Sen. McNerney’s Campaign Finance Reform Bill Approved by Senate Elections Committee

SACRAMENTO – The California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee today unanimously approved Sen. Jerry McNerney’s campaign finance reform legislation, SB 900.

SB 900, the Print Ads DISCLOSE Act, would update and strengthen California’s campaign disclosure rules to provide more transparency and clarity regarding who is paying for political advertisements.

“Citizens United corrupted our campaign finance system by handing big corporations unprecedented influence over our elections. Since that ill-advised decision, corporate campaign spending has exploded throughout the nation,” Sen. McNerney said. “In the past decade, California has enacted reforms to shine a light on big donors. I’m heartened that the Senate Elections Committee today approved SB 900 to strengthen California’s campaign transparency laws.”

The California Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee approved SB 900 on a 5-0 vote. SB 900 is co-sponsored by the California Clean Money Campaign and the California State Outdoor Advertising Association.

“California led the nation in transparency when it passed the California DISCLOSE Act to clearly show the top funders of ballot measure and independent expenditure ads,” said Trent Lange, executive director of the California Clean Money Campaign. "Now Senator McNerney is leading the way by authoring SB 900, the Print Ads DISCLOSE Act, to make those disclosures even stronger and clearer across all political print ads — from billboards and banners to political mailers."

“Billboards are designed to deliver clear, concise messages to the public, but current disclosure requirements can take up so much space that they undermine that purpose,” said Layne Lawson president of the California State Outdoor Advertising Association. “SB 900 restores balance by ensuring important disclosure information is available without overwhelming the sign itself.”

Citizens United allowed independent expenditure committees, such as Super PACS, to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. These often-shadowy groups also tend to use innocuous or misleading names that help obscure the identities of their major funders. 

During the 2008 election cycle, the last presidential campaign before Citizens United, outside spending totaled $574 million nationwide. By 2024, the total was nearly $4.5 billion – nearly eight times higher.

California has taken several steps to increase transparency regarding who is paying for political ads through mail, television, radio, social media posts, text messages, and petitions. These disclosure laws increase visibility of outside groups and lead to a more transparent political advertising framework in the state. 

But there are gaps in California’s disclosure laws. Existing rules have allowed outside groups to use confusing and wordy committee names that make disclosure messages cumbersome to read, especially on billboards and large print advertisements. These requirements have taken the focus away from the top funders to committees and have steered attention toward the committees themselves. 

SB 900 would reform California campaign disclosure laws by: 

• Requiring disclosure of the top five funders of political mail
• Reformatting disclosure messages to be shorter and easier to read.

Sen. Jerry McNerney is chair of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, and his 5th Senate District includes all of San Joaquin County and Alameda County’s Tri-Valley.