I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4341 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require corporations 

to disclose to their shareholders the amounts disbursed for certain political activity, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 9, 2017 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, 

Ms. KAPTUR, and Mr. SCHIFF) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the 

Committee on House Administration, 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 committee concerned 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 

require corporations to disclose to their shareholders the 

amounts disbursed for certain political activity, 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. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Openness in Political 

5 Expenditures Now Act’’ or the ‘‘OPEN Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE BY CORPORATIONS TO SHARE2 HOLDERS OF DISBURSEMENTS FOR POLIT3 ICAL ACTIVITY. 

4 (a) DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—Title III of the Fed5 eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 

6 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 

7 new section: 

8 ‘‘SEC. 325. DISCLOSURES BY CORPORATIONS TO SHARE9 HOLDERS OF INFORMATION ON DISBURSE10 MENTS FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 

11 ‘‘(a) INCLUDING INFORMATION IN REGULAR PERI12 ODIC REPORTS.— 

13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A corporation which sub14 mits regular, periodic reports to its shareholders 

15 shall include in each such report, in a clear and con16 spicuous manner, the information described in para17 graph (2) with respect to the disbursements made by 

18 the corporation for covered political activity during 

19 the period covered by the report, but only if the 

20 amount of the disbursement made for such activity 

21 during the period covered by the report equals or ex22 ceeds the applicable threshold for the activity de23 scribed in paragraph (3). 

24 ‘‘(2) INFORMATION DESCRIBED.—The informa25 tion described in this paragraph is, for each dis26 bursement for covered political activity— 


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1 ‘‘(A) the date of the disbursement; 

2 ‘‘(B) the amount of the disbursement; 

3 ‘‘(C) in the case of a disbursement con4 sisting of an independent expenditure or an 

5 electioneering communication, or in the case of 

6 a covered political activity described in sub7 section (c)(3), the name of the candidate identi8 fied in the independent expenditure or election9 eering communication involved, the Commission 

10 ID assigned to the candidate, and the office 

11 sought by the candidate; and 

12 ‘‘(D) in the case of a covered political ac13 tivity described in subsection (c)(4), the identi14 fication of the association or organization to 

15 whom the disbursement was made, and the 

16 Commission ID (if any) assigned to the associa17 tion or organization. 

18 ‘‘(3) APPLICABLE THRESHOLD FOR DISCLO19 SURE.—For purposes of paragraph (1), the ‘applica20 ble threshold’ with respect to a disbursement for 

21 covered political activity during a period covered by 

22 a report is as follows: 

23 ‘‘(A) In the case of covered political activ24 ity consisting of an independent expenditure, 

25 $250. 


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1 ‘‘(B) In the case of covered political activ2 ity consisting of an electioneering communica3 tion or a communication described in subsection 

4 (c)(3), $10,000. 

5 ‘‘(C) In the case of covered political activ6 ity consisting of a payment described in sub7 section (c)(4), the amount of the limitation on 

8 contributions which is in effect under section 

9 315(a)(1)(C) as of the last day of the period. 

10 ‘‘(b) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT TO COMMISSION.— 

11 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT.—If a cor12 poration includes information in a report pursuant 

13 to this section, at the time the corporation submits 

14 the report to its shareholders, the corporation shall 

15 file a statement with the Commission consisting of 

16 the information included in the report pursuant to 

17 this section. 

18 ‘‘(2) HYPERLINK TO INFORMATION.— 

19 ‘‘(A) REQUIRING POSTING OF

20 HYPERLINK.—If a corporation maintains an 

21 Internet site, the corporation shall post on such 

22 Internet site a hyperlink from its homepage to 

23 the location on the Internet site of the Commis24 sion which contains the statement filed by the 

25 corporation under paragraph (1). 


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1 ‘‘(B) DEADLINE; DURATION OF POST2 ING.—The corporation shall post the hyperlink 

3 described in subparagraph (A) not later than 

4 24 hours after the Commission posts the state5 ment filed by the corporation under paragraph 

6 (1) on the Internet site of the Commission, and 

7 shall ensure that the hyperlink remains on the 

8 Internet site of the corporation until the expira9 tion of the 1-year period which begins on the 

10 date of the election with respect to which the 

11 disbursements included in the statement are 

12 made. 

