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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1778

To prohibit certain election-related activities by foreign nationals.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 12, 1999

Mr. GILLMOR (for himself, Mr. TANNER, Mrs. KELLY, Mr. PRICE of North

Carolina, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. CHABOT, Mr. CLEMENT,

Mr. HOBSON, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Mr. FRANKS of New Jersey, Mr. GORDON, Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN, Mr. MINGE, Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina,

Mr. BERRY, Mr. OXLEY, Mr. PASTOR, Mr. BRYANT, Mr. KILDEE, Mr.

WALDEN of Oregon, Mr. GOODE, Mr. HOUGHTON, Mr. SMITH of Washington, Mr. HEFLEY, Mr. PHELPS, Mr. TANCREDO, and Ms. STABENOW)

introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on

House Administration

A BILL

To prohibit certain election-related activities by foreign

nationals.

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 ‘‘Federal Election Law

5 Integrity Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS.

7 Congress finds and declares that—
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1 (1) Congress does not intend, and has never in2 tended, to permit foreign nationals to make political

3 contributions or donations to any candidate for local,

4 state, or Federal public office in the United States

5 or to any political party in the United States, di6 rectly or indirectly, or to support or participate in

7 the activities of political committees established pur8 suant to the Federal Election Campaign Act of

9 1971;

10 (2) to this end, section 319 of the Federal Elec11 tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441e) makes

12 it ‘‘unlawful for a foreign national directly or

13 through another person to make any contribution of

14 money or other thing of value . . . in connection

15 with’’ any election to political office or proceeding to

16 select a political candidate;

17 (3) despite this statutory prohibition, its appli18 cability to certain donations by foreign nationals to

19 accounts of political parties has recently been ques20 tioned;

21 (4) on October 9, 1998, the United States Dis22 trict Court for the District of Columbia Circuit dis23 missed portions of a criminal indictment against

24 Yah Lin Trie, in United States v. Yah Lin Trie,

25 based on a judicial determination that the prohibi-
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1 tion on political contributions by foreign nationals

2 established by section 319 of the Federal Election

3 Campaign Act does not clearly prohibit all political

4 contributions by foreign nationals, particularly, do5 nations by foreign nationals to United States polit6 ical party accounts not made ‘‘in connection with’’

7 an election or primary; and

8 (5) it is the intent of Congress and this Act to

9 reaffirm that foreign nationals may not make any

10 donation of money or other thing of value to any

11 United States candidate, political committee or party

12 account, directly or indirectly and whether or not

13 made ‘‘in connection with’’ an election or primary.

14 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF CERTAIN ELECTION-RELATED AC15 TIVITIES BY FOREIGN NATIONALS.

16 Section 319 of the Federal Election Campaign Act

17 of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441e) is amended—

18 (1) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub19 section (h);

20 (2) by amending subsection (a) to read as fol21 lows:

22 ‘‘(a) It shall be unlawful for a foreign national di23 rectly or through any other person to make any contribu24 tion or donation, or to promise expressly or impliedly to

25 make any such contribution or donation, to any candidate
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1 for political office, any political committee, or any organi2 zation or account created or controlled by any United

3 States political party or candidate, including but not lim4 ited to contributions or donations made in connection with

5 any election to any political office or in connection with

6 any primary election, convention, or caucus held to select

7 candidates for any political office.’’; and

8 (3) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol9 lowing new subsections:

10 ‘‘(b) It shall be unlawful for any person to solicit,

11 accept, or receive any contribution or donation prohibited

12 under subsection (a).

13 ‘‘(c) It shall be unlawful for any person organized

14 under or created by the laws of the United States or of

15 any State or other place subject to the jurisdiction of the

16 United States to make any contribution to any candidate

17 for political office, or to make any contribution or donation

18 to any political committee or to any organization or ac19 count created or controlled by any United States political

20 party, unless such contribution or donation (as the case

21 may be) is derived solely from funds generated from such

22 person’s own business activities in the United States.

23 ‘‘(d) A foreign national shall not direct, dictate, con24 trol, or directly or indirectly participate in the decision25 making process of any person organized under or created
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1 by the laws of the United States or any State or other

2 place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States with

3 regard to—

4 ‘‘(1) any decisionmaking concerning the admin5 istration of a political committee;

6 ‘‘(2) the making of any contributions or ex7 penditures to or on behalf of any candidate for polit8 ical office; or

9 ‘‘(3) the making of any contributions, dona10 tions, or expenditures to or on behalf of any political

11 committee, or to or on behalf of any organization or

12 account created or controlled by any United States

13 political party.

14 ‘‘(e) Nothing in this Act may be construed to prohibit

15 any individual eligible to vote in an election for Federal

16 office from making contributions, donations, or expendi17 tures in support of a candidate for such an election (in18 cluding voluntary contributions or expenditures made

19 through a separate segregated fund established by the in20 dividual’s employer or labor organization) or otherwise

21 participating in any campaign for such an election in the

22 same manner and to the same extent as any other indi23 vidual eligible to vote in an election for such office.

24 ‘‘(f) As used in this section, the term ‘donation’

25 means money or any other thing of value (other than a
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1 contribution) which is given to a candidate for public of2 fice, political committee, or organization or account cre3 ated or controlled by any United States political party.’’.

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