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ELEC-012 — Campaign Finance Democratic Authority FECA Conforming Amendments Act

This proposed enabling legislation depends on ratification of the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Amendment, preferably through H.J.Res. 54, 119th Congress, with ARRP's recommended enforcement and federalism clarification, or a substantially similar amendment.

The draft is now structured as conforming amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA), rather than as a freestanding post-ratification statute. The conversion is intended to use existing election-law machinery where it fits, clean up existing law after ratification, and reserve only implementation-failure safeguards for contingency use.

A BILL

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to implement constitutional authority to regulate campaign contributions, expenditures, artificial-entity political spending, true-source disclosure, public campaign-finance systems, federal elections, covered statewide elections, and covered statewide ballot measures after ratification of an authorizing constitutional amendment.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act."

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

Congress finds that, after ratification of the authorizing constitutional amendment, FECA should be conformed to the restored democratic authority over election money rather than supplemented by an avoidably separate statutory code.

The purposes of this Act are to:

  1. restore democratic authority over campaign contributions, expenditures, independent expenditures, electioneering communications, covered transfers, and artificial-entity political spending;
  2. ensure that voters can identify the true sources of large election-related spending before voting;
  3. regulate artificial-entity treasury spending in elections after ratification of the authorizing amendment;
  4. apply baseline standards to federal elections, covered statewide elections, and covered statewide ballot measures;
  5. reduce dependence on concentrated private wealth while preserving ordinary individual political speech;
  6. preserve press freedom, associational privacy, and viewpoint neutrality;
  7. conform post-ratification campaign-finance rules to existing FECA reporting, enforcement, and Commission administration wherever practicable; and
  8. provide backup enforcement, filing, intervention, and funding safeguards only when ordinary FECA implementation fails.

SEC. 3. FECA DEFINITIONS FOR POST-RATIFICATION AUTHORITY.

Section 30101 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

  1. The term "authorizing amendment" means H.J.Res. 54 of the 119th Congress, with the enforcement and federalism clarification recommended by ARRP, or a substantially similar constitutional amendment that authorizes Congress and the States to regulate campaign contributions, expenditures, artificial-entity political spending, election-money disclosure, covered statewide elections, and covered statewide ballot measures.

  2. The term "artificial entity" means a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, labor organization, nonprofit organization, association, trust, political committee, or other legal entity that is not a natural person.

  3. The term "covered election" means an election for Federal office, a covered statewide election, or a covered statewide ballot measure.

  4. The term "covered election spending" means a contribution, expenditure, independent expenditure, electioneering communication, coordinated communication, covered transfer, public communication, disbursement, or thing of value made, solicited, received, directed, or used to influence a covered election.

  5. The term "covered statewide ballot measure" means a proposed constitutional amendment, statute, referendum, initiative, recall, retention question, bond question, statewide charter question, or other measure submitted to voters throughout a State.

  6. The term "covered statewide election" means an election for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor, Comptroller, State supreme court or court of last resort, statewide elected regulatory office, United States Senator, presidential electors, or any other office elected by voters throughout a State.

  7. The term "covered transfer" means any transfer, payment, loan, advance, deposit, gift, subscription, or thing of value to another person or entity if the transferor knows, has reason to know, solicits, designates, restricts, or is informed that the funds or thing of value may be used for covered election spending.

  8. The term "foreign-influenced entity" means an artificial entity in which a foreign national, foreign government, foreign political party, or entity organized under foreign law directly or indirectly:

  9. owns or controls 20 percent or more of equity, membership interest, beneficial interest, or voting power;
  10. has authority to appoint, remove, direct, or veto any officer, director, general partner, trustee, manager, or comparable decisionmaker;
  11. participates in any decision concerning covered election spending;
  12. directs, finances, or controls the covered election spending; or

  13. supplies funds used for a covered transfer.

  14. The term "true source" means the natural person, artificial entity, account, fund, or other source that provided funds or a thing of value for covered election spending before any pass-through, conduit, intermediary, earmark, shell-entity transfer, or other arrangement that obscures origin.

Nothing in the amendments made by this section changes the meaning of "election" in section 30101(1) except for the post-ratification provisions that expressly use the term "covered election."

SEC. 4. TRUE-SOURCE DISCLOSURE AND COVERED-TRANSFER REPORTING.

Section 30104 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(j) Post-ratification true-source and covered-transfer reports.

