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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 57

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit political

action committees from making contributions or expenditures for the

purpose of influencing elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 6, 1999

Mr. ARCHER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on House Administration

A BILL

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to

prohibit political action committees from making contributions or expenditures for the purpose of influencing

elections for Federal office, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. BAN ON ACTIVITIES OF POLITICAL ACTION

4 COMMITTEES IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title III of the Federal Election

6 Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended

7 by adding at the end the following new section:
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1 ‘‘BAN ON FEDERAL ELECTION ACTIVITIES BY POLITICAL

2 ACTION COMMITTEES

3 ‘‘SEC. 323. (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any

4 other provision of this Act, no political action committee

5 may make contributions, solicit or receive contributions,

6 or make expenditures for the purpose of influencing an

7 election for Federal office.

8 ‘‘(b) POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE DEFINED.—In

9 this section, the term ‘political action committee’ means

10 any political committee which is not—

11 ‘‘(1) the principal campaign committee of a

12 candidate; or

13 ‘‘(2) a national, State, local, or district commit14 tee of a political party, including any subordinate

15 committee thereof.’’.

16 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—(1) Section

17 301(4)(A) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 431(4)(A)) is amended

18 by inserting after ‘‘persons’’ the following: ‘‘(but not in19 cluding a partnership for purposes of section 323(b))’’.

20 (2) Section 316(b)(2) of such Act (2 U.S.C.

21 441b(b)(2)) is amended—

22 (A) by adding ‘‘and’’ at the end of subpara23 graph (A);

24 (B) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of subpara25 graph (B) and inserting a period; and
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1 (C) by striking subparagraph (C).

2 SEC. 2. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ELECTION LIMITA3 TION ON CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PERSONS

4 OTHER THAN INDIVIDUAL IN-STATE RESI5 DENTS.

6 Section 315 of the Federal Election Campaign Act

7 of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a) is amended by adding at the end

8 the following new subsection:

9 ‘‘(i)(1) A candidate for the office of Representative

10 in, or Delegate or Resident Commissioner to, the Congress

11 may not, with respect to an election for Federal office,

12 accept contributions from persons other than individual

13 in-State residents totaling more than 20 percent of the

14 total of contributions accepted from all sources.

15 ‘‘(2) As used in this subsection, the term ‘individual

16 in-State resident’ means an individual who resides in the

17 State in which the congressional district involved is lo18 cated.’’.

19 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

20 The amendments made by this Act shall apply with

21 respect to elections for Federal office held after December

22 31, 1998.

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