Sponsors (5)
The bill redirects public campaign funds into a dedicated election-security grant program to strengthen election infrastructure and make voluntary taxpayer support easier, but it eliminates a public financing pathway for presidential campaigns and raises concerns about spending trade-offs and transparency.
State and local election officials (and the voters they serve) will receive a dedicated federal Election Security Fund and grant program to upgrade and protect election infrastructure (e.g., cybersecurity, equipment, resilience).
Taxpayers have a simple, voluntary way to direct support through an existing tax-return checkbox to fund election security activities, making participation easy for individuals who want to opt in.
IRS tax forms will include a direct link to official program information, improving public awareness, transparency, and ease of finding program details for taxpayers.
Presidential candidates and campaigns will lose access to public matching funds and taxpayer check-off support for general-election campaigns, removing a longstanding public-financing pathway for presidential races.
Taxpayers who previously used the check-off to support public campaign financing will no longer have that option, reducing voter choice over how their voluntary tax-designation dollars are used.
Redirecting fund balances and creating new grant programs could increase federal spending or reallocate limited federal resources, potentially imposing indirect costs on taxpayers or crowding out other programs.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Converts the Presidential Election Campaign Fund into an Election Security Fund and grant program, redirects the tax checkoff to that fund, and ends federal public financing for presidential campaigns.
Converts the existing Presidential Election Campaign Fund into a new federal Election Security Fund and creates a federal grant program to provide states and territories with money for election security and related technology and administration. It updates the individual tax-return checkoff and IRS form language to point to the new Election Security Fund and requires the Treasury to move the money then held in the Presidential Election Campaign Fund into the new fund. The bill also ends the federal public financing rules that applied to presidential general elections and the presidential primary matching program going forward. The tax-code change for the checkoff becomes effective for taxable years ending after December 31, 2025; other changes and the fund transfer occur on enactment.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Stephanie I. Bice · Last progress February 9, 2026