I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3236 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to treat the sharing 

of nonpublic campaign material by a candidate or political committee 

with a foreign power as the solicitation of a contribution or donation 

in support of the candidate or committee from a foreign national for 

purposes of the ban on such solicitations under such Act, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 12, 2019 

Mr. MALINOWSKI (for himself, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. HIMES, Mr. PHILLIPS, and 

Mr. CASTEN of Illinois) 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 

treat the sharing of nonpublic campaign material by 

a candidate or political committee with a foreign power 

as the solicitation of a contribution or donation in support of the candidate or committee from a foreign national for purposes of the ban on such solicitations under 

such Act, 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 ‘‘Anti-Collusion Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. RESTRICTIONS ON EXCHANGE OF CAMPAIGN IN2 FORMATION BETWEEN CANDIDATES AND 

3 FOREIGN POWERS. 

4 Section 319 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 

5 of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30121) is amended by adding at the 

6 end the following new subsection: 

7 ‘‘(c) RESTRICTIONS ON EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION

8 BETWEEN CANDIDATES AND FOREIGN POWERS.— 

9 ‘‘(1) TREATMENT OF OFFER TO SHARE NON10 PUBLIC CAMPAIGN MATERIAL AS SOLICITATION OF

11 CONTRIBUTION FROM FOREIGN NATIONAL.—If a 

12 candidate or an individual affiliated with the cam13 paign of a candidate, or if a political committee or 

14 an individual affiliated with a political committee, 

15 provides or offers to provide nonpublic campaign 

16 material to a foreign power or an agent of a foreign 

17 power or to another person whom the candidate, 

18 committee, or individual knows or has reason to 

19 know will provide the material to a foreign power or 

20 an agent of a foreign power, the candidate, com21 mittee, or individual (as the case may be) shall be 

22 considered for purposes of this section to have solic23 ited a contribution or donation described in sub24 section (a)(1)(A) from a foreign national. 

25 ‘‘(2) SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) DUTY TO FILE.—If a candidate or 

2 any individual affiliated with a campaign of a 

3 candidate, or if a political committee or an indi4 vidual affiliated with a political committee, 

5 knowingly receives an offer of assistance with 

6 respect to the campaign or the committee from 

7 a person the candidate, committee, or individual 

8 knows is a foreign power or an agent of a for9 eign power, not later than 72 hours after re10 ceiving the offer the candidate, committee, or 

11 individual shall file a suspicious activity report 

12 with the Attorney General (or such official as 

13 may be designated by the Attorney General for 

14 purposes of this paragraph) which describes the 

15 offer, and shall include in the report (to the ex16 tent known) the name, address, and nationality 

17 of the foreign power or agent making the offer. 

18 ‘‘(B) REFERRAL.—Upon receiving a sus19 picious activity report under subparagraph (A), 

20 the Attorney General shall refer the report to 

21 the Secretary of State and the Commission. 

22 The Commission may take such action in re23 sponse to the report as may be authorized 

24 under section 309, without regard to whether or 


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1 not the Attorney General takes any action in 

2 response to the report. 

3 ‘‘(C) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This paragraph 

4 shall take effect upon the expiration of the 120- 

5 day period which begins on the date of the en6 actment of this paragraph. 

7 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection, the fol8 lowing definitions apply: 

9 ‘‘(A) The term ‘agent of a foreign power’ 

10 means any person who acts as an agent, rep11 resentative, employee or servant, or any person 

12 who acts in any other capacity at the order, re13 quest, or under the direction or control, of a 

14 foreign power or of any person whose activities 

15 are directly or indirectly supervised, directed, 

16 controlled, financed, or subsidized in whole or 

17 in major part by a foreign power. 

18 ‘‘(B) The term ‘candidate’ means an indi19 vidual who seeks nomination for, or election to, 

20 any Federal, State, or local public office. 

21 ‘‘(C) The term ‘foreign power’ means— 

22 ‘‘(i) a government of a foreign coun23 try, as defined in section 1(e) of the For24 eign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as 

25 Amended (22 U.S.C. 611(e)); 


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1 ‘‘(ii) a foreign political party, as de2 fined in section 1(f) of the Foreign Agents 

3 Registration Act of 1938, as Amended (22 

4 U.S.C. 611(f)); or 

5 ‘‘(iii) a partnership, association, cor6 poration, organization, or other combina7 tion of persons organized under the laws of 

8 or having its principal place of business in 

9 a foreign country. 

