Honest Elections and Campaign, No Gain Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1363 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a candidate for election for Federal office to disburse all of the funds of the committee or PAC which remain unexpended after the date of the election, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEBRUARY 26, 2019 Ms. CASTOR of Florida (for herself, Mr. BILIRAKIS, and Mr. RASKIN) intro- duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com- mittee concerned A BILL To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a candidate for election for Federal office to disburse all of the funds of the committee or PAC which remain unexpended after the date of the election, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 1363 IH SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Honest Elections and 2 Campaign, No Gain Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. REQUIRING AUTHORIZED COMMITTEES OF CAN- 4 DIDATES TO DISBURSE FUNDS REMAINING 5 UNEXPENDED AFTER DATE OF ELECTION. 6 (a) REQUIRING DISBURSEMENT.—Title III of the 7 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 8 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 303 the fol- 9 lowing new section: 10 ‘‘SEC. 303A. DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS REMAINING UNEX- 11 PENDED AFTER DATE OF ELECTION. 12 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING DISBURSEMENT.— 13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each authorized committee 14 or leadership PAC of a candidate shall, in accord- 15 ance with subsection (b) and prior to the expiration 16 of the applicable disbursement period, disburse any 17 funds of the committee or PAC which remain unex- 18 pended as of the date of the election for the office 19 sought by the candidate. 20 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR CANDIDATES IN NEXT 21 ELECTION.—Paragraph (1) does not apply to the 22 committee or PAC of a candidate who, prior to the 23 first day of the applicable disbursement period, pro- 24 vides the appropriate State election official with the 25 information and fees (if any) required under State 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 1363 IH law for the individual to qualify as a candidate for 1 the next election for the office sought by the can- 2 didate or the next election for another Federal of- 3 fice. 4 ‘‘(3) APPLICABLE DISBURSEMENT PERIOD.—In 5 this subsection, the ‘applicable disbursement period’ 6 is, with respect to a candidate seeking election for 7 an office, the 2-year period which begins on the day 8 after the latest date on which an individual may pro- 9 vide the appropriate State election official with the 10 information and fees (if any) required under State 11 law for the individual to qualify as a candidate for 12 the next election for such office. 13 ‘‘(b) RULES FOR DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.— 14 ‘‘(1) PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS.—In carrying 15 out subsection (a), an authorized committee or lead- 16 ership PAC shall first disburse funds to pay obliga- 17 tions incurred in connection with the operation of 18 the committee. 19 ‘‘(2) OTHER PERMITTED DISBURSEMENTS.—If, 20 after disbursing all of the funds necessary to pay ob- 21 ligations under paragraph (1), funds of a committee 22 or PAC remain unexpended, the committee or PAC 23 may disburse the funds for any of the following pur- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 1363 IH poses, in such manner and combination as the com- 1 mittee or PAC considers appropriate: 2 ‘‘(A) To return to any person a contribu- 3 tion the person made to the committee or PAC. 4 ‘‘(B) To make a contribution to an organi- 5 zation described in section 170(c) of the Inter- 6 nal Revenue Code of 1986. 7 ‘‘(C) To make a transfer without limitation 8 to a national, State, or local committee of a po- 9 litical party. 10 ‘‘(c) RESTRICTIONS ON DISBURSEMENT TO REL- 11 ATIVES.— 12 ‘‘(1) RESTRICTION.—In disbursing funds pur- 13 suant to the requirements of this section, an author- 14 ized committee or leadership PAC may not disburse 15 funds to a relative of the candidate unless the funds 16 are disbursed to pay an obligation of the committee 17 as described in paragraph (1) of subsection (b) 18 which is reported by the committee or PAC as a dis- 19 bursement under section 304(b)(5) or which would 20 be so reported if the amount of the disbursement 21 were in excess of $200. 22 ‘‘(2) RELATIVE DEFINED.—In this subsection, 23 the term ‘relative’ means, with respect to a can- 24 didate, an individual who is related to the candidate 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 1363 IH as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, 1 uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, 2 wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daugh- 3 ter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, 4 stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, step- 5 sister, half brother, or half sister. 6 ‘‘(d) DEFINITION.—In this section, the term ‘leader- 7 ship PAC’ has the meaning given such term in section 8 304(i)(8)(B).’’. 9 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO PER- 10 MITTED USES OF CONTRIBUTIONS.—Section 313(a) of 11 such Act (52 U.S.C. 30114(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘A 12 contribution’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to section 303A, a 13 contribution’’. 14 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 15 this section shall apply with respect to the regularly sched- 16 uled general election for Federal office held in November 17 2020 and each succeeding election for Federal office. 18 SEC. 3. REQUIRING FORMER CANDIDATES SERVING AS 19 REGISTERED LOBBYISTS TO CERTIFY COM- 20 PLIANCE WITH DISBURSEMENT REQUIRE- 21 MENTS. 22 (a) CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE.—Section 4(b) 23 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 24 1603(b)) is amended— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 1363 IH (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 1 (5); 2 (2) by striking the period at the end of para- 3 graph (6) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4 (3) by inserting after paragraph (6) the fol- 5 lowing new paragraph: 6 ‘‘(7) in the case of an individual who was a can- 7 didate for election for Federal office, a certification 8 (under penalty of perjury) that each authorized com- 9 mittee and leadership PAC (as defined in section 10 304(i)(8)(B) of the Federal Election Campaign Act 11 of 1971) of the individual is in compliance with sec- 12 tion 303A of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 13 1971 (relating to the disbursement of funds of the 14 committee or leadership PAC which remain unex- 15 pended after the date of the election).’’. 16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 17 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to registration 18 statements filed under section 4(a) of the Lobbying Dis- 19 closure Act on or after the date of the regularly scheduled 20 general election for Federal office held in November 2020. 21 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:07 Mar 06, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H1363.IH H1363 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS