HR 2352
Abolish Super PACs Act
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Bill overview
This bill, the Abolish Super PACs Act, aims to limit the influence of Super PACs in federal elections by placing reasonable contribution limits on these committees. It seeks to reduce the risk of corruption and restore public confidence in the electoral process. The bill specifically targets Super PACs that make independent expenditures and defines them for regulatory purposes.
Key provisions
- Limits contributions to independent expenditure committees to $5,000 per year.
- Defines an ‘independent expenditure committee’ as a committee making $5,000 or more in independent expenditures or contributing $5,000 or more to other independent expenditure committees.
- Clarifies that separate accounts of political committees established for independent expenditures are considered independent expenditure committees.
- Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act to specify that limitations apply to ‘independent expenditure committees’ rather than ‘any other political committee.’
- Addresses the issue of foreign interference by limiting contributions to Super PACs.
- Recognizes that contributions to Super PACs can facilitate corrupt transactions.
- States that reasonable limits on Super PAC contributions are necessary to protect American democracy.
Who is affected
- Political candidates
- Super PACs
- Donors to Super PACs
- Federal Election Commission (FEC)
- Voters
Notable changes
Sponsors
Official sponsors from legislative records.
Primary sponsor
Cosponsors
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119th CONGRESS — 1st Session
H. R. 2352
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to place reasonable limits on contributions to Super PACs which make independent expenditures, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Abolish Super PACs Act
.
Contribution limits to political action committees (PACs), including those that make independent expenditures, help secure elections by limiting both the risk of corruption and the risk that significant contributions will create the appearance of corruption.
Since contribution limits on super PACs were lifted in 2010, the number, influence, and wealth of super PACs have exploded. Obtaining millions or billions of dollars in contributions to super PACs is now critical to the success of Federal candidates’ campaigns.
As the influence of super PACs grows, so does the likelihood that they will serve as a conduit for corrupt agreements between contributor and candidate, whose communications are not subject to coordination limitations.
Between 2008 and 2020, the amount of independent expenditures increased more than 700 percent, and in 2024, more than $4.48 billion in independent expenditures were spent on United States elections. The money for these expenditures largely came from contributions to 2,459 registered super PACs.
In 2012, the first modern elections for Federal office held without contribution limits to super PACs, the top 1 percent of all individual super PAC contributors contributed 76.76 percent of all individual super PAC contributions, and that percentage rose to 96.94 percent in 2024. Recent elections have been influenced by individual contributors who gave more than $100 million to super PACs.
Without reasonable limitations on contributions, super PACs create an appearance of corruption. A bipartisan majority of Americans believe that large super PAC contributions are made in exchange for political favors, and that corruption is pervasive in the Federal Government. This is, as the Supreme Court recognized in Buckley v. Valeo, disastrous
to confidence in the system of representative government
424 U.S. 1, 27 (1976).
Placing limits on super PAC contributions will also lessen the risk of foreign interference in United States elections, making it more difficult for foreign entities to funnel contributions to super PACs via third-party contributors.
SpeechNow.org v. FEC, 599 F.3d 686 (D.C. Cir. 2010), the appellate court case that voided existing contribution limits to super PACs, wrongly treated contributions as expenditures and wrongly assumed that because uncoordinated independent expenditures cannot give rise to quid pro quo corruption, that contributions to independent expenditure committees similarly cannot give rise to corruption. But they can and do.
In the 14 years since SpeechNow unleashed billions of dollars in unregulated contributions, super PACs have obtained unprecedented wealth and value to candidate campaigns and can facilitate vast, nearly untraceable corrupt transactions.
Because Super PACs have become uniquely important to candidate campaigns and can accept millions and even hundreds of millions of dollars from single entities, candidates and contributors have reason and opportunity to guide corrupt contributions into super PACs, establishing a significant risk of corruption and creating an appearance of corruption that undermines the public’s faith in their representatives and our political system.
Reasonable limits on contributions to super PACs are lawful and necessary to protect American democracy and American voters.
It is the purpose of this Act—
to limit the appearance of corruption created by uncapped contributions to political action committees that make independent expenditures; and
to restore the public’s faith in our elections.
to any other political committeeand inserting
to an independent expenditure committee or any other political committee.
Section 301 of such Act (52 U.S.C. 30101) is amended by adding at the end the following:
The term independent expenditure committee means a political committee which—
makes independent expenditures aggregating $5,000 or more during a calendar year; or
makes contributions to other independent expenditure committees aggregating $5,000 or more during a calendar year.
The amendments made by this section shall apply with respect to contributions and independent expenditures made during the first calendar year which begins after the date of the enactment of this Act and each succeeding calendar year.