Montana Campaign Contributions

The Montana Legislature will take up a bill that Gov. Steve Bullock says aims to prevent foreign money from influencing state elections.

Bullock said Wednesday the measure would close a loophole in the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling that allows corporations to spend money in elections. It would ban foreign governments, citizens and corporations from funneling money to political action committees through shell companies. The bill sponsored by Sen. Nate McConnell would ban political spending by corporations considered to be "foreign influenced."

Bullock says shell corporations have been used to skirt a federal law that prohibits foreign contributions to political campaigns and electioneering. He cited as an example a super PAC that was recently fined for accepting $1.3 million in illegal donations from Chinese nationals and a California business that was fined for making the donations.