I 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2670 

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

and labor organizations to disclose to their shareholders or members 

the amounts disbursed for certain political activity, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 11, 2013 

Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. GRAYSON, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, 

Mr. FATTAH, Mr. SIRES, Mr. ENYART, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. O’ROURKE, 

Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. 

VARGAS, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. 

ENGEL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. TONKO, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, and Ms. 

LINDA T. SA ́NCHEZ of California) 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 and labor organizations to disclose 

to their shareholders or members 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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

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

4 SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE BY CORPORATIONS AND LABOR ORGA5 NIZATIONS TO SHAREHOLDERS AND MEM6 BERS OF DISBURSEMENTS FOR POLITICAL 

7 ACTIVITY. 

8 (a) DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—Title III of the Fed9 eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) 

10 is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 

11 ‘‘SEC. 325. DISCLOSURES BY CORPORATIONS AND LABOR 

12 ORGANIZATIONS TO SHAREHOLDERS AND 

13 MEMBERS OF INFORMATION ON DISBURSE14 MENTS FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 

15 ‘‘(a) INCLUDING INFORMATION IN REGULAR PERI16 ODIC REPORTS.— 

17 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A corporation which sub18 mits regular, periodic reports to its shareholders and 

19 a labor organization which submits regular, periodic 

20 reports to its members shall include in each such re21 port, in a clear and conspicuous manner, the infor22 mation described in paragraph (2) with respect to 

23 the disbursements made by the corporation or labor 

24 organization for covered political activity during the 

25 period covered by the report, but only if the amount 

26 of the disbursement made for such activity during 


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1 the period covered by the report equals or exceeds 

2 the applicable threshold for the activity described in 

3 paragraph (3). 

4 ‘‘(2) INFORMATION DESCRIBED.—The informa5 tion described in this paragraph is, for each dis6 bursement for covered political activity— 

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

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

9 ‘‘(C) in the case of a disbursement con10 sisting of an independent expenditure or an 

11 electioneering communication, or in the case of 

12 a covered political activity described in sub13 section (c)(3), the name of the candidate identi14 fied in the independent expenditure or election15 eering communication involved, the Commission 

16 ID assigned to the candidate, and the office 

17 sought by the candidate; and 

18 ‘‘(D) in the case of a covered political ac19 tivity described in subsection (c)(4), the identi20 fication of the association or organization to 

21 whom the disbursement was made, and the 

22 Commission ID (if any) assigned to the associa23 tion or organization. 

24 ‘‘(3) APPLICABLE THRESHOLD FOR DISCLO25 SURE.—For purposes of paragraph (1), the ‘applicaVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:26 Jul 12, 2013 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2670.IH H2670

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1 ble threshold’ with respect to a disbursement for 

2 covered political activity during a period covered by 

3 a report is as follows: 

4 ‘‘(A) In the case of covered political activ5 ity consisting of an independent expenditure, 

6 $250. 

7 ‘‘(B) In the case of covered political activ8 ity consisting of an electioneering communica9 tion or a communication described in subsection 

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

11 ‘‘(C) In the case of covered political activ12 ity consisting of a payment described in sub13 section (c)(4), the amount of the limitation on 

14 contributions which is in effect under section 

15 315(a)(1)(C) as of the last day of the period. 

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

17 ‘‘(1) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT.—If a cor18 poration or labor organization includes information 

19 in a report pursuant to this section, at the time the 

20 corporation or labor organization submits the report 

21 to its shareholders or members, the corporation or 

22 labor organization shall file a statement with the 

23 Commission consisting of the information included 

24 in the report pursuant to this section. 

25 ‘‘(2) HYPERLINK TO INFORMATION.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) REQUIRING POSTING OF

2 HYPERLINK.—If a corporation or labor organi3 zation maintains an Internet site, the corpora4 tion or labor organization shall post on such 

5 Internet site a hyperlink from its homepage to 

6 the location on the Internet site of the Commis7 sion which contains the statement filed by the 

8 corporation or labor organization under para9 graph (1). 

10 ‘‘(B) DEADLINE; DURATION OF POST11 ING.—The corporation or labor organization 

12 shall post the hyperlink described in subpara13 graph (A) not later than 24 hours after the 

14 Commission posts the statement filed by the 

15 corporation or labor organization under para16 graph (1) on the Internet site of the Commis17 sion, and shall ensure that the hyperlink re18 mains on the Internet site of the corporation or 

19 labor organization until the expiration of the 1- 

20 year period which begins on the date of the 

21 election with respect to which the disbursements 

22 included in the statement are made. 

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

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

25 each of the following: 


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

2 section 301(17)). 

3 ‘‘(2) An electioneering communication (as de4 fined in section 304(f)(3)). 

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

6 as an electioneering communication under section 

7 304(f)(3) if the communication had been a broad8 cast, cable, or satellite communication. 

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

10 a trade association or to a section 501(c)(4) organi11 zation. 

12 ‘‘(d) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the fol13 lowing definitions apply: 

14 ‘‘(1) The term ‘corporation’ means any corpora15 tion which is subject to section 316(a). 

16 ‘‘(2) The term ‘labor organization’ has the 

17 meaning given such term in section 316. 

18 ‘‘(3) The term ‘section 501(c)(4) organization’ 

19 means any organization described in paragraph (4) 

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

21 1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of 

22 such Code.’’. 

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

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

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


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

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

3 date of the enactment of this Act. 

4 SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON ENGAGING IN COVERED POLITICAL 

5 ACTIVITIES BY SOCIAL WELFARE ORGANIZA6 TIONS. 

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

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

9 the following: 

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

11 to an entity for a taxable year if the total ex12 penditures of such entity for the taxable year 

13 for covered political activity exceed the lesser 

14 of— 

15 ‘‘(I) 10 percent of the total expendi16 tures of such entity for the taxable year, or 

17 ‘‘(II) $10,000,000. 

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

19 an entity for a taxable year unless its governing 

20 instrument includes provisions the effects of 

21 which are to prohibit the expenditures of the 

22 entity for a covered political activity from ex23 ceeding the threshold specified in clause (i). 

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

25 the term ‘covered political activity’ means— 


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1 ‘‘(I) any activity described in para2 graphs (1) through (3) of section 325(c) of 

3 the Federal Election Campaign Act of 

4 1971; and 

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

6 any other entity described in this para7 graph or to an organization described in 

8 paragraph (6) which the payor entity 

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

10 directly or indirectly by the payee entity or 

11 organization for any activity referred to in 

12 subclause (I). 

13 ‘‘(iv) Clause (i) shall not apply for a tax14 able year for which the 10 percent threshold 

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

16 more than a de minimis amount if the Sec17 retary determines that the reason for exceeding 

18 the threshold was not willful and is due to rea19 sonable cause. 

20 ‘‘(v) The Secretary shall prescribe such 

21 regulations as may be necessary or appropriate 

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

23 regulations relating to a direct or indirect 

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

25 to an entity controlled (directly or indirectly) by 


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1 the same person or persons who control the 

2 transferor entity.’’. 

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

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

5 the date of the enactment of this Act. 

6 SEC. 4. SEVERABILITY. 

7 If any provision of this Act or amendment made by 

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

9 to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitu10 tional, the remainder of this Act and amendments made 

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

12 amendment to any person or circumstance, shall not be 

13 affected by the holding. 

Æ 


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