Sponsors
The bill ends the Presidential public funding checkoff and matching program and transfers its remaining balances to the Treasury to modestly reduce deficits and administrative costs, but in doing so removes a public financing option that may disadvantage small-dollar donors and challengers and creates short-term IRS transition work.
Taxpayers and the federal budget: Remaining balances in the Presidential Election Campaign Fund will be transferred to the general Treasury to be applied toward deficit reduction, modestly reducing federal debt or deficits.
Taxpayers: Eliminating the Presidential public funding checkoff and matching program after 2024 reduces future federal administrative costs tied to operating that program.
Low-dollar donors and lower-resourced candidates: Removing the public funding pathway reduces an alternative source of campaign support and can make it harder for challengers to compete against wealthy candidates and private-money fundraising networks.
Presidential candidates and participating campaigns: Eliminates an alternative public financing option, forcing campaigns to rely solely on private fundraising or other mechanisms.
Taxpayers: Requires the IRS to stop processing the $3 checkoff and to transfer fund balances, creating short-term transitional administrative work and possible taxpayer confusion during the changeover.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Ends the $3 voluntary tax designation and terminates public financing for Presidential elections and nominating conventions; remaining fund balances are moved to the Treasury to reduce the deficit.
Introduced February 12, 2025 by Joni Ernst · Last progress February 12, 2025
Terminates taxpayer-financed public funding for Presidential campaigns by removing the voluntary $3 tax-designation, ending the statutory programs that authorize public payments for Presidential elections and nominating conventions, and directing any remaining balance in the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to the Treasury’s general fund to be used to reduce the deficit. The $3 designation is made inapplicable for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2024; the statutory terminations apply to Presidential elections and nominating conventions after the law takes effect.