  1. A person or artificial entity that makes more than $10,000 in aggregate covered election spending during an election cycle shall file a true-source report with the Commission.

  2. A person or artificial entity that provides more than $1,000 in aggregate funds or things of value that are designated for, restricted to, solicited for, transferred for, earmarked for, or knowingly provided for covered election spending shall be identified in the report required by this subsection.

  3. Each report shall include:

  4. the name, address, and, for an artificial entity, principal place of business of each true source;
  5. the amount, date, and form of each covered transfer or other covered election spending;
  6. each intermediary, conduit, account, shell entity, or transfer path through which the funds or thing of value passed;
  7. the covered election, candidate, party, committee, question, or position supported or opposed;
  8. the person or artificial entity exercising final spending authority; and

  9. a certification that the filer used reasonable diligence to identify each true source.

  10. A report under this subsection shall be filed electronically not later than 48 hours after a filer crosses a reporting threshold.

  11. During the final 30 days before a covered election, a report under this subsection shall be filed not later than 24 hours after an additional covered transfer or covered election spending that is required to be reported.

  12. The Commission shall make reports filed under this subsection publicly searchable upon receipt, except that the Commission or a court may permit confidential filing, redaction, or delayed public disclosure when necessary to protect against threats, harassment, reprisals, or comparable associational harms and when such protection can be provided without defeating the voter-information purpose of this subsection.

  13. The Commission may publish ministerial inflation adjustments for the dollar thresholds in this subsection based on the Consumer Price Index. The Commission may not otherwise raise a threshold, delay a deadline, narrow true-source reporting, or create a categorical exemption unless Congress expressly authorizes the change.

  14. A person shall not evade this subsection through straw donors, conduits, shell entities, layered transfers, mixed-purpose accounts, fiscal sponsorship, vendor prepayment, independent-expenditure-only committees, tax-exempt entities, or other arrangements that obscure the true source of covered election spending.

SEC. 5. ARTIFICIAL-ENTITY ELECTION SPENDING.

Section 30118 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(f) Post-ratification artificial-entity election spending.

  1. After the effective date of the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act, an artificial entity may not make covered election spending from general treasury funds unless expressly authorized by this Act or by another Act of Congress enacted pursuant to the authorizing amendment.

  2. An artificial entity may establish, administer, or solicit contributions to a separately segregated fund for covered election spending if the fund:

  3. receives contributions only from natural persons who are United States citizens or lawful permanent residents;
  4. complies with the true-source reporting requirements of section 30104(j);
  5. does not accept funds from a foreign-influenced entity, federal contractor account, shell entity, conduit, general treasury account, or other prohibited source;
  6. maintains separate accounting sufficient to identify each true source and covered transfer; and

  7. complies with the contribution, covered-transfer, and coordination limits of section 30116.

  8. This subsection does not prohibit:

  9. bona fide press activity;
  10. ordinary commercial activity not undertaken to influence a covered election;
  11. nonpartisan voter-registration, voter-education, or get-out-the-vote activity that is not coordinated with a candidate, party, political committee, or covered ballot-measure committee and does not support or oppose a covered election outcome;
  12. internal communications to members, shareholders, or employees, subject to ordinary FECA limits and reporting rules; or

  13. administration of a political committee or separately segregated fund funded only by disclosed lawful natural-person contributions.

  14. An artificial entity that makes, authorizes, solicits, administers, or facilitates covered election spending shall maintain records for not less than 6 years and certify compliance with this subsection.

  15. Congress may by statute require board, shareholder, member, employee, union-member, beneficiary, or comparable governance approval before an artificial entity may authorize covered election spending, provided that the requirement is viewpoint-neutral and consistent with the authorizing amendment.

SEC. 6. CONTRIBUTION, COVERED-TRANSFER, AND COORDINATION LIMITS.

Section 30116 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(k) Post-ratification limits for covered elections.

  1. After the effective date of the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act, Congress may limit contributions, covered transfers, and other funds provided to a political committee, independent-expenditure-only committee, ballot-measure committee, or other spender for covered election spending to the extent authorized by the authorizing amendment.

  2. Unless Congress enacts a different limit after ratification, a person or artificial entity may not make contributions or covered transfers to an independent-expenditure-only political committee in an aggregate amount greater than $5,000 in a calendar year. The Commission shall index that amount under the same ministerial inflation-adjustment method used for comparable limits under this section.

