« Hold That Bill | Main | Taking the Wraps Off Google's Public Policy Blog »

Presidential library donations legislation blocked

The Sunlight Foundation reports:

Sen. Ted Stevens has

blocked the markup of legislation that would provide transparency for presidential library donations, which currently have no official disclosure requirements. . .

. . . Sen. Stevens has apparently objected that the new law would be prospective, e.g. it would capture what is going on now and in the future, but not the fundraising by former presidents and he's interested in former President Bill Clinton's fundraising for his library. But that's ridiculous. All legislation is prospective. There is a very real conflict of interest in private contributions to a sitting president to fund his legacy library. The public ought to know who's contributing this money, in real time.