I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3243
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide meaningful
campaign finance reform through requiring better reporting, decreasing
the role of soft money, and increasing individual contribution limits,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 5, 1999
Mr. TERRY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on House Administration, and in addition to the Committees on Com-
merce, 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
provide meaningful campaign finance reform through re-
quiring better reporting, decreasing the role of soft
money, and increasing individual contribution limits, 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 ‘‘Open and Accountable
Campaign Financing Act of 2000’’.
TITLE I—DISCLOSURE
SEC. 101. ADDITIONAL MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY DISCLO-
SURE REPORTS.
(a) PRINCIPAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEES.—
(1) MONTHLY REPORTS.—Section 304(a)(2)(A)
of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2
U.S.C. 434(a)(2)(A)) is amended by striking clause
(iii) and inserting the following:
‘‘(iii) additional monthly reports, which
shall be filed not later than the 20th day after
the last day of the month and shall be complete
as of the last day of the month, except that
monthly reports shall not be required under this
clause in November and December and a year
end report shall be filed not later than January
31 of the following calendar year.’’.
(2) 
QUARTERLY
REPORTS.—Section
304(a)(2)(B) of such Act is amended by striking
‘‘the following reports’’ and all that follows through
the period and inserting ‘‘the treasurer shall file
quarterly reports, which shall be filed not later than
the 15th day after the last day of each calendar
quarter, and which shall be complete as of the last
day of each calendar quarter, except that the report
for the quarter ending December 31 shall be filed
not later than January 31 of the following calendar
year.’’.
(b) 
NATIONAL
COMMITTEE
OF
A
POLITICAL
PARTY.—Section 304(a)(4) of the Federal Election Cam-
paign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434(a)(4)) is amended by
adding at the end the following flush sentence: ‘‘Notwith-
standing the preceding sentence, a national committee of
a political party shall file the reports required under sub-
paragraph (B).’’.
(c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—
(1) SECTION 304.—Section 304(a) of the Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C.
434(a)) is amended—
(A) in paragraph (3)(A)(ii), by striking
‘‘quarterly reports’’ and inserting ‘‘monthly re-
ports’’; and
(B) in paragraph (8), by striking ‘‘quar-
terly report under paragraph (2)(A)(iii) or
paragraph (4)(A)(i)’’ and inserting ‘‘monthly
report under paragraph (2)(A)(iii) or paragraph
(4)(A)’’.
(2) SECTION 309.—Section 309(b) of the Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C.
437g(b)) by striking ‘‘calendar quarter’’ and insert-
ing ‘‘month’’.
SEC. 102. REPORTING BY NATIONAL POLITICAL PARTY
COMMITTEES.
Section 304 of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(d) POLITICAL COMMITTEES.—
‘‘(1) NATIONAL
AND
CONGRESSIONAL
POLIT-
ICAL
COMMITTEES.—The national committee of a
political party, any national congressional campaign
committee of a political party, and any subordinate
committee of either, shall report all receipts and dis-
bursements during the reporting period.
‘‘(2) ITEMIZATION.—If a political committee
has receipts or disbursements to which this sub-
section applies from any person aggregating in ex-
cess of $200 for any calendar year, the political
committee shall separately itemize its reporting for
such person in the same manner as required in para-
graphs (3)(A), (5), and (6) of subsection (b).
‘‘(3) REPORTING
PERIODS.—Reports required
to be filed under this subsection shall be filed for the
same time periods required for political committees
under subsection (a).’’.
SEC. 103. INCREASED ELECTRONIC DISCLOSURE.
Section 304 of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434), as amended by section 102, is
amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(e) INTERNET
AVAILABILITY.—The Commission
shall make the information contained in the reports sub-
mitted under this section available on the Internet and
publicly available at the offices of the Commission as soon
as practicable (but in no case later than 24 hours) after
the information is received by the Commission.’’.
SEC. 104. PUBLIC ACCESS TO BROADCASTING RECORDS.
Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47
U.S.C. 315) is amended by redesignating subsections (c)
and (d) as subsections (d) and (e), respectively, and insert-
ing after subsection (b) the following:
‘‘(c) POLITICAL RECORD.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A licensee shall maintain,
and make available for public inspection, a complete
record of a request to purchase broadcast time
that—
‘‘(A) is made by or on behalf of a legally
qualified candidate for public office; or
‘‘(B) communicates a message relating to
any political matter of national importance,
including—
‘‘(i) a legally qualified candidate;
‘‘(ii) any election to Federal office; or
‘‘(iii) a national legislative issue of
public importance.
‘‘(2) CONTENTS OF RECORD.—A record main-
tained under paragraph (1) shall contain informa-
tion regarding—
‘‘(A) whether the request to purchase
broadcast time is accepted or rejected by the li-
censee;
‘‘(B) the rate charged for the broadcast
time;
‘‘(D) the date and time that the commu-
nication is aired;
‘‘(E) the class of time that is purchased;
‘‘(F) the name of the candidate to which
the communication refers and the office to
which the candidate is seeking election, the elec-
tion to which the communication refers, or the
issue to which the communication refers (as ap-
plicable);
‘‘(G) in the case of a request made by, or
on behalf of, a candidate, the name of the can-
didate, the authorized committee of the can-
didate, and the treasurer of such committee;
and
‘‘(H) in the case of any other request, the
name of the person purchasing the time, the
name, address, and phone number of a contact
person for such person, and a list of the chief
executive officers or members of the executive
committee or of the board of directors of such
person.