  3. The limit in paragraph 2 applies to any covered transfer made directly, indirectly, through affiliated entities, through accounts under common control, through intermediaries or conduits, or through any arrangement that has the purpose or effect of evading the limit.

  4. A communication, payment, covered transfer, vendor arrangement, fundraising solicitation, data exchange, targeting assistance, strategic discussion, republication, or other thing of value shall be treated as coordinated when it satisfies the coordination standards otherwise applicable under this Act or under Commission regulations that are consistent with the authorizing amendment.

  5. A person shall not evade this subsection by routing funds through tax-exempt entities, fiscal sponsors, vendors, donor-advised funds, affiliated artificial entities, shell entities, consultants, pass-through accounts, or mixed-purpose committees.

  6. This subsection does not limit the lawful spending of a natural person from that person's own funds except to the extent Congress expressly provides under the authorizing amendment and consistent with the rules of construction in this Act.

SEC. 7. FOREIGN-INFLUENCED ENTITIES AND ANTI-CONDUIT RULES.

Section 30121 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(d) Foreign-influenced artificial entities.

  1. A foreign-influenced entity may not directly or indirectly make covered election spending, provide funds for covered election spending, provide a covered transfer, establish or fund a separately segregated fund for covered election spending, or use a domestic person, artificial entity, account, vendor, committee, or intermediary to evade this section.

  2. A domestic artificial entity that makes covered election spending shall certify that it is not a foreign-influenced entity and that no foreign national, foreign government, foreign political party, or entity organized under foreign law directly or indirectly participated in any decision concerning the spending.

  3. A domestic person or artificial entity shall not knowingly accept or use funds for covered election spending when the person or entity knows, has reason to know, or consciously avoids knowing that the funds originated with, were directed by, or were provided through a foreign-influenced entity.

  4. Federal contractors and entities seeking or holding substantial federal contracts, grants, licenses, concessions, or regulatory approvals may be subject to heightened disclosure, anti-coercion, and anti-evasion rules under this Act to prevent public power from being converted into election leverage.

  5. Nothing in this subsection limits any broader prohibition on foreign-national contributions, donations, expenditures, disbursements, or election activity under this section or any other provision of law.

SEC. 8. FEC ADMINISTRATION; FORMS; DATABASES; ADVISORY-OPINION LIMITS.

Section 30106 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(g) Post-ratification implementation duties.

  1. Not later than 180 days after the effective date of the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act, the Commission shall publish forms, electronic filing specifications, database standards, advisory guidance, and ministerial inflation adjustments necessary to administer the amendments made by that Act.

  2. The substantive duties created by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act are self-executing. No person, artificial entity, political committee, candidate, covered spender, or federal officer may treat the absence, delay, deadlock, withdrawal, or narrowing of Commission regulations as suspending, limiting, or postponing a duty imposed by statute.

  3. The Commission may issue gap-filling regulations only when consistent with the text, purposes, thresholds, deadlines, and anti-evasion rules enacted by Congress.

  4. No Commission regulation, advisory opinion, enforcement manual, guidance document, safe harbor, or failure to act may create an exemption, delay a statutory deadline, narrow a statutory definition, raise a disclosure threshold, authorize artificial-entity treasury spending, or otherwise defeat a statutory purpose unless expressly authorized by Congress.

  5. If the Commission fails to publish required forms, filing specifications, or electronic systems by the deadline, a filing may be made in any reasonable written or electronic form containing the information required by statute. A filer acting in good faith shall not be penalized solely for failure to use a Commission form or system that was not reasonably available.

  6. Commission staff may receive, timestamp, publish, and process filings required under the amendments made by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act without awaiting a vote of the Commission, except where a vote is required for adjudicatory enforcement under this Act.

SEC. 9. ENFORCEMENT; DIRECT CIVIL ACTIONS AFTER FAILURE TO ACT.

Section 30109 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

(f) Post-ratification enforcement and failure-to-act remedies.

  1. The Commission may investigate and impose civil penalties for violations of the amendments made by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act under the procedures of this section, except as otherwise provided in this subsection.

  2. The Attorney General may bring a civil action to enforce the amendments made by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act and may pursue criminal penalties for knowing and willful violations where otherwise authorized by law.

  3. A candidate, political committee, voter, donor, State attorney general, filer, complainant, or organization directly affected by a violation may file an administrative complaint with the Commission.

