Sponsors (5)
The bill redirects public campaign-finance dollars into a federal election-security grant program to strengthen election infrastructure, trading away the public matching/check‑off financing option and some transparency over how those funds are used.
Voters and local election officials will get more resilient, secure election infrastructure (cybersecurity, equipment) because Presidential Election Campaign Fund money is redirected to an Election Security Fund.
State and local election offices gain access to a dedicated federal grant program to fund election-security upgrades and assistance, making it easier for jurisdictions to receive federal help.
Taxpayers have a simple, voluntary way to support the election-security program through an existing tax-return checkbox, and IRS forms will link directly to official program information, improving awareness and ease of participation.
Presidential candidates and campaigns lose access to public matching funds and taxpayer check‑off support for general-election campaigns, eliminating a long-standing public financing option.
Taxpayers who used the tax-return check-off to support public campaign financing will no longer have that option, removing a direct way citizens could fund public campaigns.
Redirecting fund balances and terminating the dedicated public-financing program reduces transparency and individual input over how those taxpayer-allocated funds are spent compared with the old public-financing rules.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Repurposes the Presidential Election Campaign Fund into an Election Security Fund for state/territorial grants and renames the tax-return checkbox to designate that fund.
Official title: To convert the program of public financing of presidential election campaigns to a program of providing grants to States for enhancing the security of election systems, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress February 9, 2026
Converts the existing Presidential Election Campaign Fund into a new federal Election Security Fund that will provide grants to states and territories for election security and related technology; updates the individual tax-return checkbox to designate contributions to that new fund and transfers existing campaign fund balances into the new account. The tax-code change for the checkbox becomes effective for taxable years ending after Dec. 31, 2025; the statute ends application of the old Presidential Election Campaign Fund and matching payment account for future presidential elections and directs Treasury to move remaining balances into the new Election Security Fund upon enactment.