I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2670 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require corporations 
and labor organizations to disclose to their shareholders or members 
the amounts disbursed for certain political activity, and for other pur-
poses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 11, 2013 
Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. GRAYSON, Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania, 
Mr. FATTAH, Mr. SIRES, Mr. ENYART, Mr. YARMUTH, Mr. O’ROURKE, 
Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. 
VARGAS, Mr. ELLISON, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CICILLINE, Mr. 
ENGEL, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. TONKO, Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas, and Ms. 
LINDA T. SA´NCHEZ of California) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the 
Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 
require corporations and labor organizations to disclose 
to their shareholders or members the amounts disbursed 
for certain political activity, 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 ‘‘Openness in Political 
Expenditures Now Act’’ or the ‘‘OPEN Act’’. 
SEC. 2. DISCLOSURE BY CORPORATIONS AND LABOR ORGA-
NIZATIONS TO SHAREHOLDERS AND MEM-
BERS OF DISBURSEMENTS FOR POLITICAL 
ACTIVITY. 
(a) DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—Title III of the Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 431 et seq.) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 325. DISCLOSURES BY CORPORATIONS AND LABOR 
ORGANIZATIONS TO SHAREHOLDERS AND 
MEMBERS OF INFORMATION ON DISBURSE-
MENTS FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL ACTIVITY. 
‘‘(a) INCLUDING INFORMATION IN REGULAR PERI-
ODIC REPORTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A corporation which sub-
mits regular, periodic reports to its shareholders and 
a labor organization which submits regular, periodic 
reports to its members shall include in each such re-
port, in a clear and conspicuous manner, the infor-
mation described in paragraph (2) with respect to 
the disbursements made by the corporation or labor 
organization for covered political activity during the 
period covered by the report, but only if the amount 
of the disbursement made for such activity during 
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the period covered by the report equals or exceeds 
the applicable threshold for the activity described in 
paragraph (3). 
‘‘(2) INFORMATION DESCRIBED.—The informa-
tion described in this paragraph is, for each dis-
bursement for covered political activity— 
‘‘(A) the date of the disbursement; 
‘‘(B) the amount of the disbursement; 
‘‘(C) in the case of a disbursement con-
sisting of an independent expenditure or an 
electioneering communication, or in the case of 
a covered political activity described in sub-
section (c)(3), the name of the candidate identi-
fied in the independent expenditure or election-
eering communication involved, the Commission 
ID assigned to the candidate, and the office 
sought by the candidate; and 
‘‘(D) in the case of a covered political ac-
tivity described in subsection (c)(4), the identi-
fication of the association or organization to 
whom the disbursement was made, and the 
Commission ID (if any) assigned to the associa-
tion or organization. 
‘‘(3) APPLICABLE
THRESHOLD
FOR
DISCLO-
SURE.—For purposes of paragraph (1), the ‘applica-
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ble threshold’ with respect to a disbursement for 
covered political activity during a period covered by 
a report is as follows: 
‘‘(A) In the case of covered political activ-
ity consisting of an independent expenditure, 
$250. 
‘‘(B) In the case of covered political activ-
ity consisting of an electioneering communica-
tion or a communication described in subsection 
(c)(3), $10,000. 
‘‘(C) In the case of covered political activ-
ity consisting of a payment described in sub-
section (c)(4), the amount of the limitation on 
contributions which is in effect under section 
315(a)(1)(C) as of the last day of the period. 
‘‘(b) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT TO COMMISSION.— 
‘‘(1) SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT.—If a cor-
poration or labor organization includes information 
in a report pursuant to this section, at the time the 
corporation or labor organization submits the report 
to its shareholders or members, the corporation or 
labor organization shall file a statement with the 
Commission consisting of the information included 
in the report pursuant to this section. 
‘‘(2) HYPERLINK TO INFORMATION.— 
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‘‘(A) 
REQUIRING
POSTING
OF 
HYPERLINK.—If a corporation or labor organi-
zation maintains an Internet site, the corpora-
tion or labor organization shall post on such 
Internet site a hyperlink from its homepage to 
the location on the Internet site of the Commis-
sion which contains the statement filed by the 
corporation or labor organization under para-
graph (1). 
‘‘(B) DEADLINE; 
DURATION
OF
POST-
ING.—The corporation or labor organization 
shall post the hyperlink described in subpara-
graph (A) not later than 24 hours after the 
Commission posts the statement filed by the 
corporation or labor organization under para-
graph (1) on the Internet site of the Commis-
sion, and shall ensure that the hyperlink re-
mains on the Internet site of the corporation or 
labor organization until the expiration of the 1- 
year period which begins on the date of the 
election with respect to which the disbursements 
included in the statement are made. 
‘‘(c) COVERED POLITICAL ACTIVITY DEFINED.—In 
this section, the term ‘covered political activity’ means 
each of the following: 
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‘‘(1) An independent expenditure (as defined in 
section 301(17)). 
‘‘(2) An electioneering communication (as de-
fined in section 304(f)(3)). 
‘‘(3) A communication which would be treated 
as an electioneering communication under section 
304(f)(3) if the communication had been a broad-
cast, cable, or satellite communication. 
‘‘(4) The payment of dues or other amounts to 
a trade association or to a section 501(c)(4) organi-
zation. 
‘‘(d) OTHER DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the fol-
lowing definitions apply: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘corporation’ means any corpora-
tion which is subject to section 316(a). 
‘‘(2) The term ‘labor organization’ has the 
meaning given such term in section 316. 
‘‘(3) The term ‘section 501(c)(4) organization’ 
means any organization described in paragraph (4) 
of section 501(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 
1986 and exempt from tax under section 501(a) of 
such Code.’’. 
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to reports described 
in section 325(a)(1) of the Federal Election Campaign Act 
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