  4. If the Commission fails to act within 90 days, dismisses a complaint because of deadlock, lacks a quorum, fails to publish required forms, fails to make required disclosure information public, or otherwise fails to enforce a self-executing duty, the complainant or another directly affected person may bring a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia or in the district where the violation, filing, or covered election activity occurred.

  5. Exhaustion before the Commission is not required when delay would prevent voters from receiving required information before a covered election, when the Commission lacks a quorum, when the Commission has failed to publish required forms or filing systems, or when a Commission deadlock prevents action.

  6. The court shall expedite any action brought under this subsection when disclosure, filing access, ballot-measure information, or pre-election voter information is at issue.

  7. Relief may include declaratory relief, temporary or permanent injunctive relief, disclosure orders, compliance schedules, appointment of a special master for disclosure administration, civil penalties payable to the Treasury, fee awards, and any other relief necessary to enforce the statute.

  8. Any civil penalty imposed under this subsection shall consider the seriousness of the violation, whether the violation was knowing or willful, the amount of covered election spending, the timing of the violation, the degree of concealment, the extent of voter-information harm, corrective action, and prior compliance history.

SEC. 10. IMPLEMENTATION-FAILURE SAFEGUARDS.

Section 30109 of title 52, United States Code, as amended by section 9, is further amended by adding at the end the following:

(g) Covered implementation failures.

  1. A covered implementation failure occurs when the Commission or another federal officer:
  2. fails to publish required forms, electronic filing specifications, database standards, or ministerial guidance by a statutory deadline;
  3. lacks a quorum, deadlocks, or otherwise fails to act on a complaint, filing, enforcement matter, advisory-opinion request, disclosure dispute, audit, or database duty within a statutory deadline or within 90 days if no shorter deadline applies;
  4. issues, relies on, or refuses to withdraw an advisory opinion, enforcement policy, safe harbor, guidance document, or other agency position that narrows, delays, suspends, or contradicts a duty imposed by statute;
  5. fails to make required disclosure information public within the time required by statute;
  6. selectively enforces the statute in a manner not reasonably explained by statutory criteria, evidentiary differences, resource constraints, or ordinary enforcement priorities;
  7. withholds, delays, conditions, impounds, or prevents the obligation or expenditure of funds appropriated to administer or enforce the statute;
  8. removes, reassigns, disciplines, threatens, or materially burdens a commissioner, employee, contractor, filer, complainant, witness, or covered person because of lawful administration, compliance, disclosure, testimony, or enforcement; or

  9. fails adequately to defend the statute, confesses error, enters a settlement, or takes a litigation position that would materially impair implementation without providing Congress and affected parties a reasonable opportunity to intervene.

  10. Upon a covered implementation failure affecting filing or publication, a filer may satisfy the statute by filing the required information with the Commission in any reasonable written or electronic form and by contemporaneously filing the same information with the Clerk of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the Government Accountability Office, and the committees of Congress with jurisdiction over federal elections or campaign finance.

  11. The Clerk, GAO, or a congressional committee receiving a backup filing under this subsection may make the filing publicly available. Publication through a backup channel satisfies the public-disclosure requirement until the Commission restores ordinary publication.

  12. Upon a covered implementation failure, any candidate, political committee, voter, donor, State attorney general, filer, complainant, or organization directly affected by the failure may bring a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia or in the district where the violation, filing, or covered election activity occurred.

  13. Either House of Congress, a committee of Congress with jurisdiction over federal elections or campaign finance, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group or comparable House authority, the Senate Legal Counsel, a State attorney general, and any directly affected candidate, voter, filer, complainant, or organization may intervene as of right in any action challenging, enforcing, limiting, settling, or declining to defend a provision amended or added by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act.

  14. No settlement, confession of error, consent judgment, advisory opinion, nonenforcement position, or litigation position by the Department of Justice, the Commission, or any other executive officer shall bind Congress, State attorneys general, intervenors, or a reviewing court on the meaning, validity, or enforcement of a provision amended or added by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act.

  15. Amounts appropriated to administer or enforce the amendments made by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act shall be apportioned, allotted, obligated, and made available in the ordinary course and may not be withheld, delayed, conditioned, impounded, or used to prevent implementation.

