Sponsors (4)
The bill tightens protections against foreign influence and strengthens donor privacy and reporting rules, but does so at the cost of reduced transparency, higher compliance burdens, and risks of chilling lawful civic activity and complicating enforcement.
Voters and the electoral system: bans on foreign nationals funding voter registration, GOTV, ballot collection, or partisan communications reduce the risk of foreign influence in U.S. elections.
Nonprofits, state and local election actors, and taxpayers: the bill strengthens accountability by treating designated/encumbered funds as indirect contributions and tightening reporting requirements, closing a common loophole for channeling prohibited funds into election activity.
Donors to 501(c) organizations and charities: federal collection and public disclosure of donor identities is restricted and new criminal penalties deter unlawful leaks, protecting donor privacy and nonprofit confidentiality and potentially encouraging charitable giving.
Nonprofits, civic groups, and low-income communities: the broad prohibition on foreign-supported assistance for voter-related activities could chill lawful voter registration and get-out-the-vote work, deterring organizations from participating for fear of liability and reducing civic engagement.
Taxpayers, watchdogs, journalists, and regulators: barring federal collection/public disclosure of donor identities reduces transparency about who funds tax-exempt groups, hampering public oversight and investigative journalism and making it harder to detect undue influence.
Nonprofits, state governments, and reporting committees: new perjury-backed certifications and reporting/privacy rule changes increase administrative and legal compliance costs and complexity for treasurers, committees, and outside spenders.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Expands the foreign-nationals ban to specific election activities, adds certification/reporting and procedural limits on FEC enforcement, and criminalizes unauthorized federal disclosure of tax-exempt donor identities.
Official title: To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prevent foreign interference in United States elections, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 11, 2026 by Bryan Steil · Last progress May 11, 2026
Expands the federal ban on foreign nationals from providing money or other support that funds a wide range of election-related activities, and increases reporting and certification requirements for campaign treasurers and persons making independent expenditures or electioneering communications. It also creates new criminal penalties for federal officers or employees who willfully disclose identifying donor information of tax-exempt organizations held by the federal government, and blocks most federal collection or public disclosure of those donor identities. The bill adds procedural limits on Federal Election Commission investigations, allows certain certifications under penalty of perjury to be considered in enforcement, and makes the new restrictions and reporting changes effective for donations and reports made on or after enactment. Donor-privacy protections apply to donations made on or after enactment as well.