I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1780
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to expand the types
of information on campaign spending required to be reported to the
Federal Election Commission, to transfer responsibility for the enforce-
ment of Federal laws governing the financing of campaigns for election
for Federal office from the Commission to the Attorney General, and
for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 4, 1997
Mr. DREIER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Commit-
tee on House Oversight, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and
Means, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to
expand the types of information on campaign spending
required to be reported to the Federal Election Commis-
sion, to transfer responsibility for the enforcement of
Federal laws governing the financing of campaigns for
election for Federal office from the Commission to the
Attorney General, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the
‘‘Voter Empowerment Act of 1997’’.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—PROMOTING DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION ON
CAMPAIGN SPENDING
Sec. 101. Disclosure of certain expenditures for issue advocacy.
Sec. 102. Disclosure of certain permissible activities by labor organizations and
corporations.
Sec. 103. Disclosure by State and local political parties of information reported
under State law.
Sec. 104. Mandatory electronic filing and preservation of Federal Election
Commission reports.
Sec. 105. Timing for reporting.
Sec. 106. Waiver of ‘‘best efforts’’ exception for information on identification
of contributors.
Sec. 107. Disclosure of certain non-Federal financial activities of national polit-
ical parties.
TITLE II—ENCOURAGING PARTICIPATION IN CAMPAIGNS
Sec. 201. Indexing limits on contributions.
Sec. 202. Permitting corporate members of trade association to approve solici-
tations by more than one trade association.
Sec. 203. Tax credits for contributions by individuals.
TITLE III—REFORM OF FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION
Subtitle A—Enforcement of Federal Campaign Laws by Attorney General
Sec. 301. Enforcement by Attorney General.
Sec. 302. Termination of FEC enforcement authority.
Sec. 303. Reduction in number of members.
Subtitle B—Facilitating Dissemination of Information
Sec. 311. Index of advisory opinions.
Sec. 312. Written responses to questions.
Sec. 313. Publication of names of candidates accepting prohibited contribu-
tions.
TITLE IV—TERMINATION OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
CAMPAIGN FUND
Sec. 401. Termination of taxpayer financing of presidential election campaigns.
TITLE 
I—PROMOTING 
DISCLO-
SURE OF INFORMATION ON
CAMPAIGN SPENDING
SEC. 101. DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN EXPENDITURES FOR
ISSUE ADVOCACY.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434) is amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘‘(d)(1) Each person who makes a payment in an
amount equal to or greater than $100,000 for a commu-
nication containing issue advocacy shall submit a state-
ment to the Commission (not later than 24 hours after
making the payment) describing the amount spent, the
type of communication involved, and the market or area
in which the communication was disseminated.
‘‘(2) In this subsection, a communication containing
issue advocacy is any communication which uses the name
or likeness of an individual holding Federal office or a can-
didate for election for Federal officer, mentions a national
political party, or uses the terms ‘the President’ or ‘Con-
gress’ in reference to an individual holding Federal office,
except that this subsection shall not apply with respect
to any payment which would be described in clause (i),
(iii), or (v) of section 301(9)(B) if the payment were an
expenditure under such section.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to payments made
on or after January 1999.
SEC. 102. DISCLOSURE OF CERTAIN PERMISSIBLE ACTIVI-
TIES BY LABOR ORGANIZATIONS AND COR-
PORATIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434), as amended
by section 101(a), is further amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection:
‘‘(e)(1) Each corporation, national bank, or labor or-
ganization who makes aggregate payments during a year
in an amount equal to or greater than $5,000 for any ac-
tivity described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of section
316(a)(2) shall submit a statement to the Commission
(not later than 24 hours after making the payments) de-
scribing the amount spent and the activity involved.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to payments made
on or after January 1, 1999.
SEC. 103. DISCLOSURE BY STATE AND LOCAL POLITICAL
PARTIES 
OF 
INFORMATION 
REPORTED
UNDER STATE LAW.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 304 of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434), as amended
by section 101(a) and section 102(a), is further amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘‘(f) If a political committee of a State or local politi-
cal party is required under a State or local law, rule, or
regulation to submit a report on its disbursements to an
entity of the State or local government, the committee
shall file a copy of the report with the Commission at the
time it submits the report to such an entity.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to reports submit-
ted on or after January 1, 1999.
SEC. 104. MANDATORY ELECTRONIC FILING AND PRESER-
VATION OF FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION
REPORTS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subsection 304(a)(11)(A) of the
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C.
434(a)(11)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘permit reports re-
quired by’’ and inserting ‘‘require reports under’’.
(b) INCREASING ELECTRONIC DISCLOSURE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 304 of such Act (2
U.S.C. 434), as amended by section 101(a), section
102(a), and section 103(a), is further amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘‘(g)(1) The Commission shall make the information
contained in the reports submitted under this section
available on the Internet and publicly available at the of-
fices of the Commission as soon as practicable (but in no
case later than 24 hours) after the information is received
by the Commission.
‘‘(2) In this subsection, the term ‘Internet’ means the
international computer network of both Federal and non-
Federal interoperable packet-switched data networks.’’.
(2) PERMITTING
WAIVER
OF
ACQUISITION
RULES
TO
EXPEDITE
ELECTRONIC
ACCESS.—Not-
withstanding any other provision of law, the Federal
Election Commission may waive any of the following
provisions of Federal acquisition law to the extent
the Commission determines necessary to make the
information contained in reports submitted to the
Commission available on the Internet upon the expi-
ration of the 1-year period which begins on the date
of the enactment of this Act:
(A) Title III of the Federal Property and
Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C.
252–266).
(B) The Office of Federal Procurement
Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 401 et seq.).
(C) The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (divi-
sions D and E of Public Law 104–106).
(D) The Federal Acquisition Streamlining
Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–355).
(E) The Small Business Act (15 U.S.C.
631 et seq.), except that all reasonable opportu-
nities to be awarded contracts shall be provided
to small business concerns and small business
concerns owned and controlled by socially and
economically disadvantaged individuals.
(F) Subchapter V of chapter 35 of title 31,
relating to the procurement protest system.
(G) The Federal Acquisition Regulation
and any laws not listed in (A) through (F) of
this section providing authority to promulgate
regulations in the Federal Acquisition Regula-
tion.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply with respect to reports for periods
beginning after the expiration of the 1-year period which
begins on the date of the enactment of this Act. During
that period, the Federal Election Commission shall submit
regular reports to Committee on Rules of Administration
of the Senate and the Committee on House Oversight of
the House of Representatives describing the progress
made by the Commission in its ability to accept reports
filed electronically and to make the information contained
in such reports available on the Internet.
SEC. 105. TIMING FOR REPORTING.
(a) DEADLINE FOR FILING.—
(1) REQUIRING REPORTS FOR ALL CONTRIBU-
TIONS MADE WITHIN 60 DAYS OF ELECTION; RE-
QUIRING
REPORTS
TO
BE
MADE
WITHIN
HOURS.—Section 304(a)(6)(A) of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434(a)(6)(A))
is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘after the 20th day, but
more than 48 hours before any election’’ and
inserting ‘‘during the period which begins on
the 60th day before an election and ends at the
time the polls close for such election’’; and
(B) by striking ‘‘48 hours’’ the second
place it appears and inserting the following:
‘‘24 hours (or, if earlier, by midnight of the day
on which the contribution is deposited)’’.
(2) REQUIRING ACTUAL DELIVERY BY DEAD-
LINE.—
(A) IN
GENERAL.—Section 304(a)(6) of
such Act (2 U.S.C. 434(a)(6)) is amended by
adding at the end the following new subpara-
graph: