I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 178
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to establish the
Presidential Debate Commission on an ongoing basis and to amend
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reduce the amount of funds
provided under such Act for party nominating conventions for any party
whose nominee for President or Vice-President does not participate in
any debate scheduled by the Commission, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 6, 1999
Mr. MCCOLLUM 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
establish the Presidential Debate Commission on an on-
going basis and to amend the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986 to reduce the amount of funds provided under
such Act for party nominating conventions for any party
whose nominee for President or Vice-President does not
participate in any debate scheduled by the Commission,
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 ‘‘Presidential Debate
Reform Act’’.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE COM-
MISSION.
Title III of the Federal Election Campaign Act of
1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) is amended by adding at the
end the following new section:
‘‘PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE COMMISSION
‘‘SEC. 323. (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 6
months before the date of each general election for the
offices of President and Vice President of the United
States (beginning with the general election held in 2000),
the President shall appoint a Presidential Debate Commis-
sion (hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘Commis-
sion’) in accordance with this section with respect to such
election.
‘‘(b) MEMBERSHIP.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall be
composed of 3 members appointed by the President
as follows:
‘‘(A) 1 member shall be from among a list
of nominees submitted by the chair of the Re-
publican National Committee.
‘‘(B) 1 member shall be from among a list
of nominees submitted by the chair of the
Democratic National Committee.
‘‘(C) 1 member (who shall not be a mem-
ber of the Republican or Democratic Parties)
shall be from among a list of nominees submit-
ted jointly by the chairs of the Republican Na-
tional Committee and the Democratic National
Committee.
‘‘(2) QUALIFICATIONS.—Members of the Com-
mission may be from the public or private sector,
and may include Federal, State, or local officers or
employees, members of academia, nonprofit organi-
zations, or other interested individuals.
‘‘(3) VACANCIES.—Any vacancy shall be filled
in the same manner as the original appointment not
later than 10 days after the vacancy occurs.
‘‘(4) COMPENSATION.—Members of the Com-
mission shall receive no compensation for service on
the Commission, but shall be allowed travel ex-
penses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, at
rates authorized for employees of agencies under
subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 5, United States
Code, while away from their homes or regular places
of business in the performance of service for the
Commission.
‘‘(c) POWERS; MEETINGS.—Except as provided in
subsection (d), decisions made by the Commission shall
be made by unanimous consent of the commissioners. The
Commission shall meet at a time and a site agreed upon
by each of the members.
‘‘(d) STAFF.—
‘‘(1) EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR.—With the ap-
proval of the majority of the Commission’s members
and without regard to the provisions of title 5,
United States Code, governing appointments in the
competitive service, the Commission shall appoint an
executive director, who shall be paid at a rate not
to exceed the rate of basic pay payable for level V
of the Executive Schedule under section 5315 of title
5, United States Code.
‘‘(2) OTHER PERSONNEL.—With the approval
of the majority of the Commission’s members, the
Commission may appoint a secretarial assistant and
such other staff as the Commission considers appro-
priate, without regard to the provisions of title 5,
United States Code, governing appointments in the
competitive service and without regard to the provi-
sions of chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53
of that title relating to classifications and General
Schedule pay rates, except that the rate of pay for
any such personnel may not exceed 75 percent of the
rate of pay for the Executive Director.
‘‘(3) TEMPORARY
AND
INTERMITTENT
SERV-
ICES.—The Commission may procure temporary and
intermittent services to the same extent as is author-
ized by section 3109(b) of title 5, United States
Code.
‘‘(e) DUTIES.—It shall be the duty of the Commission
to establish a schedule of debates in accordance with sub-
section (f) as follows:
‘‘(1) One preliminary debate.
‘‘(2) Not more than 2 Vice Presidential debates.
‘‘(3) Not less than 2 or more than 4 Presi-
dential debates.
‘‘(f) DEBATES DESCRIBED.—
‘‘(1) PRELIMINARY
DEBATES.—A preliminary
debate shall take place no sooner than 90 days and
no later than 60 days before a Presidential election.
The time and place of the preliminary debate shall
be announced by the Commission no later than 14
days before the scheduled preliminary debate. A pre-
liminary debate shall involve any person who has de-
clared himself a candidate for the position of Presi-
dent of the United States who is either on the ballot
in all 50 States or is the choice of 5 percent of likely
voters to be President of the United States, as deter-
mined by the Commission. Factors to be taken into
account include nationally recognized polling data.
The format shall be decided by the Commission. The
attendance by any candidate at the preliminary de-
bate is optional.
‘‘(2) 
VICE
PRESIDENTIAL
DEBATES.—Vice
Presidential debates shall take place at least 7 days
following the preliminary debate. The time and date
of all Vice Presidential debates shall be announced
no later than 14 days prior to the first Vice Presi-
dential debate. All Vice Presidential debates shall in-
volve persons who are the Vice Presidential can-
didates to qualified Presidential candidates described
in paragraph (4). The format of debates shall be de-
cided by the Commission.
‘‘(3) PRESIDENTIAL
DEBATES.—Presidential
debates shall take place no sooner than 7 days fol-
lowing the preliminary debate. The time and date of
all qualified debates shall be announced no later
than 21 days prior to the first scheduled qualified
debate. The format of debates shall be decided by
the Commission, with at least 1 being of the single
moderator format. Presidential debates shall involve
persons who are qualified Presidential candidates de-
scribed in paragraph (4).
‘‘(4) QUALIFIED PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DE-
FINED.—In this subsection, a ‘qualified Presidential
candidate’ is a candidate for President of the United
States who is the choice of not less than 5 percent
of likely voters, to be determined by the Commission
taking into account only the polling data collected no
sooner than 1 day after the conclusion of the pre-
liminary debate.
‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There
are authorized to be appropriated to each Commission ap-
pointed under this section such sums as may be necessary
to carry out its activities with respect to the election in-
volved.
‘‘(h) TERMINATION.—Each Commission appointed
under this section shall terminate on the date following
the day of the election for which the Commission was ap-
pointed.’’.
SEC. 3. REDUCTION IN AMOUNT OF FEDERAL PAYMENTS
FOR PARTY CONVENTIONS OF PARTIES NOT
PARTICIPATING IN COMMISSION DEBATES.
Section 9008 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986
is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-
section:
‘‘(i) REDUCTION IN PAYMENTS FOR PARTIES NOT
PARTICIPATING
IN
DEBATES
CERTIFIED
BY
PRESI-
DENTIAL DEBATE COMMISSION.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—If the nominee for Presi-
dent of the United States or Vice President of the
United States of a party receiving payments under
this section does not certify to the Commission that
the nominee will participate in all applicable debates
scheduled by the Presidential Debate Commission
pursuant to section 323 of the Federal Election
Campaign Act of 1971 with respect to a general
election (other than a preliminary debate described
in section 323(f)(1) of such Act), the amount of the
payment to which the party is otherwise entitled
under this section for the nominating convention for
the following general election shall be reduced by the
percentage described in paragraph (2).
‘‘(2) REDUCTION
PERCENTAGE
DESCRIBED.—
The percentage described in this paragraph with re-
spect to a party is the amount (expressed as a per-
centage) equal to—
‘‘(A) the number of Presidential and Vice
Presidential debates scheduled by the Presi-
dential Debate Commission with respect to an
election that the party’s nominee did not at-
tend; divided by
‘‘(B) the total number of such debates
scheduled by the Commission with respect to
the election.’’.
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