipartisan support.
“Big corporations should not have a blank check to influence candidate elections, nor should we permit foreign influence in our electoral process,” said Secretary Griswold. “The ‘Preventing Foreign Influence Act’ would stop big corporations with significant foreign ownership from influencing candidate elections in Colorado. Now is the time to build our national leadership in elections by spearheading this effort to curb foreign corporate influence and put power back in the hands of everyday people.”
Under the bill, foreign influenced corporations will be prohibited from contributing to Colorado SuperPACs, which spend money to influence candidate elections. Any corporation with a 1% ownership from a foreign government, a 5% ownership from a single non-US person or 20% aggregate ownership from multiple non-US persons will be prohibited from spending from corporate coffers to influence candidate campaigns via SuperPac spending.
The “Preventing Foreign Influence Act” is a continuation of the work Secretary Griswold started in 2019 with the “Clean Campaign Act,” which banned non-U.S. Citizens from spending on any type of political committee, required “Paid for By” disclaimers on communications to voters from any committee, stopped pre-candidate coordination, and began the work to shine light on dark money. In 2019, Secretary Griswold led, and worked with the Colorado legislature to pass, one of the largest democracy reform packages in the nation, including campaign finance reform, lobbying reform, and expanded voting access. The bill “Preventing Foreign Influence Act” will help Colorado combat foreign influence and dark money.
