Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 5028 To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a former candidate for elec- tion for Federal office to disburse all of the remaining funds of the committee or PAC after the election, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES DECEMBER 16, 2020 Mr. BENNET 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 require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a former candidate for election for Federal office to disburse all of the remaining funds of the committee or PAC after 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 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Zeroing Out Money 4 for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •S 5028 IS SEC. 2. REQUIRING AUTHORIZED COMMITTEES OF CAN- 1 DIDATES TO DISBURSE UNEXPENDED FUNDS. 2 (a) REQUIRING DISBURSEMENT.—Title III of the 3 Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 4 et seq.) is amended by inserting after section 303 the fol- 5 lowing new section: 6 ‘‘SEC. 303A. DISBURSEMENT OF REMAINING UNEXPENDED 7 FUNDS. 8 ‘‘(a) REQUIRING DISBURSEMENT.— 9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each authorized committee 10 or leadership PAC of a candidate shall, in accord- 11 ance with subsection (b), disburse all funds of the 12 authorized committee or leadership PAC before the 13 earliest of— 14 ‘‘(A) the last day of the applicable dis- 15 bursement period; 16 ‘‘(B) the date on which the candidate first 17 makes a lobbying contact or is employed or re- 18 tained to make a lobbying contact that would 19 require registration under section 4 of the Lob- 20 bying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1603); 21 or 22 ‘‘(C) the date on which the candidate be- 23 comes an agent of a foreign principal that 24 would require registration under section 2 of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •S 5028 IS the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, 1 as amended (22 U.S.C. 612). 2 ‘‘(2) EXCEPTION FOR CANDIDATES IN NEXT 3 ELECTION.—Paragraph (1) does not apply to the 4 authorized committee or leadership PAC of a can- 5 didate who, prior to the first day of the applicable 6 disbursement period, provides the appropriate State 7 election official with the information and fees (if 8 any) required under State law for the individual to 9 qualify as a candidate for the next election for the 10 office sought by the candidate or the next election 11 for another Federal office. 12 ‘‘(3) APPLICABLE DISBURSEMENT PERIOD.—In 13 this subsection, the ‘applicable disbursement period’ 14 is, with respect to a candidate seeking election for 15 an office, the 6-month period which begins on the 16 day after the latest date on which an individual may 17 provide the appropriate State election official with 18 the information and fees (if any) required under 19 State law for the individual to qualify as a candidate 20 for the next election for such office. In the case of 21 a candidate for Senate, the office sought shall be the 22 Senate office in the class that ends with the term of 23 the office for which such candidate is seeking. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •S 5028 IS ‘‘(b) RULES FOR DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.—Any 1 funds to which subsection (a) applies that are disbursed 2 on or after the first day of the applicable disbursement 3 period shall be disbursed as follows: 4 ‘‘(1) PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS.—An author- 5 ized committee or leadership PAC shall first pay ob- 6 ligations incurred in connection with the operation of 7 the committee. 8 ‘‘(2) OTHER PERMITTED DISBURSEMENTS.— 9 Notwithstanding section 313(a), if, after disbursing 10 all of the funds necessary to pay obligations under 11 paragraph (1), funds of a committee or PAC remain 12 unexpended, the committee or PAC may only dis- 13 burse such remaining funds for the following pur- 14 poses: 15 ‘‘(A) To return to any person a contribu- 16 tion the person made to the committee or PAC. 17 ‘‘(B) Except as provided in paragraph 18 (3)(A), to make a contribution to an organiza- 19 tion described in section 170(c) of the Internal 20 Revenue Code of 1986. 21 ‘‘(3) PROHIBITIONS.—In disbursing funds pur- 22 suant to the requirements of this section, an author- 23 ized committee or leadership PAC may not disburse 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •S 5028 IS funds during the applicable disbursement period to 1 any of the following: 2 ‘‘(A) Any organization described in section 3 170(c) (other than an organization described in 4 paragraph (1) thereof) if— 5 ‘‘(i) the organization was established 6 by the candidate; 7 ‘‘(ii) the organization bears the can- 8 didate’s name; or 9 ‘‘(iii) the candidate or a relative of the 10 candidate— 11 ‘‘(I) is employed by such organi- 12 zation; 13 ‘‘(II) is an officer of such organi- 14 zation; or 15 ‘‘(III) performs services (whether 16 paid or unpaid) on behalf of such or- 17 ganization. 