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Chairman Steil's full opening remarks as prepared for delivery:
Today, the Committee on House Administration will consider 7 pieces of legislation.
I want to begin with the Campaign Finance Transparency Act.
Three years ago, this Committee initiated an investigation into allegations of fraud involving the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue.
That investigation exposed gaps in existing law that Congress has an opportunity to address today.
Our current campaign finance laws were not written for the digital age.
Today, political donations are often made online.
Through our investigation, we’ve learned that fraudsters and foreign nationals could exploit the current system to make illegal campaign finance contributions.
That’s an unacceptable vulnerability and we have an opportunity to fix it.
The Campaign Finance Transparency Act is the solution.
Here’s the topline:
All political donations must be reported, regardless of the amount;
The name of a political donor must match the name on the donor’s credit card;
No contributions can be made utilizing gift cards;
And Americans who are donating from abroad must provide identity verification.
We will also consider two bills to stop foreign money from influencing our elections.
Widespread reporting found that foreign billionaires used a nonprofit, the Sixteen Thirty Fund, to spend millions on ballot initiatives in states including Arizona, Nevada, and Ohio.
Foreign nationals cannot be allowed to influence American elections.
That’s why I introduced the Preventing Foreign Interference in American Elections Act, which bans foreign nationals from donating to electioneering activities.
This includes voter registration, get out the vote efforts, and ballot harvesting.
Representative Brian Fitzpatrick’s bill, the Stop Foreign Funds in Elections Act, will prohibit foreign funding of state and local ballot initiatives, referenda, or recall elections.
Both bills are commonsense reforms.
American elections are for American citizens only, and I urge my colleagues to support these bills today.
We will also consider Representative Bice’s Securing Tech and Election Administration Defenses for All States and Territories, or the STEADFAST Act.
Currently, when filing your tax return, there is an option to donate to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund.
These funds are available to candidates running for the Presidency, but no major party’s nominee has tapped into this money since 2008, when John McCain used the funds.
The STEADFAST Act will convert the Presidential Election Campaign Fund to a new Election Security Fund that states can apply for.
States can use these funds to strengthen election security, such as updating cybersecurity for voting systems or acquiring secure paper ballots.
Next, we will consider the FEC Administrative Improvements Act, which is led by my friend, Ranking Member Morelle, and Chair of the Subcommittee on Elections, Representative Lee.
This bill would implement recommendations from the Federal Elections Commission to modernize administrative operations.
We’ll also consider Representative Johnson’s VOTE Act, which requires election officials to notify voters when a polling location is closed during early voting.
Finally, we’ll consider Mr. Griffith’s Legislative Branch Agencies Clarification Act.
I am grateful to Ranking Member Morelle for helping to get this to a good place and to Rep. Griffith for taking the lead on this important Article 1 bill.
We know how important Article 1 is to all of us here, but in particular, the lead Mr. Griffith has taken in being a steadfast supporter of Article 1.
After bipartisan discussions with the Ranking Member we made some tweaks to the bill, including clarifying that the Register of the Copyright Office must consult with the Librarian of Congress on regulations related to “any material deposited in the Copyright Office.”
I thank my colleagues for being here and I look forward to a good conversation and a productive discussion.
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