  16. GAO may audit compliance with paragraph 7 and report any withholding, delay, condition, impoundment, or implementation obstruction to Congress. A court may order funds made available, require filing-system or database performance, and enjoin an officer or employee from obstructing implementation.

  17. An advisory opinion, enforcement policy, guidance document, safe harbor, or failure to act by the Commission may not excuse noncompliance with a clear statutory duty. During a covered implementation failure, a regulated person may rely only on a safe harbor expressly stated in statute or on a written judicial order.

  18. A commissioner, employee, contractor, filer, complainant, witness, or covered person who has substantial reason to believe that a federal officer or employee has obstructed, delayed, narrowed, retaliated against, or otherwise interfered with implementation may submit a confidential notice to the Inspector General of the Commission, GAO, and the committees of Congress with jurisdiction over federal elections or campaign finance.

SEC. 11. PUBLIC CAMPAIGN-FINANCE SYSTEMS.

Chapter 301 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end a new section, to be numbered and placed by the Office of Law Revision Counsel, as follows:

Public campaign-finance systems after ratification.

  1. Congress may establish, fund, and administer public campaign-finance systems for covered elections, including small-donor matching, democracy vouchers, grants, tax credits, spending offsets, and other lawful systems designed to reduce dependence on concentrated private wealth.

  2. Participation may be conditioned on reasonable contribution, expenditure, disclosure, debate, and accountability requirements consistent with the authorizing amendment.

  3. A public campaign-finance system may not penalize a nonparticipating speaker, award public funds solely because of an opponent's spending, or otherwise burden protected political expression except to the extent expressly authorized by the authorizing amendment.

  4. Congress may provide grants, technical assistance, filing-system support, database support, and audit support to States that establish or administer parallel public campaign-finance systems consistent with State law.

SEC. 12. COVERED STATEWIDE ELECTIONS; STATE AUTHORITY PRESERVED.

Chapter 301 of title 52, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end a new section, to be numbered and placed by the Office of Law Revision Counsel, as follows:

Covered statewide elections and covered statewide ballot measures.

  1. The post-ratification standards added by the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act apply to covered statewide elections and covered statewide ballot measures to the same extent that they apply to elections for Federal office.

  2. As applied solely to covered statewide elections and covered statewide ballot measures, sections 30104(j), 30116(k), 30118(f), 30121(d), 30109(f), 30109(g), and the public campaign-finance section added by this Act shall take effect on the date that is 18 months after the effective date of the Campaign Finance Democratic Authority Implementation Act.

  3. A State may elect earlier application by statute, regulation, or written certification by the State's chief election officer or other officer designated by State law.

  4. During the statewide-election transition period, each State may review its campaign-finance, corporate, ballot-measure, public-financing, disclosure, enforcement, and election-administration laws for consistency with the post-ratification FECA baseline.

  5. The Commission, GAO, and the committees of Congress with jurisdiction over federal elections or campaign finance may publish nonbinding transition guidance, model crosswalks, and technical assistance materials for State review.

  6. The transition period does not delay application to elections for Federal office, excuse evasion through mixed-purpose spending, authorize foreign-influenced covered election spending, or prevent a State from enforcing parallel or stronger State law.

  7. Nothing in this section requires a State or State officer to administer, investigate, enforce, publish, or defend federal law. A State may administer parallel or stronger campaign-finance rules under State law, and a State attorney general or State election authority may enforce federal law only as authorized by Congress and by State law.

  8. Nothing in this section preempts a State law governing campaign finance, corporate powers, disclosure, public financing, foreign-influenced spending, contractor-linked spending, ballot measures, or artificial-entity political activity unless compliance with both State law and federal law is impossible or the State law authorizes conduct prohibited by federal law.

  9. For mixed-purpose communications, transfers, or spending that affect both a covered election and an election or ballot measure outside the scope of this Act, federal law applies to the portion, source, transfer, communication, or activity reasonably attributable to influencing the covered election. A covered person shall not evade this Act by combining covered election spending with noncovered election spending.

SEC. 13. RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.

Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this Act shall be construed to:

  1. abridge the freedom of the press;
  2. authorize viewpoint discrimination;
  3. suppress ordinary individual political speech;
  4. prevent reasonable protection of associational privacy;
  5. displace stronger State campaign-finance laws consistent with the Constitution;
  6. require disclosure of small donors below statutory thresholds;
  7. authorize public campaign-finance mechanisms that penalize nonparticipating speakers except to the extent expressly authorized by the authorizing amendment; or
  8. take effect to the extent the provision depends on constitutional authority not supplied by ratification of the authorizing amendment.

