I 
109TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5281 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide matching 
funds for candidates in elections for the House of Representatives, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 3, 2006 
Mr. LEACH 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 
provide matching funds for candidates in elections for 
the House of Representatives, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Campaign Reform Act 
of 2006’’. 
SEC. 2. MATCHING FUNDS FOR HOUSE CANDIDATES. 
(a) MATCHING FUNDS.—The Federal Election Cam-
paign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) is amended by 
adding at the end the following new title: 
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‘‘TITLE V—MATCHING FUNDS 
FOR HOUSE CANDIDATES 
‘‘SEC. 501. AVAILABILITY OF MATCHING FUNDS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—An eligible House of Representa-
tives candidate shall be entitled to receive payments under 
this title in support of the candidate’s campaign for elec-
tion in an amount equal to the amount of qualified con-
tributions received by the candidate, but not to exceed the 
aggregate matching payment limit under subsection (b). 
‘‘(b) AGGREGATE MATCHING PAYMENT LIMIT FOR 
CANDIDATE.—The aggregate matching payment limit 
with respect to an eligible House of Representatives can-
didate in an election is $175,000, subject to the following 
adjustments: 
‘‘(1) If any opponent of the candidate who is 
not an eligible House of Representatives candidate 
receives contributions with respect to the election in 
an aggregate amount exceeding $500,000, the ag-
gregate matching payment limit shall be equal to the 
aggregate amount of contributions received by the 
opponent. 
‘‘(2) In the case of an election which is a con-
tested primary election (as determined by the Com-
mission), if any opponent of the candidate receives 
contributions in an aggregate amount exceeding 
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$50,000, the aggregate matching payment limit shall 
be increased by $75,000. 
‘‘(3) In the case of an election which is a runoff 
election, the aggregate matching payment limit shall 
be increased by $50,000. 
‘‘(c) QUALIFIED CONTRIBUTION DEFINED.—In this 
section, the term ‘qualified contribution’ means, with re-
spect to a candidate for an election, a contribution— 
‘‘(1) which is made by an individual residing in 
the State in which the candidate seeks election 
whose aggregate contributions to the candidate for 
the election do not exceed $500; and 
‘‘(2) which is in the form of a gift of money 
made by a written instrument that identifies the in-
dividual making the contribution. 
‘‘(d) SOURCE OF PAYMENTS.—All payments made 
under this title shall be made from the House of Rep-
resentatives Election Campaign Account described in sec-
tion 503. 
‘‘SEC. 502. ELIGIBLE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CAN-
DIDATE DEFINED. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this title, an ‘eli-
gible House of Representatives candidate’ means a can-
didate for the office of Representative in, or Delegate or 
Resident Commissioner to, the Congress who files a state-
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