the c.r.a., community reinvestment act. i am glad this is back. when i get this information we will review everything. my name is ace and i am on the case. ricky graham will be handling this. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm really pleased to be here at this hearing, in just a little background, as far as i'm concerned, i was at the first alan brown meeting that discussed banking at a small cafeteria in the east bay, decades ago. so i've done -- i've been really watching this process for some time. i don't have an opinion, because i don't have enough information to have an opinion on which of the models is most appropriate. however, i would like to add one idea that i have not heard today and this was one of the ideas. the alan brown public banking -- >> who is ellen brown class. >> ellen brown class. >> yes. >> she was the one who started the public banking concept and has been pushing it worldwide for some time now. >> thank you. >> she started by writing the book. now she has another book out. anyway, she has -- i think she has

today or was it yesterday in the senate, they passed a c.r.a., a congressional review act to reverse what internal revenue service had determined. they determined that if you have nonprofit organization that are engaged in political activity, you don't have to report the source of the money. this c.r.a. passed the senate that said reverse that decision, that you do have to report the money. this is very, very important. because a lot of this is very dark tax deductible in some cases money that the american people should know the source of it. again, we are engaged in a year end -- i don't know if it's possible for us to have an omnibus bill. we offered the president two options. one was the six bills as negotiated by -- in a bipartisan way by the house democrats and republicans and again bicameral agreed-upon legislation. and one continuing resolution, homeland security i'm not sure that was to the president. the second choice was to have a continuing resolution that contained all seven bills until september 30. that may be the livelier prospect in which is this going to be in, that g

the outcomes. we should be working to bring transparency to our political system, not shielding special interest groups big donors. and this administration's political allies. i will support today's i.r.s. dark money rule c.r.a., and i urge my colleagues to join me in giving the power back to the american people. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: mr. president, i rise in strong support for the resolution sponsored by senators tester and wyden to overturn the treasury department rule. we heard loud and clear from the american people that they are sick and tired of the hundreds of millions of dollars of special interest money going into our elections. they are especially sick and tired of all the secret dark money going into our elections. what do i mean by that? i mean when wealthy individuals can contribute to organizations and the american public has no idea who those individuals are while those organizations go on to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try to influence the vote of our fellow americans. we've all seen those commercials that come on tv that says it's sponsored by the committee for a better america, a committee to support mom and apple pie, and the public

the c.r.a. has been proposed in response to guidance on a revenue procedure recently announced by the internal revenue service. as the chairman of the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs, i've written to the i.r.s. twice asking them to take the very actions this c.r.a. seeks to overturn. let me begin by reviewing some basic facts about the guidance. facts are irrefutable. the facts that are apparently being ignored by those who are supporting this measure. first, i want to make it clear that the guidance in question mirrors a proax that was crafted under the obama administration. that proposal was never fully implemented, the fact that it was first proposed by the obama administration proves its bipartisan nature. essentially, the guidance makes clear that personal eye dentfying information of -- identifying information for donors for certain organizations does not need to be filed on a form with the i.r.s. however, these organizations will still be required to keep tha