Bill Details
HR.2476 - 119th Congress
Status
Latest action
2025-03-27 - Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
Introduced Date
2025-03-27
Policy Area
Government Operations and Politics
Committees
View committees (1)
Sponsors
Cosponsors
7
0
0
AI Summary This summary was generated by AI from the bill text. AI can get information wrong.
This bill would make campaign spending more likely to count as “coordinated” with a candidate or political party. In plain terms, if a person or group spends money in a way that closely follows a candidate’s or party’s instructions, guidance, or suggestions, that spending could be treated as acting together with the campaign. That matters because coordinated spending is subject to campaign finance rules. The bill is aimed at preventing outside spending that is effectively planned with a campaign, even if the directions are shared indirectly or are not made public.
- It changes federal election law to cover spending that is “materially consistent” with instructions, directions, guidance, or suggestions from a candidate, campaign committee, party committee, or their agents.
- The rule would apply even if the guidance is not shared directly with the spender and even if it is not made available to the public.
- The Federal Election Commission would have to look at certain signs of coordination, such as whether the message is about a clearly identified candidate, the intended audience, the type of media used, or whether specific phrases, images, video, or audio from the guidance later appear in the communication.
- If one or more of these signs are present, the spending would be presumed to be coordinated unless the commission finds otherwise. The change would apply to spending made on or after the law takes effect.
Official Summaries
No summaries available
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2476 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2476
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to treat
expenditures as coordinated with a candidate, an authorized committee
of a candidate, or a committee of a national, State, or local political
party if the making of the expenditures is materially consistent with
instructions, directions, guidance, and suggestions from such candidate
or committee, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 27, 2025
Ms. Tokuda (for herself, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Case, Ms. Jayapal, and Ms.
Balint) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to treat
expenditures as coordinated with a candidate, an authorized committee
of a candidate, or a committee of a national, State, or local political
party if the making of the expenditures is materially consistent with
instructions, directions, guidance, and suggestions from such candidate
or committee, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Stop Illegal Campaign Coordination
Act''.
SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN EXPENDITURES AS COORDINATED EXPENDITURES.
(a) In General.--Section 315(a) of the Federal Election Campaign
Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30116(a)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (7)(B)(i), by striking ``or their agents''
and inserting ``or their agents, including expenditures
described in paragraph (10),'';
(2) in paragraph (7)(B)(ii) by striking ``political
party,'' and inserting ``political party, including
expenditures described in paragraph (10),''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(10)(A) For purposes of paragraph (7)(B)(i) and (ii), an
expenditure is described in this paragraph if the making of the
expenditure is materially consistent with instructions, directions,
guidance, or suggestions from a candidate, an authorized committee of a
candidate, or a national, State, or local committee of a political
party, or from an agent of any such candidate or committee, regardless
of whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or suggestions are
made available to the general public or are communicated directly or
indirectly to the person making the expenditure.
``(B) To determine whether the making of an expenditure is
materially consistent with instructions, directions, guidance, or
suggestions from a candidate or committee for purposes of this
paragraph, the Commission shall consider each of the factors described
in subparagraph (C), and if the Commission determines that one or more
of such factors apply with respect to the making of the expenditure,
the making of the expenditure shall be presumed to be materially
consistent with instructions, directions, guidance, or suggestions from
a candidate or committee for purposes of this paragraph.
``(C) The factors described in this subparagraph are the following:
``(i) Whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or
suggestions indicate that information regarding a clearly
identified candidate or political party should be communicated
or disseminated to voters or any subset of voters.
``(ii) In the case of an expenditure consisting of Federal
election activity or a communication which disseminates to any
person information about a candidate or political party,
whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or suggestions
include information regarding the target audience for the
communication or the information, such as the demographics,
location, or political party affiliation of recipients.
``(iii) Whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or
suggestions include suggested methods of making a communication
or disseminating information, such as references to the
distribution or receipt of direct mail, audio, video, social
media, digital, or other media.
``(iv) In the case of an expenditure consisting of Federal
election activity or a communication which disseminates to any
person information about a candidate or political party,
whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or suggestions
include or are accompanied by any phrase, image, video, or
audio is subsequently used, in whole or in part, in
communicating or disseminating the information.
``(v) Whether the instructions, directions, guidance, or
suggestions containing one or more other factors identified in
this subparagraph are set apart using a signal or cue.
``(vi) Such other factors as the Commission considers
appropriate.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall
apply with respect to expenditures made on or after the date of the
enactment of this Act.
<all>