Sponsors (159)
Official title: To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for additional disclosure requirements for corporations, labor organizations, Super PACs and other entities, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 4, 2026 by Chris Pappas · Last progress March 4, 2026
The bill increases transparency and strengthens defenses against foreign influence in U.S. elections and improves enforcement, but it does so at the cost of donor privacy, greater compliance and legal burdens for small groups and platforms, and risks of overbroad criminal exposure and politicized litigation.
Voters and the public will see who is funding paid political messaging and campaign-related communications because organizations must disclose top funders, beneficial owners for >$10,000 disbursements, and link short digital ads to full funder information, increasing transparency for electoral decision-making.
Federal, state, and local elections are better shielded from foreign interference because the bill explicitly treats disbursements tied to illicit foreign funds as prohibited, covers certain ballot initiatives, and strengthens FEC/agency ability to detect and block foreign‑national contributions.
The bill strengthens enforcement and deterrence by creating new criminal penalties for concealing foreign contributions, expanding FEC/DOJ civil enforcement tools (penalties, injunctions), and requiring public, searchable disclosure databases—making illicit schemes riskier and easier to police.
Donors, small organizations, and certain communities risk loss of privacy and possible harassment because expanded disclosures (including names/addresses and targeting details) will make contributor identities public and could chill political participation.
Nonprofits, small businesses, online platforms, advertisers, and campaign committees will face higher compliance, recordkeeping, production, and legal costs (including rapid reporting deadlines and new disclaimer/format rules), disproportionately burdening low‑budget communicators.
Broad statutory definitions and expanded criminal liability (e.g., for forming entities that conceal funds or vague terms like 'covered foreign national' or 'online platform') risk ensnaring lawful actors—owners, attorneys, incorporation agents—or producing difficult due‑process questions.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Expands disclosure and donor-identification rules, tightens foreign-money and minor-spending prohibitions, adds expedited judicial-review venue rules, and requires recurring GAO studies on illicit foreign money.
Requires broader disclosure and reporting to limit foreign and otherwise noncompliant money in U.S. elections, tightens who counts as a prohibited contributor, expands disclaimer and donor-identification rules for paid communications, and creates new deadlines, venue rules, and enforcement mechanisms for challenges to campaign finance rules. It also creates new limits and reporting for minors’ political spending, directs a recurring government study on illicit foreign money in Federal elections, and phases in new disclaimer requirements for digital and audio/video communications by 2027.