18 ‘‘(B) Any relative of the candidate unless 19 the funds are disbursed to pay an obligation of 20 the committee as described in paragraph (1) 21 which is reported by the committee or PAC as 22 a disbursement under section 304(b)(5) or 23 which would be so reported if the amount of the 24 disbursement were in excess of $200. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •S 5028 IS ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 1 ‘‘(1) LEADERSHIP PAC.—The term ‘leadership 2 PAC’ has the meaning given such term in section 3 304(i)(8)(B). 4 ‘‘(2) RELATIVE.—The term ‘relative’ means, 5 with respect to a candidate, an individual who is re- 6 lated to the candidate as father, mother, son, daugh- 7 ter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, 8 niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, 9 son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in- 10 law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, 11 stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, or half sister.’’. 12 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT RELATING TO PER- 13 MITTED USES OF CONTRIBUTIONS.—Section 313(a) of 14 such Act (52 U.S.C. 30114(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘A 15 contribution’’ and inserting ‘‘Subject to section 303A, a 16 contribution’’. 17 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 18 this section shall apply with respect to the regularly sched- 19 uled general election for Federal office held in November 20 2020 and each succeeding election for Federal office. 21 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:24 Jan 01, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •S 5028 IS SEC. 3. REQUIRING FORMER CANDIDATES SERVING AS 1 REGISTERED LOBBYISTS TO CERTIFY COM- 2 PLIANCE WITH DISBURSEMENT REQUIRE- 3 MENTS. 4 (a) CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE.—Section 4(b) 5 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 6 1603(b)) is amended— 7 (1) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 8 end; 9 (2) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at 10 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 11 (3) by inserting after paragraph (7) the fol- 12 lowing: 13 ‘‘(8) in the case of an individual who was a can- 14 didate for election for Federal office, a certification 15 (under penalty of perjury) that each authorized com- 16 mittee and leadership PAC (as defined in section 17 304(i)(8)(B) of the Federal Election Campaign Act 18 of 1971) of the individual is in compliance with sec- 19 tion 303A of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 20 1971 (relating to the disbursement of funds of the 21 committee or leadership PAC which remain unex- 22 pended after the date of the election).’’. 23 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 24 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to registration 25 statements filed under section 4(a) of the Lobbying Dis- 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 8 •S 5028 IS closure Act on or after the date of the regularly scheduled 1 general election for Federal office held in November 2020. 2 SEC. 4. REQUIRING FORMER CANDIDATES SERVING AS 3 FOREIGN AGENTS TO CERTIFY COMPLIANCE 4 WITH DISBURSEMENT REQUIREMENTS. 5 (a) CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE.—Section 2(a) 6 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as 7 amended (22 U.S.C. 612(a)) is amended by adding at the 8 end the following: 9 ‘‘(12) In the case of an individual who was a 10 candidate for election for Federal office, a certifi- 11 cation (under penalty of perjury) that each author- 12 ized committee and leadership PAC (as defined in 13 section 304(i)(8)(B) of the Federal Election Cam- 14 paign Act of 1971) of the individual is in compliance 15 with section 303A of the Federal Election Campaign 16 Act of 1971 (relating to the disbursement of funds 17 of the committee or leadership PAC which remain 18 unexpended after the date of the election).’’. 19 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 20 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to registration 21 statements filed under section 2 of the Foreign Agents 22 Registration Act of 1938, as amended on or after the date 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 9 •S 5028 IS of the regularly scheduled general election for Federal of- 1 fice held in November 2020. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:13 Dec 29, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S5028.IS S5028 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS