I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 6893 

To prohibit the disbursement of funds to entities owned or controlled by 

individuals with executive or managerial authority over the operations 

of political committees, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

DECEMBER 22, 2023 

Ms. PORTER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on House Administration 

A BILL 

To prohibit the disbursement of funds to entities owned 

or controlled by individuals with executive or managerial 

authority over the operations of political committees, 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; FINDINGS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Stopping Corrupt Actors from Making Political Action 

6 Committees Act’’ or the ‘‘SCAM PAC Act’’. 

7 (b) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) In its 2022 legislative recommendations to 

2 Congress, the Federal Election Commission unani3 mously identified the ‘‘fraudulent fundraising and 

4 spending activities of certain political committees 

5 that are often referred to as ‘scam PACs’ ’’ as a pri6 ority for Congress to ‘‘address, define, and pro7 hibit.’’ As the Federal regulator empowered to en8 force campaign finance laws, the Federal Election 

9 Commission possesses the requisite technical exper10 tise on political committees to help Congress effec11 tively regulate scam PACs. 

12 (2) Congress affirms the Federal Election Com13 mission’s description of scam PACs as unauthorized 

14 committees that mislead contributors by ‘‘[soliciting] 

15 contributions with the promise of supporting can16 didates, but then disclose minimal or no candidate 

17 support activities while engaging in significant and 

18 continuous fundraising. This fundraising predomi19 nantly funds personal compensation for the commit20 tees’ organizers. In many cases, all funds raised by 

21 this subset of political committees are provided to 

22 fundraising vendors, direct mail vendors, and con23 sultants in which the political committees’ officers 

24 appear to have financial interests.’’. 


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1 (3) Scam PACs are political parasites that de2 grade the integrity of our elections and harm Amer3 ican democracy. Fraud in elections erodes public 

4 confidence in American institutions, and reports of 

5 scam PACs abusing donations for self-enrichment 

6 schemes can have a chilling effect on donors’ and 

7 voters’ willingness to politically participate. Can8 didates also suffer harm when cash they need to run 

9 their campaigns is diverted away from them. 

10 (4) This Act targets scam PACs’ fraud and 

11 self-dealing. The Supreme Court has acknowledged 

12 ‘‘it goes without saying that there is a ‘substantial 

13 governmental interest[] in protecting the public from 

14 fraud.’ ’’ (Americans for Prosperity Found. v. Bonta, 

15 141 S. Ct. 2373, 2386 (2021)). In the context of 

16 elections, ‘‘the State’s interest in preserving the in17 tegrity of the electoral process is undoubtedly impor18 tant. . . . The State’s interest is particularly strong 

19 with respect to efforts to root out fraud, which not 

20 only may produce fraudulent outcomes, but has a 

21 systemic effect as well,’’ (John Doe No. 1 v. Reed, 

22 561 U.S. 186, 197 (2010)). 

23 (5) The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld 

24 that giving and spending money in elections is pro25 tected speech. When scam PAC operators misuse doVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Jan 09, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6893.IH H6893

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1 nations, they are suppressing their donors’ speech. 

2 By making few to no political contributions with the 

3 dollars raised off false promises to further their do4 nors’ political views, scam PACs are stealing money, 

5 and theft is not protected speech. 

6 (6) In the interest of safeguarding constitu7 tionally protected speech, this Act does not prescribe 

8 sweeping regulations regarding how all political com9 mittees may spend money in elections. This Act’s 

10 prohibitions are narrowly tailored to only apply to a 

11 subset of nonconnected committees that do not have 

12 a majority of their disbursements spent on legiti13 mate expenditures, sparing the vast majority of com14 mittees from being subjected to any additional re15 quirements. For the committees that fail to have a 

16 majority of their disbursements spent on legitimate 

17 expenditures, their only penalty under this Act is 

18 being prevented from disbursing funds to any entity 

19 that has a financial interest or familial connection to 

20 the committees’ operators. This restriction is exceed21 ingly reasonable and simple to comply with to pro22 mote the governmental interest of preventing self23 dealing. 

