II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1569 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to allow certain 

expenditures for cybersecurity-related services or assistance. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 21, 2019 

Mr. WYDEN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Rules and Administration 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 

allow certain expenditures for cybersecurity-related services or assistance. 

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 Campaign Cy5 bersecurity Assistance Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress makes the following findings: 

8 (1) The intelligence community has confirmed 

9 that the Russian government meddled in our elec10 tions. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
2 

•S 1569 IS

1 (2) Candidates for Federal office from both 

2 major political parties have been targeted by sophis3 ticated cyber-attacks. 

4 (3) There is a compelling governmental interest 

5 in preventing foreign influence over the United 

6 States political process, and that this includes pro7 tecting the political process, the parties, and indi8 vidual campaigns from cyber-attacks. 

9 SEC. 3. ALLOWING CERTAIN EXPENDITURES FOR CYBERSE10 CURITY-RELATED SERVICES OR ASSISTANCE. 

11 (a) USE OF BUILDING FUNDS.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subsection (a)(9)(B) of sec13 tion 315 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 

14 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30116) is amended— 

15 (A) by inserting ‘‘(i)’’ after ‘‘(B)’’; 

16 (B) in clause (i), as added by subpara17 graph (A), by adding at the end the following 

18 new sentence: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding 

19 sentence, such account may also be used to de20 fray the expenses incurred for secure informa21 tion communications technology or cybersecu22 rity products or services for the national com23 mittee, a State party, or for a candidate or his 

24 or her authorized committee, regardless of 

25 whether the expense otherwise relates to the 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
3 

•S 1569 IS

1 construction, purchase, renovation, operation, 

2 and furnishing of one or more headquarters 

3 buildings of the party.’’; and 

4 (C) by adding at the end the following new 

5 clauses: 

6 ‘‘(ii) For purposes of this subparagraph, 

7 the term ‘secure information communications 

8 technology’ means a commercial-off-the-shelf 

9 computing device which has been configured to 

10 restrict unauthorized access and uses publicly11 available baseline configurations. 

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

13 the term ‘cybersecurity product or service’ 

14 means a product or service which helps an orga15 nization to achieve the set of standards, guide16 lines, best practices, methodologies, procedures, 

17 and processes to cost-effectively identify, detect, 

18 protect, respond to, and recover from cyber 

19 risks as developed by the National Institute of 

20 Standards and Technology pursuant to sub21 sections (c)(15) and (e) of section 272 of title 

22 15, United States Code. 

23 ‘‘(iv) An authorized committee may not sell 

24 any secure information communications tech25 nology or cybersecurity products or services reVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:55 May 30, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1569.IS S1569

kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
4 

•S 1569 IS

1 ceived by the authorized committee that were 

2 purchased using such account funds. Nothing in 

3 the preceding sentence shall prevent an author4 ized committee from donating such secure infor5 mation communications technology or cyberse6 curity products or services to a charitable orga7 nization or to a Federal, State, local, or Tribal 

8 government agency at the conclusion of the 

9 campaign.’’. 

10 (2) REPORTING.—Section 304(b) of such Act 

11 (52 U.S.C. 30104(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘and’’ 

12 at the end of paragraph (7), by striking the period 

13 at the end of paragraph (8) and inserting ‘‘; and’’, 

14 and by adding at the end the following new para15 graph: 

16 ‘‘(9) for the national committee of a political 

17 party, the name and address of each authorized 

18 committee to which secure information communica19 tions technology or cybersecurity products or serv20 ices is supplied from an account described in section 

21 315(a)(9)(B).’’. 

22 (3) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made 

23 by this subsection shall apply to expenditures made 

24 on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS
5 

•S 1569 IS

1 (b) TREATMENT OF CYBERSECURITY-RELATED

2 SERVICES AS IN-KIND CONTRIBUTION.—Notwithstanding 

3 any other provision of law, effective 2 years after the date 

4 of enactment of this Act, any secure information commu5 nications technology or cybersecurity products or services 

6 (as those terms are defined in subsection (a)(9)(B) of sec7 tion 315 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 

8 (52 U.S.C. 30116), as added by subsection (a), that are 

9 provided at less than fair-market value to a political com10 mittee or a candidate for Federal office (as those terms 

11 are defined in section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101)) 

12 other than in accordance with such subsection (a)(9)(B), 

13 shall be considered an in-kind contribution, regardless of 

14 whether such services are made available on the same 

15 terms and conditions to all political committees or can16 didates, unless such services are made available on the 

17 same terms and conditions to all persons in the general 

18 public. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS