We all know that Wall Street banks use their outsized economic and political power to shape and defeat all sorts of laws and regulations. At New Economy Project, we think that a system that allows giant corporations to dominate our political process is fundamentally wrong and woefully undemocratic. We believe the public has a right to know how much Wall Street is spending to influence government.

That’s why our organization, which owns stock in Chase, has co-filed a shareholder resolution calling on Chase to disclose fully how much the bank spends on lobbying – including lobbying carried out through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the many other trade associations in which Chase plays a prominent role. Chase is a key member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which since 1998 has spent more than $1 billion on lobbying, making it the single largest lobbyist in the country. The 22 trade associations in which Chase lists membership spent more than $180 million on federal lobbying last year alone.

Our resolution, filed with allies, will be up for a vote at the bank’s annual shareholder meeting on May 19, in Detroit. The resolution is part of a national campaign to shine a light on the massive amounts of money that Wall Street spends to defeat even the most common-sense regulations. [Read more.]

New Economy Project, which owns shares in the country’s largest banks, filed the resolution with The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia and Walden Asset Management, among others.