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The Federal Communications Commission should require sponsors of political advertising to disclose their biggest financial backers to the public, according to a petition to be filed Tuesday by a public-interest law firm.

The Media Access Project, which advocates on behalf of consumers in telecommunications issues, argues that the FCC has interpreted federal law too narrowly when it comes to disclosures for political ads.

Under current rules, some of which date back to the 1940s, the FCC requires disclosure only for the group claiming responsibility for the ad, no matter how it paid for it.

But Andrew Schwartzman, the media project’s senior vice president and policy director, says the Communications Act of 1934 and subsequent legislation anticipates a much broader standard: disclosure of those actually paying for the message.

Schwartzman’s petition asks the FCC to revise its rules to require groups to disclose financial backers who contribute more than 10 percent of their budgets as part of public documents filed with broadcast stations. It would also require on-air disclosures for donors who provide more than 25 percent of a television commercial’s budget.

“The statutory objective of informing the electorate about who is the ‘true’ sponsor of political messages is not being met,” Schwartzman writes in the media project’s petition. “…Existing campaign finance and IRS regulations allow organizations which are often hollow shells for one or a few organizations or individuals to purchase commercials without identifying the source of their funding.”

The petition is the latest volley in the ongoing battle over the future of campaign-finance regulations, which have been significantly curtailed by recent court rulings, including a decision by the Supreme Court allowing unfettered spending by corporations.

The White House and congressional Democrats failed in attempts last year to impose broader disclosure requirements on outside advocacy groups, many of which are able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money without revealing any donors.

The FCC is currently split 3-to-2 in favor of Democrats, including Chairman Julius Genachowski. Schwartzman said he doesn’t know whether any of the FCC’s members or the White House will look favorably on the proposal.

“I would argue it’s a relatively modest change in existing practices,” he said. “I have no idea what their view will be.”

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Even though Congress’s first order of business under Republican control was Wednesday’s vote to repeal the health care law, most Americans said that they do not understand how the law affects them, and the public thinks job creation rather than health care should be the top priority for Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

A majority of Americans, 56 percent, said the health care law’s impact has not been adequately explained to them, while 41 percent said it has been explained well. The law, which passed last year without any Republican votes in the House of Representatives, still appears to be a polarizing issue as there is a significant divide among respondents along party lines. Self-identified Democrats are evenly split over whether the law’s impact has been explained or not, but more than 6 in 10 Republicans and independents alike said it has not.

Yet, one area of agreement among pluralities of each party’s loyalists is that job creation should be of paramount concern to Congress — half of Democrats, 41 percent of independents and 35 percent of Republicans agreed.

On the whole, more than 4 in 10 Americans said jobs should be the primary focus of the new Congress, while significantly fewer chose health care (18 percent), the federal budget deficit (14 percent), the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (12 percent) or illegal immigration (7 percent).

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Saturday through Wednesday with 1,036 adults and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Complete results will be available at 6:30 p.m. Thursday on NYTimes.com.

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Should Hillary Clinton resign as secretary of state due to the WikiLeaks revelations? My friend Jack Shafer at Slate makes a good case. His reason: Clinton, like predecessor Condoleezza Rice, signed orders instructing U.S. foreign service officers to spy on the diplomats of other nations. Cables went out under her name telling State Department officials [...]

LONDON — Well, you can’t fault the British government for lack of initiative. In addition to a sweeping reorganization of its National Health Service and a massive overhaul of its welfare system, Prime Minister David Cameron has put one more thing on Whitehall’s “to do” list: measuring the happiness of its citizens. Beginning Nov. 25, [...]

Evan Agostini/AGOEV, via Associated Press Malcolm Gladwell credits a surprising person for G.M.’s turnaround. Malcolm Gladwell hates private equity. Mr. Gladwell, the author of “Blink” and “Outliers,” recently wrote a review of Steven L. Rattner’s book about his tenure as the nation’s car czar. The review, in The New Yorker, is notable less for Mr. [...]

Newly elected Senate and House members will hit town next week for what is quaintly called “orientation.” Activities include posing on the Capitol steps for the freshman class picture, caucusing with party leaders and learning the quickest routes to the members-only elevators and subterranean trams. Missing from their schedule, alas, is a screening of “Casino [...]