Sponsors (5)
This bill shifts federal resources away from public presidential campaign financing toward a new election-security funding mechanism and taxpayer-directed contributions—strengthening election infrastructure and public access to information while reducing public campaign financing and raising trade-offs around candidate competitiveness, donor influence, accountability, and federal spending choices.
State and local election officials will receive additional, dedicated funding for election security and infrastructure through a new tax check-off and by redirecting balances from the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, enabling immediate investments in cybersecurity and election administration.
Taxpayers and voters can directly contribute via a tax-form check-off and will have a direct hyperlink to Election Assistance Commission resources on tax forms, making it easier to find information about election security and to support those efforts.
Eliminating federal matching and some public financing obligations reduces administrative burdens on the IRS and Treasury tied to managing presidential public financing programs.
Presidential candidates — especially smaller or outsider candidates — will lose access to public financing and matching payments, increasing barriers to entry and likely reducing competitiveness in primaries and general elections.
Voters and the public may face greater reliance on private fundraising and increased influence from large donors due to reduced public financing, undermining goals of reducing money-driven influence in campaigns.
Redirecting balances and donor-derived funding that previously supported public presidential financing could be seen as repurposing earmarked funds, raising accountability and precedent concerns about reassigning donor-designated public dollars.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress February 9, 2026
Converts the existing Presidential Election Campaign Fund into a new Election Security Fund and establishes an election security program administered from that fund. It requires the federal individual income tax return to include a hyperlink to the Election Assistance Commission website, ends federal taxpayer-funded presidential campaign financing and matching payments going forward, and directs existing balances in presidential campaign funds to the new Election Security Fund. The changes amend the Internal Revenue Code, require the IRS/Treasury to transfer remaining campaign fund balances into the new fund on enactment, and phase in the tax-form citation and subtitle change beginning for taxable years ending after December 31, 2025.