13 ‘‘(c) COVERED POLITICAL ACTIVITY DEFINED.—In 

14 this section, the term ‘covered political activity’ means 

15 each of the following: 

16 ‘‘(1) An independent expenditure (as defined in 

17 section 301(17)). 

18 ‘‘(2) An electioneering communication (as de19 fined in section 304(f)(3)). 

20 ‘‘(3) A communication which would be treated 

21 as an electioneering communication under section 

22 304(f)(3) if the communication had been a broad23 cast, cable, or satellite communication. 


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1 ‘‘(4) The payment of dues or other amounts to 

2 a trade association or to a section 501(c)(4) organi3 zation. 

4 ‘‘(d) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the fol5 lowing definitions apply: 

6 ‘‘(1) The term ‘corporation’ means any corpora7 tion which is subject to section 316(a). 

8 ‘‘(2) The term ‘section 501(c)(4) organization’ 

9 means any organization described in paragraph (4) 

10 of section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 

11 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of 

12 such Code.’’. 

13 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

14 subsection (a) shall apply with respect to reports described 

15 in section 325(a)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign Act 

16 of 1971 (as added by subsection (a)) which are filed after 

17 the expiration of the 90-day period which begins on the 

18 date of the enactment of this Act. 

19 SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON ENGAGING IN COVERED POLITICAL 

20 ACTIVITIES BY SOCIAL WELFARE ORGANIZA21 TIONS. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal 

23 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 

24 the following: 


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1 ‘‘(C)(i) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply 

2 to an entity for a taxable year if the total ex3 penditures of such entity for the taxable year 

4 for covered political activity exceed the lesser 

5 of— 

6 ‘‘(I) 10 percent of the total expendi7 tures of such entity for the taxable year, or 

8 ‘‘(II) $10,000,000. 

9 ‘‘(ii) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to 

10 an entity for a taxable year unless its governing 

11 instrument includes provisions the effects of 

12 which are to prohibit the expenditures of the 

13 entity for a covered political activity from ex14 ceeding the threshold specified in clause (i). 

15 ‘‘(iii) For purposes of this subparagraph, 

16 the term ‘covered political activity’ means— 

17 ‘‘(I) any activity described in para18 graphs (1) through (3) of section 325(c) of 

19 the Federal Election Campaign Act of 

20 1971, and 

21 ‘‘(II) any payment by the entity to 

22 any other entity described in this para23 graph or to an organization described in 

24 paragraph (6) which the payor entity 

25 knows, or has reason to know, will be used 


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1 directly or indirectly by the payee entity or 

2 organization for any activity referred to in 

3 subclause (I). 

4 ‘‘(iv) Clause (i) shall not apply for a tax5 able year for which the 10 percent threshold 

6 specified in clause (i)(I) is exceeded by not 

7 more than a de minimis amount if the Sec8 retary determines that the reason for exceeding 

9 the threshold was not willful and is due to rea10 sonable cause. 

11 ‘‘(v) The Secretary shall prescribe such 

12 regulations as may be necessary or appropriate 

13 to prevent the avoidance of clause (i), including 

14 regulations relating to a direct or indirect 

15 transfer of all or part of the assets of an entity 

16 to an entity controlled (directly or indirectly) by 

17 the same person or persons who control the 

18 transferor entity.’’. 

19 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

20 subsection (a) shall apply to taxable years beginning after 

21 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

22 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

23 If any provision of this Act or amendment made by 

24 this Act, or the application of a provision or amendment 

25 to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstituVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Nov 17, 2017 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4341.IH H4341

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1 tional, the remainder of this Act and amendments made 

2 by this Act, and the application of the provisions and 

3 amendment to any person or circumstance, shall not be 

4 affected by the holding. 

Æ 


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