Disclosure duties under this Act shall be administered and construed to preserve narrow tailoring, protect against threats, harassment, reprisals, and comparable associational harms, and permit confidential filing, redaction, or delayed public disclosure when a court finds that such relief is required by the Constitution and does not defeat the voter-information purpose of the statute.

SEC. 14. EFFECTIVE DATE.

This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date the Archivist of the United States certifies ratification of H.J.Res. 54, 119th Congress, with ARRP's recommended enforcement and federalism clarification, or a substantially similar constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to regulate campaign contributions, expenditures, artificial-entity political spending, election-money disclosure, statewide elections, and statewide ballot measures.

SEC. 15. SEVERABILITY.

If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of this Act, the amendments made by this Act, and the application of such provisions and amendments to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected.

Budgetary Impact Statement

Budget authority is likely required for FEC administration and enforcement, true-source disclosure systems, database modernization, audits, public campaign-finance programs, and federal-state implementation support. No federal dollar estimate is assigned pending source-backed cost data.

The Maine 2024 Citizen's Guide provides only a floor-level implementation analogue: a $75,000 one-time database and filing-system programming estimate for a narrower state super PAC contribution-limit initiative. That figure is not a federal cost model.

Note: Preliminary ARRP assessment only; not a CBO, OMB, agency, or legislative-counsel score.

Drafting Notes

  • This is an initial FECA conforming-amendment draft, not a final legislative-counsel product.
  • The Act is drafted to operate only after ratification of H.J.Res. 54 with ARRP's recommended enforcement and federalism clarification, or a substantially similar constitutional amendment.
  • The conversion removes the prior freestanding structure and maps the remedy into existing FECA provisions: definitions in 52 U.S.C. 30101; reporting in 52 U.S.C. 30104; FEC administration in 52 U.S.C. 30106; enforcement and implementation-failure safeguards in 52 U.S.C. 30109; contribution and covered-transfer limits in 52 U.S.C. 30116; artificial-entity treasury spending in 52 U.S.C. 30118; and foreign-influenced money in 52 U.S.C. 30121.
  • The draft uses FECA's existing structure where possible but still requires legislative-counsel review for final subsection placement, cross-references, table-of-sections amendments, criminal-penalty placement, and effective-date mechanics.
  • The super PAC contribution-limit default uses Maine's $5,000 state experiment as a working post-ratification placeholder. It should be reviewed against the final amendment text, federal policy goals, inflation indexing, and the full Dinner Table Action v. Schneider merits record before publication-ready reliance.
  • The statewide-election layer includes an 18-month transition period so States can review existing law against the new baseline; the next drafting pass should test whether that period should instead be keyed to election cycles, legislative sessions, or FEC/State system readiness.
  • If Congress proceeds under a narrower Democracy for All-style amendment, the artificial-entity, money-as-speech, statewide-election, and public-financing provisions should receive a conformity review.
  • Section 10 is intentionally contingent: it preserves ordinary FEC administration unless defined implementation failures trigger backup filing, direct enforcement, intervention, funding-protection, and interference-reporting safeguards.
  • Official Hawai'i State Legislature status and text endpoints for SB2471 / Act 011 have been verified. Use Hawaii as a state corporate-powers comparator and legal-theory source, not as a federal implementation model, until the enacted CD2 text receives a section-by-section comparison.
  • Public CourtListener/RECAP docket metadata has been located for Dinner Table Action v. Schneider, including the District of Maine docket No. 1:24-cv-00430 and First Circuit appeal No. 25-1705. Full merits-document review and official court/PACER verification remain pending before publication-ready reliance.
  • Current Issue One/YouGov polling supports public concern and adoption analysis, but it does not replace an Article V ratification strategy, neutral polling, stakeholder validation, or external review.
  • Disclosure rules should be tested against Buckley, McCutcheon, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta for true-source transparency, tailoring, harassment risk, and associational privacy.
  • Public-financing provisions should avoid opponent-triggered matching-fund structures or other burdens on nonparticipating speakers identified in Arizona Free Enterprise Club's Freedom Club PAC v. Bennett.
  • FEC structure and deadlock repair may require a separate companion proposal if ELEC-012 remains focused on substantive campaign-finance authority.

Source Notes