Federal Campaign Cybersecurity Assistance Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1569 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to allow certain expenditures for cybersecurity-related services or assistance. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 21, 2019 Mr. WYDEN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration A BILL To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to allow certain expenditures for cybersecurity-related serv- ices or assistance. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal Campaign Cy- 4 bersecurity Assistance Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress makes the following findings: 7 (1) The intelligence community has confirmed 8 that the Russian government meddled in our elec- 9 tions. 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1569 IS (2) Candidates for Federal office from both 1 major political parties have been targeted by sophis- 2 ticated cyber-attacks. 3 (3) There is a compelling governmental interest 4 in preventing foreign influence over the United 5 States political process, and that this includes pro- 6 tecting the political process, the parties, and indi- 7 vidual campaigns from cyber-attacks. 8 SEC. 3. ALLOWING CERTAIN EXPENDITURES FOR CYBERSE- 9 CURITY-RELATED SERVICES OR ASSISTANCE. 10 (a) USE OF BUILDING FUNDS.— 11 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (a)(9)(B) of sec- 12 tion 315 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 13 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30116) is amended— 14 (A) by inserting ‘‘(i)’’ after ‘‘(B)’’; 15 (B) in clause (i), as added by subpara- 16 graph (A), by adding at the end the following 17 new sentence: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding 18 sentence, such account may also be used to de- 19 fray the expenses incurred for secure informa- 20 tion communications technology or cybersecu- 21 rity products or services for the national com- 22 mittee, a State party, or for a candidate or his 23 or her authorized committee, regardless of 24 whether the expense otherwise relates to the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1569 IS construction, purchase, renovation, operation, 1 and furnishing of one or more headquarters 2 buildings of the party.’’; and 3 (C) by adding at the end the following new 4 clauses: 5 ‘‘(ii) For purposes of this subparagraph, 6 the term ‘secure information communications 7 technology’ means a commercial-off-the-shelf 8 computing device which has been configured to 9 restrict unauthorized access and uses publicly- 10 available baseline configurations. 11 ‘‘(iii) For purposes of this subparagraph, 12 the term ‘cybersecurity product or service’ 13 means a product or service which helps an orga- 14 nization to achieve the set of standards, guide- 15 lines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, 16 and processes to cost-effectively identify, detect, 17 protect, respond to, and recover from cyber 18 risks as developed by the National Institute of 19 Standards and Technology pursuant to sub- 20 sections (c)(15) and (e) of section 272 of title 21 15, United States Code. 22 ‘‘(iv) An authorized committee may not sell 23 any secure information communications tech- 24 nology or cybersecurity products or services re- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1569 IS ceived by the authorized committee that were 1 purchased using such account funds. Nothing in 2 the preceding sentence shall prevent an author- 3 ized committee from donating such secure infor- 4 mation communications technology or cyberse- 5 curity products or services to a charitable orga- 6 nization or to a Federal, State, local, or Tribal 7 government agency at the conclusion of the 8 campaign.’’. 9 (2) REPORTING.—Section 304(b) of such Act 10 (52 U.S.C. 30104(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘and’’ 11 at the end of paragraph (7), by striking the period 12 at the end of paragraph (8) and inserting ‘‘; and’’, 13 and by adding at the end the following new para- 14 graph: 15 ‘‘(9) for the national committee of a political 16 party, the name and address of each authorized 17 committee to which secure information communica- 18 tions technology or cybersecurity products or serv- 19 ices is supplied from an account described in section 20 315(a)(9)(B).’’. 21 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 22 by this subsection shall apply to expenditures made 23 on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1569 IS (b) TREATMENT OF CYBERSECURITY-RELATED 1 SERVICES AS IN-KIND CONTRIBUTION.—Notwithstanding 2 any other provision of law, effective 2 years after the date 3 of enactment of this Act, any secure information commu- 4 nications technology or cybersecurity products or services 5 (as those terms are defined in subsection (a)(9)(B) of sec- 6 tion 315 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 7 (52 U.S.C. 30116), as added by subsection (a), that are 8 provided at less than fair-market value to a political com- 9 mittee or a candidate for Federal office (as those terms 10 are defined in section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101)) 11 other than in accordance with such subsection (a)(9)(B), 12 shall be considered an in-kind contribution, regardless of 13 whether such services are made available on the same 14 terms and conditions to all political committees or can- 15 didates, unless such services are made available on the 16 same terms and conditions to all persons in the general 17 public. 18 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS