Cicilline: Oil Spill Shows Why Money and Politics Should Not Mix

Cicilline: Oil Spill Shows Why Money and Politics Should Not Mix

Democratic candidate for Congress David Cicilline yesterday said the Gulf Coast oil spill demonstrated the need to separate money from politics.

Cicilline made his comments in response to a national news report that revealed that the owner of the leaking oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico had a long record of alleged violations and misdeeds.

“Today’s report of many serious allegations made over many years against Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon well that has devastated the Gulf Coast, is shocking and further evidence of just how broken Washington is,” Cicilline said. “Unfortunately, this is another example where well-financed special interests have benefited from unprecedented access in the halls of Congress.”

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Cicilline noted that after the Gulf oil spill Transocean had hired a former Congressman—Democrat Bill Brewster—as its lobbyist.

Cicilline said the situation underscored the need for his proposal of a lifetime ban on ex-Congressman serving as lobbyists.

“We must act quickly to break the connection between money and politics in Washington,” Cicilline said. “I will fight in Congress to break this connection by working for a lifetime ban for members of Congress on becoming a lobbyist, for passage of the Clean Elections Act and working to eliminate corporate influence of elections following the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United.”

In the Citizens United decision, handed down earlier this year, the Supreme Court overturned a decades-old ban on corporations directly spending money for or against candidates for Congress or President.