‘‘(3) TIME TO MAINTAIN FILE.—The informa-
tion required under this subsection shall be placed in
a political file as soon as possible and shall be re-
tained by the licensee for a period of not less than
2 years.’’.
TITLE II—SOFT MONEY OF NA-
TIONAL POLITICAL PARTIES
AND CONTRIBUTION LIMITS
SEC. 201. LIMIT ON SOFT MONEY OF NATIONAL POLITICAL
PARTY COMMITTEES.
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:
‘‘SEC. 324. LIMIT ON SOFT MONEY OF NATIONAL POLITICAL
PARTY COMMITTEES.
‘‘(a) LIMITATION.—A national committee of a polit-
ical party, a congressional campaign committee of a na-
tional party, or an entity directly or indirectly established,
financed, maintained, or controlled by such committee
shall not accept a donation, gift, or transfer of funds of
any kind (not including transfers from other committees
of the political party or contributions), during a calendar
year, from a person (including a person directly or indi-
rectly established, financed, maintained, or controlled by
such person) in an aggregate amount in excess of $60,000.
‘‘(b) INDEXING.—In the case of any calendar year
after 1999—
‘‘(1) the $60,000 amount under subsection (a)
shall be increased based on the increase in the price
index determined under section 315(c), except that
the base period shall be calendar year 1999; and
‘‘(2) the amount so increased shall be the
amount in effect for the calendar year.’’.
SEC. 202. JUDICIAL REVIEW.
(a) EXPEDITED REVIEW.—Any Member of Congress,
candidate, national committee of a political party, or any
person adversely affected by section 324 of the Federal
Election Campaign Act of 1971, as added by section 201,
may bring an action, in the United States District Court
for the District of Columbia, for declaratory judgment and
injunctive relief on the ground that such section 324 vio-
lates the Constitution.
(2) ending on the date of the final disposition
of such action on its merits by the Supreme Court
of the United States.
(e) APPLICABILITY.—This section shall apply only
with respect to any action filed under subsection (a) not
later than 30 days after the effective date of this Act.
SEC. 203. INCREASE IN CONTRIBUTION LIMITS.
(a) INCREASE IN INDIVIDUAL AND POLITICAL COM-
MITTEE CONTRIBUTION LIMITS.—Section 315(a) of the
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C.
441a(a)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking
‘‘$1,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$3,000’’;
(B) in subparagraph (B), by striking
‘‘$20,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$60,000’’; and
(C) in subparagraph (C), by striking
‘‘$5,000’’ and inserting ‘‘$15,000’’; and
(2) in paragraph (3)—
(A) by striking ‘‘$25,000’’ and inserting
‘‘$75,000’’; and
(B) by striking the second sentence.
(b) INCREASE IN MULTICANDIDATE LIMITS.—Sec-
tion 315(a)(2) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of
1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(2)) is amended—
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘$5,000’’
and inserting ‘‘$7,500’’;
(2) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘$15,000’’
and inserting ‘‘$30,000’’; and
(3) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘$5,000’’
and inserting ‘‘$7,500’’.
(c) INDEXING.—Section 315(c) of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a(c)) is
amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) by striking the second and third sen-
tences;
(B) by inserting ‘‘(A)’’ before ‘‘At the be-
ginning’’; and
(C) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(B) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), in any
calendar year after 2000—
‘‘(i) a limitation established by subsection (a),
(b), or (d) shall be increased by the percent dif-
ference determined under subparagraph (A); and
‘‘(ii) each amount so increased shall remain in
effect for the calendar year.
‘‘(C) In the case of limitations under paragraphs
(1)(A) and (2)(A) of subsection (a), each amount in-
creased under subparagraph (B) shall remain in effect for
the 2-year period beginning on the first day following the
date of the last general election in the year preceding the
year in which the amount is increased and ending on the
date of the next general election.’’; and
(2) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ‘‘means the
calendar year 1974’’ and inserting ‘‘means—
‘‘(i) for purposes of subsections (b) and
(d), calendar year 1974; and
‘‘(ii) for purposes of subsection (a), cal-
endar year 2000’’.
(d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply to calendar years beginning after
December 31, 1999.
TITLE III—MISCELLANEOUS
PROVISIONS
SEC. 301. PROHIBITION OF SOLICITATION OF POLITICAL
PARTY SOFT MONEY IN FEDERAL BUILDINGS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 607 of title 18, United
States Code, is amended—
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘within the
meaning of section 301(8) of the Federal Election
Campaign Act of 1971’’; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(c) DEFINITION OF CONTRIBUTION.—In this sec-
tion, the term ‘contribution’ means a gift, subscription,
loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything of value
made by any person in connection with—
‘‘(1) any election or elections for Federal office;
‘‘(2) any political committee (as defined in sec-
tion 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of
1971); or
‘‘(3) any State, district, or local committee of a
political party.’’.
(b) AMENDMENT OF TITLE 18 TO INCLUDE PROHI-
BITION OF DONATIONS.—Section 602(a)(4) of title 18,
United States Code, is amended by striking ‘‘within the
meaning of section 301(8)’’ and inserting ‘‘(as defined in
section 607(c))’’.
SEC. 302. UPDATE OF PENALTY AMOUNTS.
Section 309 of the Federal Election Campaign Act
of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 437g) is amended by adding at the end
the following:
‘‘(e) ADJUSTMENT OF DOLLAR AMOUNTS FOR IN-
FLATION.—In the case of any calendar year after 1999—
‘‘(1) each dollar amount under this section shall
be increased based on the increase in the price index
determined under section 315(c); and
‘‘(2) each amount so increased shall be the
amount in effect for the calendar year.