Legislation to Overhaul Public Funding for Presidential Campaigns

Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate (H.R. 6061 and S. 3681) to revise the outdated presidential public campaign financing system. Seeking to encourage smaller individual contributions, the bill would match small contributions of $200 or less with public funds at a 4-to-1 ratio. Participating candidates would limit the contributions they receive from an individual to no more than $1,000 per person for the primaries and $500 for the general election.

According to BNA Money and Politics ($$), it "would provide that any contributions raised by lobbyists and special interest groups for a presidential candidate would not be matched with public funds. It also would require campaigns to disclose the names of each person who bundles contributions totaling more than $50,000 for a presidential candidate and the total amount bundled."

Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21, "said the new legislation would eliminate spending caps for publicly financed candidates in order to address the practical problems faced after the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission."

The concerns about the Court decision have begun to play out as the Los Angeles Times reports, Democratic leaders "estimated that more than $300 million has been budgeted for the campaign by a group of 15 conservative tax-exempt organizations." An increase in such spending will be occurring across the political spectrum. For example, the Service Employees International Union has budgeted $44 million for campaign spending. It was also reported last week that five of the largest health insurers have been discussing financing a new nonprofit group to influence congressional races. In addition, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that several coal executives are seeking to gain from Citizen United by forming a 527 group to help elect coal-friendly candidates.

Meanwhile, the Federal Election Commission has posted video on YouTube that explains how groups can now spend an unlimited amount of funds. The video discusses issues related to independent expenditures, all of the changes to the campaign finance laws, and how to file forms.

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