No official summary available for this bill.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6893 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 6893
To prohibit the disbursement of funds to entities owned or controlled
by individuals with executive or managerial authority over the
operations of political committees, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 22, 2023
Ms. Porter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Administration
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit the disbursement of funds to entities owned or controlled
by individuals with executive or managerial authority over the
operations of political committees, 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; FINDINGS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Corrupt
Actors from Making Political Action Committees Act'' or the ``SCAM PAC
Act''.
(b) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) In its 2022 legislative recommendations to Congress,
the Federal Election Commission unanimously identified the
``fraudulent fundraising and spending activities of certain
political committees that are often referred to as `scam
PACs''' as a priority for Congress to ``address, define, and
prohibit.'' As the Federal regulator empowered to enforce
campaign finance laws, the Federal Election Commission
possesses the requisite technical expertise on political
committees to help Congress effectively regulate scam PACs.
(2) Congress affirms the Federal Election Commission's
description of scam PACs as unauthorized committees that
mislead contributors by ``[soliciting] contributions with the
promise of supporting candidates, but then disclose minimal or
no candidate support activities while engaging in significant
and continuous fundraising. This fundraising predominantly
funds personal compensation for the committees' organizers. In
many cases, all funds raised by this subset of political
committees are provided to fundraising vendors, direct mail
vendors, and consultants in which the political committees'
officers appear to have financial interests.''.
(3) Scam PACs are political parasites that degrade the
integrity of our elections and harm American democracy. Fraud
in elections erodes public confidence in American institutions,
and reports of scam PACs abusing donations for self-enrichment
schemes can have a chilling effect on donors' and voters'
willingness to politically participate. Candidates also suffer
harm when cash they need to run their campaigns is diverted
away from them.
(4) This Act targets scam PACs' fraud and self-dealing. The
Supreme Court has acknowledged ``it goes without saying that
there is a `substantial governmental interest[] in protecting
the public from fraud.''' (Americans for Prosperity Found. v.
Bonta, 141 S. Ct. 2373, 2386 (2021)). In the context of
elections, ``the State's interest in preserving the integrity
of the electoral process is undoubtedly important. . . . The
State's interest is particularly strong with respect to efforts
to root out fraud, which not only may produce fraudulent
outcomes, but has a systemic effect as well,'' (John Doe No. 1
v. Reed, 561 U.S. 186, 197 (2010)).
(5) The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld that giving and
spending money in elections is protected speech. When scam PAC
operators misuse donations, they are suppressing their donors'
speech. By making few to no political contributions with the
dollars raised off false promises to further their donors'
political views, scam PACs are stealing money, and theft is not
protected speech.
(6) In the interest of safeguarding constitutionally
protected speech, this Act does not prescribe sweeping
regulations regarding how all political committees may spend
money in elections. This Act's prohibitions are narrowly
tailored to only apply to a subset of nonconnected committees
that do not have a majority of their disbursements spent on
legitimate expenditures, sparing the vast majority of
committees from being subjected to any additional requirements.
For the committees that fail to have a majority of their
disbursements spent on legitimate expenditures, their only
penalty under this Act is being prevented from disbursing funds
to any entity that has a financial interest or familial
connection to the committees' operators. This restriction is
exceedingly reasonable and simple to comply with to promote the
governmental interest of preventing self-dealing.
(7) While current PAC reporting requirements provide the
public with information that can be useful for identifying scam
PACs, the mere public availability of this disclosed
information has done little to protect donors from scams, deter
scam PACs' operations, or curb the proliferation of fraudulent
committees. Most grassroots donors who are looking to express
their opinions by making a political contribution are unable to
easily interpret this disclosed information even if they know
to look for it and know where to find it. Disclosures in the
absence of meaningful fundraising and spending standards are
insufficient to hold scam PACs accountable.
(8) Given the finite timelines of campaign cycles,
prophylactic measures to combat fraud in elections are
necessary alternatives to strict reliance on enforcement
actions against fraud after an election is already over when
the harm is very difficult to remedy.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS TO ENTITIES OWNED OR
CONTROLLED BY INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTHORITY OVER OPERATIONS
OF POLITICAL COMMITTEES.
(a) In General.--Section 302 of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30102) is amended by adding at the end the following
new subsection:
``(j)(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (3) and (4), during a
reporting period covered by a report filed by a political committee
under section 304, the committee may not make disbursements to an
entity owned or controlled in whole or in part by an individual, or by
a family member of an individual--
``(A) who is authorized to carry out executive or
managerial authority over the operation of the committee;
``(B) who is authorized to solicit or disburse funds for or
on behalf of the committee; or
``(C) who is an employee of the committee (whether paid or
unpaid) and who provides the committee with professional
services (other than accounting or legal services) relating to
the committee's campaign or fundraising strategy.
``(2) A political committee may not employ or allow to volunteer on
behalf of the committee an individual who owns or controls an entity
that has accepted disbursements made from any political committee in
violation of paragraph (1).
``(3) Paragraph (1) does not apply with respect to disbursements
made by a political committee during the reporting period covered by a
report filed by the committee under section 304 if a majority of the
funds disbursed by the committee during the period were for
contributions to an authorized committee of a candidate or a committee
of a political party or for making independent expenditures.
``(4) Paragraph (1) does not apply with respect to the following:
``(A) An authorized committee of a candidate.
``(B) A committee of a political party.
``(C) A separate segregated fund of a corporation or labor
organization under section 316(b)(2)(C).
``(5) In this subsection, the term `family member' means, with
respect to an individual, any of the following:
``(A) A spouse, and parents thereof.
``(B) Sons and daughters, and spouses thereof.
``(C) Parents, and spouses thereof.
``(D) Brothers and sisters, and spouses thereof.
``(E) Grandparents and grandchildren, and spouses thereof.
``(F) Aunts and uncles, and spouses thereof.
``(G) Cousins, and spouses thereof.
``(H) A domestic partner, and parents thereof, including
domestic partners of any individual described in subparagraphs
(A) through (G).''.
(b) Regulations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the
enactment of this Act, the Federal Election Commission shall promulgate
such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the amendment made by
this Act.
(c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by this Act shall apply
with respect to disbursements made on or after the date that is 90 days
after the date of enactment of this Act, without regard to whether or
not the Commission has promulgated regulations under subsection (b).
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on House Administration.
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