A Senate Judiciary committee heard testimony Tuesday to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and to overhaul campaign finance reform.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy both testified before the committee Tuesday.
Leahy said that corporate spending in elections could overwhelm a small state like Vermont.
"Nobody who’s strained to hear the voices of the voters that are lost among the noise from Super PACs can deny that by extending first amendment rights in the political process to corporations, five justices put at risk the rights of individual Americans to speak to each and crucially to be heard," Leahy said.
For his part, Sanders reiterated his call for a constitutional amendment that would undo the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that let corporations, unions and wealthy individuals spend unlimited sums to sway American elections.
On Town Meeting Day in Vermont, more than 60 towns passed resolutions calling for a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United, citing the corrosive effect that they said it has on the country’s political system.
In June, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision by tossing out a corporate spending ban in Montana.