Last night, congressional negotiators set aside years of partisan budget bickering in agreeing to a $1.012 trillion federal budget bill. That’s not necessarily good news for transparency in campaign finance, though: Included in the voluminous text is a clause that would stymie an attempt to force some companies to disclose donations to politically active nonprofits.

Back in 2011, the Obama White House circulated draft language of a proposed executive order that would require companies bidding on federal contracts to disclose any political contributions to candidates, political committees or any groups intending to use the money to fund political ads. That means donations to politically active nonprofits — which normally don’t disclose their donors’ identities — would be included. And the rule would have swept in donations made by the contractor’s board of directors, executive officers or any subsidiaries or affiliated groups.

There was pushback from conservatives, including 20 Republican senators , and critics argued that it would unfairly target the business community. In fact, it would have applied to unions as well, but the proposal stayed in draft form and never became an actual executive order.

It may never, if the budget bill is passed. Buried a third of the way through the text (p. 576 of more than 1,500) is language that would prohibit any of the funds approved in the budget from being used to require disclosure by those seeking government contracts, their officers, directors or affiliates, to candidates or committees or for independent expenditures or electioneering communications. (This would not, of course, negate pre-existing laws that require disclosure of most campaign contributions, though not donations to tax-exempt political nonprofits.)

The budget bill has been praised by congressional leaders of both parties as well as the White House.

Follow Russ on Twitter: @russchoma

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