I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3837 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the Federal 
Election Commission to establish and operate a website through which 
members of the public may view the contents of certain political adver-
tisements, to require the sponsors of such advertisements to furnish 
the contents of the advertisements to the Commission, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 26, 2017 
Mr. DEUTCH 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 
require the Federal Election Commission to establish 
and operate a website through which members of the 
public may view the contents of certain political adver-
tisements, to require the sponsors of such advertisements 
to furnish the contents of the advertisements to 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, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Campaign Sunlight 
Act of 2017’’. 
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF WEBSITE OF 
POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF WEBSITE.—Section 318 of 
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 
30120) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection: 
‘‘(e) WEBSITE FOR CONTENTS OF POLITICAL AD-
VERTISEMENTS.— 
‘‘(1) WEBSITE DESCRIBED.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall 
establish and operate a website, to be known as 
the ‘Campaign Accountability Site’, through 
which members of the public may view the con-
tents of political advertisements. 
‘‘(B) FORMAT.—In operating the website 
under this subsection, the Commission shall— 
‘‘(i) make the contents of a political 
advertisement available for viewing in the 
same format through which the advertise-
ment was disseminated; and 
‘‘(ii) make the sources of the contents 
of the advertisement available on the 
website directly or through hyperlinks to 
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the sources, as submitted to the Commis-
sion by the sponsor of the advertisement 
under paragraph (2)(B). 
‘‘(C) HYPERLINK.—The Commission shall 
make the website established and operated 
under this subsection available through a 
hyperlink on the Commission’s official public 
website. 
‘‘(2) REQUIRING
SPONSORS
OF
ADVERTISE-
MENTS TO PROVIDE CONTENTS TO COMMISSION.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The sponsor of a po-
litical advertisement shall submit the contents 
of the advertisement to the Commission in such 
format as the Commission may require to en-
able the Commission to include the advertise-
ment on the website established and operated 
under paragraph (1). 
‘‘(B) INCLUSION
OF
SOURCES
CITED
IN 
CONTENTS.—If the contents of a political ad-
vertisement include references to any quotation, 
article, hyperlink, or other source for any state-
ment made in the advertisement, the sponsor of 
the advertisement shall include the full contents 
of the source (or a hyperlink to the full con-
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tents of the source) in the contents submitted 
to the Commission under this paragraph. 
‘‘(C) DEADLINE
FOR
SUBMISSION.—The 
sponsor of a political advertisement shall submit 
the contents of the advertisement to the Com-
mission under subparagraph (A) not later 
than— 
‘‘(i) 24 hours after the advertisement 
is disseminated, in the case of an adver-
tisement that is disseminated during the 7- 
day period that ends on the date of the 
election involved; or 
‘‘(ii) 72 hours after the advertisement 
is disseminated, in the case of an adver-
tisement that is disseminated during any 
other period. 
‘‘(D) PAYMENT OF FEE.—If the Commis-
sion determines that it is appropriate to impose 
fees on the sponsors of political advertisements 
in amounts which do not exceed the amount 
necessary to cover the costs to the Commission 
of establishing and operating the website under 
paragraph (1), at the time the sponsor of a po-
litical advertisement submits the contents of the 
advertisement to the Commission under sub-
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paragraph (A), the sponsor shall pay the Com-
mission the amount of any such fee (as deter-
mined under a fee schedule established by the 
Commission). 
‘‘(E) SPONSOR DEFINED.—For purposes of 
this subsection, the ‘sponsor’ of a political ad-
vertisement is— 
‘‘(i) in the case of a political adver-
tisement that is described in paragraph (1) 
or (2) of subsection (a), the authorized po-
litical committee involved; or 
‘‘(ii) in the case of a political adver-
tisement that is described in paragraph (3) 
of subsection (a), the person who is re-
quired under such paragraph to be identi-
fied as the person who paid for the adver-
tisement. 
‘‘(3) POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT DEFINED.— 
In this subsection, a ‘political advertisement’ means 
a communication that is subject to subsection (a) 
that refers to a clearly identified candidate and is 
disseminated during the 1-year period which ends on 
the date of the election for the office sought by the 
candidate.’’. 
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(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to political adver-
tisements disseminated after the expiration of the 120-day 
period that begins on the date of the enactment of this 
Act. 
Æ 
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