I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 767
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require candidates
for election for the House of Representatives or the Senate to raise
at least 65 percent of their contributions from individuals residing in
the district or State involved, to limit the amount of contributions such
candidates may accept from multicandidate political committees, and
to prohibit individuals who are ineligible to register to vote in Federal
elections from making contributions to candidates or political parties.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 13, 1997
Mr. KNOLLENBERG introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Oversight
A BILL
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to
require candidates for election for the House of Rep-
resentatives or the Senate to raise at least 65 percent
of their contributions from individuals residing in the
district or State involved, to limit the amount of con-
tributions such candidates may accept from multican-
didate political committees, and to prohibit individuals
who are ineligible to register to vote in Federal elections
from making contributions to candidates or political par-
ties.
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 ‘‘Common-Sense Cam-
paign Finance Reform Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. LIMITING AMOUNT OF CONGRESSIONAL CAN-
DIDATE CONTRIBUTIONS FROM INDIVIDUALS
NOT 
RESIDING 
IN 
DISTRICT; 
LIMITING
AMOUNT OF CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PACS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 315 of the Federal Elec-
tion Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441a) is amended
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
‘‘(i)(1) A candidate for the office of Senator or the
office of Representative in, or Delegate or Resident Com-
missioner to, the Congress may not accept contributions
with respect to an election from individuals other than
local individual residents totaling in excess of 35 percent
of the total of all contributions from individuals accepted
with respect to the election (as determined on the basis
of the most recent information included in reports pursu-
ant to section 304(d)).
‘‘(2) A candidate for the office of Senator or the of-
fice of Representative in, or Delegate or Resident Commis-
sioner to, the Congress may not accept contributions with
respect to an election from multicandidate political com-
mittees (as defined in subsection (a)(4)) totaling in excess
of 35 percent of the total of all contributions accepted with
respect to the election (as determined on the basis of the
most recent information included in reports pursuant to
section 304(d)).
‘‘(3) In determining the amount of contributions ac-
cepted by a candidate for purposes of this subsection,
there shall not be taken into account any contributions
made by a political party.
‘‘(4) As used in this subsection, the term ‘local indi-
vidual resident’ means—
‘‘(A) with respect to an election for the office
of Senator, an individual who resides in the State in-
volved; and
‘‘(B) with respect to an election for the office
of Representative in, or Delegate or Resident Com-
missioner to, the Congress, an individual who resides
in the congressional district involved.’’.
(b) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.—Section 304 of
such Act (2 U.S.C. 434) is amended by adding at the end
the following new subsection:
‘‘(d) Each principal campaign committee of a can-
didate for the Senate or the House of Representatives
shall include the following information in the first report
filed under subsection (a)(2) which covers the period
which begins 19 days before an election and ends 20 days
after the election:
‘‘(1) The total contributions received by the
committee with respect to the election involved from
local individual residents (as defined in section
315(i)(3)), as of the last day of the period covered
by the report.
‘‘(2) The total contributions received by the
committee with respect to the election involved from
all individuals, as of the last day of the period cov-
ered by the report.
‘‘(3) The total contributions received by the
committee with respect to the election involved from
multicandidate political committees (as defined in
section 315(a)(4)), as of the last day of the period
covered by the report.’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by
this section shall apply with respect to contributions made
on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
SEC. 3. PROHIBITING CONTRIBUTIONS BY INDIVIDUALS
NOT ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN FEDERAL ELEC-
TIONS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—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:
‘‘PROHIBITING CONTRIBUTIONS BY INDIVIDUALS NOT
ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS
‘‘SEC. 323. (a) IN GENERAL.—An individual who is
not eligible to vote in any election for Federal office may
not make any contribution to any candidate for election
for Federal office or to any political party.
‘‘(b) TREATMENT OF INDIVIDUALS NOT REGISTERED
TO VOTE.—This section shall not apply with respect to
an individual who would be eligible to vote in an election
for Federal office but for the failure of the individual to
register to vote.
‘‘(c) CONTRIBUTION DEFINED.—In this section, the
term ‘contribution’ includes any amount which would be
treated as a contribution under section 301(8) but for sub-
paragraph (B) of such section.’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by
subsection (a) shall apply with respect to contributions
made on or after the date of the enactment of this Act.
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