24 (7) While current PAC reporting requirements 

25 provide the public with information that can be useVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Jan 09, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H6893.IH H6893

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1 ful for identifying scam PACs, the mere public avail2 ability of this disclosed information has done little to 

3 protect donors from scams, deter scam PACs’ oper4 ations, or curb the proliferation of fraudulent com5 mittees. Most grassroots donors who are looking to 

6 express their opinions by making a political con7 tribution are unable to easily interpret this disclosed 

8 information even if they know to look for it and 

9 know where to find it. Disclosures in the absence of 

10 meaningful fundraising and spending standards are 

11 insufficient to hold scam PACs accountable. 

12 (8) Given the finite timelines of campaign cy13 cles, prophylactic measures to combat fraud in elec14 tions are necessary alternatives to strict reliance on 

15 enforcement actions against fraud after an election 

16 is already over when the harm is very difficult to 

17 remedy. 

18 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS TO EN19 TITIES OWNED OR CONTROLLED BY INDIVID20 UALS WITH AUTHORITY OVER OPERATIONS 

21 OF POLITICAL COMMITTEES. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 302 of the Federal Elec23 tion Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30102) is amended 

24 by adding at the end the following new subsection: 


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1 ‘‘(j)(1) Except as provided in paragraphs (3) and (4), 

2 during a reporting period covered by a report filed by a 

3 political committee under section 304, the committee may 

4 not make disbursements to an entity owned or controlled 

5 in whole or in part by an individual, or by a family mem6 ber of an individual— 

7 ‘‘(A) who is authorized to carry out executive or 

8 managerial authority over the operation of the com9 mittee; 

10 ‘‘(B) who is authorized to solicit or disburse 

11 funds for or on behalf of the committee; or 

12 ‘‘(C) who is an employee of the committee 

13 (whether paid or unpaid) and who provides the com14 mittee with professional services (other than ac15 counting or legal services) relating to the commit16 tee’s campaign or fundraising strategy. 

17 ‘‘(2) A political committee may not employ or allow 

18 to volunteer on behalf of the committee an individual who 

19 owns or controls an entity that has accepted disburse20 ments made from any political committee in violation of 

21 paragraph (1). 

22 ‘‘(3) Paragraph (1) does not apply with respect to 

23 disbursements made by a political committee during the 

24 reporting period covered by a report filed by the committee 

25 under section 304 if a majority of the funds disbursed by 


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1 the committee during the period were for contributions to 

2 an authorized committee of a candidate or a committee 

3 of a political party or for making independent expendi4 tures. 

5 ‘‘(4) Paragraph (1) does not apply with respect to 

6 the following: 

7 ‘‘(A) An authorized committee of a candidate. 

8 ‘‘(B) A committee of a political party. 

9 ‘‘(C) A separate segregated fund of a corpora10 tion or labor organization under section 

11 316(b)(2)(C). 

12 ‘‘(5) In this subsection, the term ‘family member’ 

13 means, with respect to an individual, any of the following: 

14 ‘‘(A) A spouse, and parents thereof. 

15 ‘‘(B) Sons and daughters, and spouses thereof. 

16 ‘‘(C) Parents, and spouses thereof. 

17 ‘‘(D) Brothers and sisters, and spouses thereof. 

18 ‘‘(E) Grandparents and grandchildren, and 

19 spouses thereof. 

20 ‘‘(F) Aunts and uncles, and spouses thereof. 

21 ‘‘(G) Cousins, and spouses thereof. 

22 ‘‘(H) A domestic partner, and parents thereof, 

23 including domestic partners of any individual de24 scribed in subparagraphs (A) through (G).’’. 


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1 (b) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 90 days after the 

2 date of the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election 

3 Commission shall promulgate such regulations as may be 

4 necessary to carry out the amendment made by this Act. 

5 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

6 this Act shall apply with respect to disbursements made 

7 on or after the date that is 90 days after the date of enact8 ment of this Act, without regard to whether or not the 

9 Commission has promulgated regulations under subsection 

10 (b). 

Æ 


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