Reform Groups today urged senators to join three freshmen, five Republicans, and 26 other Democrats in co-sponsoring a bill that would require electronic filing of campaign finance reports by Senate candidates and committees.

Freshman senators already co-sponsoring the bill include Angus King, I-Maine, Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. Bipartisan support for the bill has come from Republican co-sponsors including Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. View full list of co-sponsors.

In a letter today to senators, 11 reform groups urged senators to support  
S. 375

, the “Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act” introduced by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Feb. 25. All but Senate candidates and a few committees now file their campaign finance disclosure reports electronically with the Federal Election Commission. Senate paper filings generally take weeks to become available to the public in an electronic searchable form. This conversion of data from paper forms costs hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

The groups sending the letter include: Americans for Campaign Reform, Campaign Finance Institute, the Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Demos, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, Sunlight Foundation, and U.S. PIRG.