Congress is unlikely to craft a Democratic response to the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Citizens United before November's elections, Congressional Quarterly reports.

Democrats - many of whom fear the ruling will mostly benefit the GOP and its candidates - are proposing various bills in the House and Senate. But none is moving quickly, CQ reports, because Democrats must "contend with the tricky legal issues that surround campaign finance bills, the overlapping jurisdictions of several committees and likely GOP procedural hurdles."

In a 5-4 decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the high court ruled that corporations may use money from their general treasuries to pay for campaign ads. The high court also struck down parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which prohibited unions and corporations from running issue ads in the closing days before primary and general elections.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., planned to introduce a measure late last month, but CQ reports that the senators are still trying to address the concerns of labor unions, nonprofit organizations and lawmakers before writing final legislative language.

Among the proposals Schumer and Van Hollen are discussing are: banning expenditures by foreign-controlled corporations; barring direct expenditures by corporations that have received funds through the Troubled Asset Relief Program until the funds are repaid; and barring election-related spending by federal contractors. Also being discussed are new rules for disclosing election-related spending to the government and shareholders. For instance, corporations, unions and other entities such as "527" organizations would have to register accounts designated for political broadcast ads with the Federal Election Commission.

Meanwhile, Rep. Michael E. Capuano, D-Mass., is sponsoring HR 4790, which would require shareholder approval of corporate expenditures. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has also vowed to pursue a legislative response to the ruling. Bipartisan proposals are also among the roughly 30 Citizens United bills now pending in Congress.

At a recent Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Capuano's bill, chairman Paul E. Kanjorski wondered aloud if it might be necessary to call a constitutional convention "to deal with the question of corporate speech rights," CQ reports.

"We're just getting started," the Pennsylvania Democrat told the publication.

To read the full story, visit www.cq.com.