{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr20-114/featured_government-by-the-people-act-of-2015-1470939882.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/hr20-114/featured_large_government-by-the-people-act-of-2015-1470939882.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr20-114.png"},"introduced_on":"2015-01-21","title_override":"Would a Public Campaign Finance System for House Candidates Empower Ordinary Citizens?","summary_override":"

This bill would reform the way that Congressional elections are\n financed by allowing certain House candidates to earn grants, matching\n funds, and television vouchers based on small-dollar contributions they\n receive rather than relying on larger donors. House candidates could \nchoose to participate in this voluntary public financing system, but \nthey would have to agree to limit their campaign spending to what they \nreceive from small-dollar contributions (defined as less than $150 per \ndonor) and money provided by the Fair Elections Fund.

During\n a primary, small-dollar contributions would be subject to a 6-to-1 \nmatch up to a certain cap, and once that cap is reached candidates could\n raise an unlimited amount of $150 or less contributions. Candidates \nwould also receive a base grant that’s proportional to their state’s \npopulation. In a general election candidates would get an additional \ngrant, continued small-dollar contribution matching, and media vouchers \nto buy television advertising while raising an unlimited amount of $150 \ncontributions.

Funding for this campaign finance \nsystem would come from a .05 percent fee assessed on annual federal \ncontracts over $10 million in value, though the fee would be capped at \n$500,000 per year for larger contracts.

A new type of\n political action committee (PAC) would be created called a “People PAC”\n which can only receive contributions of $150 or less from individuals, \nwhich could make donations of up to $5,000 per election to a candidate \nthat’s qualified for Fair Elections funding. Standard federal PACs are \nable to accept up to $5,000 per year in donations from individuals, \nwhile Super PACs can accept unlimited contributions.

People\n would be able to utilize a new “My Voice Tax Credit” to encourage \nindividuals to make small donations to political campaigns. The maximum \ntax refund an individual could receive would be limited at $25, while \njoint filers could get $50. Only people who contribute less than $300 to\n a candidate or political party in a given year would be eligible for \nthe tax refund.

","official_title":"To reform the financing of Congressional elections by broadening participation by small dollar donors, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Government By the People Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Government By the People Act of 2015\n\nAmends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to allow a refundable credit of 50% of qualified congressional House campaign contributions paid or incurred during the taxable year (contributions of cash by an individual to a House candidate or a political committee established and maintained by a national political party if the contribution is not prohibited under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 [FECA], to be known as \"My Voice Federal\" contributions).\n\nDirects the Government by the People Oversight Commission, established by this Act, to launch a pilot program under which it shall select three eligible states to operate a voucher pilot program.\n\nRequires a state under a voucher pilot program to provide each qualified individual during the election cycle, upon his or her request, with a \"My Voice Voucher\" worth $50, which will be assigned a routing number. Authorizes the individual to submit the My Voice Voucher to qualified federal election candi...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"Average citizens who wish to make a donation of less than $150 to a House candidate or People PAC; People PACs; House candidates; and the federal agencies involved with elections.","argument_for":"This public campaign finance system would give average citizens an incentive to make small contributions to political candidates by offering 6-to-1 matching for small donations and weaken powerful organizations that try to tip the scales in House elections.","argument_against":"There is no reason to believe that this public campaign finance system would actually be used by House candidates. They have need to raise as much money as possible, and relying on this system’s donation matching may leave them underfunded.","bill_type":"hr","published":true,"type":"FederalBill","id":"hr20-114","bill_id":"hr20-114","formal_id":"H.R. 20","chamber":"house","congress":114,"last_action_at":"2015-03-30T00:00:00.000Z","active":false,"enacted":false,"enacted_at":null,"vetoed":false,"last_vote_at":null,"debated_on":null,"congress_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/20","plain_text_url":"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-114hr20ih/html/BILLS-114hr20ih.htm","shareable_image_url":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/hr20-114.png","congress_full_text_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th/house-bill/20/text","is_current_congress":false,"last_version_on":"2015-01-21","related_bill_ids":["s366-114","hr6449-114"],"progress":"Introduced","house_passage_result":false,"senate_passage_result":false,"position_count":354,"committees":[{"name":"Committee on Administration","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSHA","subcommittee":false},{"name":"Trade","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSWM04","subcommittee":true},{"name":"Committee on Energy and Commerce","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSIF","subcommittee":false},{"name":"Communications and Technology","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSIF16","subcommittee":true},{"name":"Committee on Ways and Means","chamber":"house","committee_id":"HSWM","subcommittee":false}],"links":{"rollCalls":"/api/roll_calls?bill_id=hr20-114","details":"/api/bills/hr20-114/details","sharingMessage":"/api/sharing_messages/hr20-114","positionsFor":"/api/bills/hr20-114/positions/for","positionsAgainst":"/api/bills/hr20-114/positions/against"},"upcoming":false,"cosponsors_count":162,"slug":"hr20-114-government-by-the-people-act-of-2015","latest_chamber_votes_id":null,"official_url":null,"target_video":true,"following":false,"vote_count":3635,"yea_vote_count":3103,"nay_vote_count":520,"passed_house":false,"passed_senate":false,"vote_id":null,"my_position_id":null,"topic_ids":["government"],"issue_ids":["government"],"sponsor_id":252}],"votes":[],"issues":[{"id":"government","name":"Government","slug":"government","description":"Federal legislation related to the operations of the US Federal Government. 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Would a Public Campaign Finance System for House Candidates Empower Ordinary Citizens?