10 ‘‘(D) The term ‘individual affiliated with a 

11 campaign’ means, with respect to a candidate, 

12 an employee of any organization legally author13 ized under Federal, State, or local law to sup14 port the candidate’s campaign for nomination 

15 for, or election to, any Federal, State, or local 

16 public office, as well as any independent con17 tractor of such an organization and any indi18 vidual who performs services on behalf of the 

19 organization, whether paid or unpaid. 

20 ‘‘(E) The term ‘individual affiliated with a 

21 political committee’ means, with respect to a 

22 political committee, an employee of the com23 mittee as well as any independent contractor of 

24 the committee and any individual who performs 


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1 services on behalf of the committee, whether 

2 paid or unpaid. 

3 ‘‘(F) The term ‘nonpublic campaign mate4 rial’ means, with respect to a candidate or a po5 litical committee, campaign material that is 

6 produced by the candidate or the committee or 

7 produced at the candidate or committee’s ex8 pense or request which is not distributed or 

9 made available to the general public or other10 wise in the public domain, including polling and 

11 focus group data and opposition research, ex12 cept that such term does not include material 

13 produced for purposes of consultations relating 

14 solely to the candidate’s or committee’s position 

15 on a legislative or policy matter. 

16 ‘‘(G) The term ‘offer of assistance’ means, 

17 with respect to a candidate or a political com18 mittee, an offer to provide direct assistance to 

19 the candidate or committee with respect to ac20 tivities of the candidate or committee, including 

21 an offer to provide polling information, opposi22 tion research, or similar information, including 

23 information that would reasonably be expected 

24 to have been obtained through illicit means, ex25 cept that such term does not include an offer 


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1 to engage in consultations relating solely to the 

2 candidate’s or committee’s position on a legisla3 tive or policy matter or an offer to provide ma4 terial produced solely for purposes of such con5 sultations.’’. 

6 SEC. 3. DUTY OF CANDIDATES AND COMMITTEES TO FILE 

7 SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS AFTER RE8 CEIVING OFFER OF UNLAWFUL ASSISTANCE. 

9 Title III of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 

10 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.) is amended by adding at 

11 the end the following new section: 

12 ‘‘SEC. 325. DUTY OF CANDIDATES AND COMMITTEES TO 

13 FILE SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS AFTER 

14 RECEIVING OFFER OF UNLAWFUL ASSIST15 ANCE. 

16 ‘‘(a) DUTY TO FILE.—If a candidate or any indi17 vidual affiliated with a campaign of a candidate, or if a 

18 political committee or an individual affiliated with a polit19 ical committee, knowingly receives an offer of unlawful as20 sistance with respect to the campaign or committee from 

21 any person, not later than 72 hours after receiving the 

22 offer the candidate, committee, or individual shall file a 

23 suspicious activity report with the Attorney General (or 

24 such official as may be designated by the Attorney General 

25 for purposes of this paragraph) which describes the offer, 


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1 and shall include in the report (to the extent known) the 

2 name and address of the person making the offer. 

3 ‘‘(b) REFERRAL.—Upon receiving a suspicious activ4 ity report under subparagraph (A), the Attorney General 

5 shall refer the report to the Commission. The Commission 

6 may take such action in response to the report as may 

7 be authorized under section 309, without regard to wheth8 er or not the Attorney General takes any action in re9 sponse to the report. 

10 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the following 

11 definitions apply: 

12 ‘‘(1) The term ‘individual affiliated with a cam13 paign’ means, with respect to a candidate, an em14 ployee of any authorized committee of the candidate, 

15 as well as any independent contractor of an author16 ized committee of the candidate and any individual 

17 who performs services on behalf of the committee, 

18 whether paid or unpaid. 

19 ‘‘(2) The term ‘individual affiliated with a polit20 ical committee’ means, with respect to a political 

21 committee, an employee of the committee as well as 

22 any independent contractor of the committee and 

23 any individual who performs services on behalf of 

24 the committee, whether paid or unpaid. 


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1 ‘‘(3) The term ‘offer of unlawful assistance’ 

2 means, with respect to a candidate or a political 

3 committee, an offer by a person to provide direct as4 sistance to the candidate or committee which con5 sists of providing information (including polling in6 formation, opposition research, or similar informa7 tion) that the candidate, committee, or individual 

8 knows or reasonably should know was obtained by 

9 such person through illicit means, except that such 

10 term does not include an offer to engage in consulta11 tions relating solely to the candidate’s or commit12 tee’s position on a legislative or policy matter or an 

13 offer to provide material produced solely for pur14 poses of such consultations. 

15 ‘‘(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—This section shall take ef16 fect upon the expiration of the 120-day period which be17 gins on the date of the enactment of this section.’’. 

Æ 


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