I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5143 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require corporations 
to disclose to their shareholders the amounts disbursed for certain polit-
ical activity, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 18, 2019 
Mr. CARTWRIGHT (for himself, Mr. SCHIFF, Mr. DEFAZIO, and Ms. KAPTUR) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on House Adminis-
tration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to 
require corporations to disclose to their shareholders 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, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Openness in Political 
Expenditures Now Act’’ or the ‘‘OPEN Act’’. 
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SEC. 
2. 
DISCLOSURE 
BY 
CORPORATIONS 
TO 
SHARE-
HOLDERS OF DISBURSEMENTS FOR POLIT-
ICAL ACTIVITY. 
(a) DISCLOSURE REQUIRED.—Title III of the Fed-
eral Election Campaign Act of 1971 (52 U.S.C. 30101 
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new section: 
‘‘SEC. 325. DISCLOSURES BY CORPORATIONS TO SHARE-
HOLDERS 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 
shall include in each such report, in a clear and con-
spicuous manner, the information described in para-
graph (2) with respect to the disbursements made by 
the corporation for covered political activity during 
the period covered by the report, but only if the 
amount of the disbursement made for such activity 
during the period covered by the report equals or ex-
ceeds the applicable threshold for the activity de-
scribed in paragraph (3). 
‘‘(2) INFORMATION DESCRIBED.—The informa-
tion described in this paragraph is, for each dis-
bursement for covered political activity— 
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‘‘(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-
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. 
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‘‘(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 includes information in a report pursuant 
to this section, at the time the corporation submits 
the report to its shareholders, the corporation shall 
file a statement with the Commission consisting of 
the information included in the report pursuant to 
this section. 
‘‘(2) HYPERLINK TO INFORMATION.— 
‘‘(A) 
REQUIRING
POSTING
OF 
HYPERLINK.—If a corporation maintains an 
internet site, the corporation 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 under paragraph (1). 
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‘‘(B) DEADLINE; 
DURATION
OF
POST-
ING.—The corporation shall post the hyperlink 
described in subparagraph (A) not later than 
24 hours after the Commission posts the state-
ment filed by the corporation under paragraph 
(1) on the internet site of the Commission, and 
shall ensure that the hyperlink remains on the 
internet site of the corporation until the expira-
tion 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: 
‘‘(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. 
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‘‘(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 ‘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 
of 1971 (as added by subsection (a)) which are filed after 
the expiration of the 90-day period which begins on the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 3. LIMITATION ON ENGAGING IN COVERED POLITICAL 
ACTIVITIES BY SOCIAL WELFARE ORGANIZA-
TIONS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
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‘‘(C)(i) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply 
to an entity for a taxable year if the total ex-
penditures of such entity for the taxable year 
for covered political activity exceed the lesser 
of— 
‘‘(I) 10 percent of the total expendi-
tures of such entity for the taxable year, or 
‘‘(II) $10,000,000. 
‘‘(ii) Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to 
an entity for a taxable year unless its governing 
instrument includes provisions the effects of 
which are to prohibit the expenditures of the 
entity for a covered political activity from ex-
ceeding the threshold specified in clause (i). 
‘‘(iii) For purposes of this subparagraph, 
the term ‘covered political activity’ means— 
‘‘(I) any activity described in para-
graphs (1) through (3) of section 325(c) of 
the Federal Election Campaign Act of 
1971, and 
‘‘(II) any payment by the entity to 
any other entity described in this para-
graph or to an organization described in 
paragraph (6) which the payor entity 
knows, or has reason to know, will be used 
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