HR5238-119

What This Bill Does

The Stop Super PAC-Candidate Coordination Act rewrites federal campaign finance coordination rules. It adds to FECA's contribution definition any payment by a person other than a candidate, authorized campaign, or party committee for a coordinated expenditure. New section 325 defines coordinated expenditure to include spending or covered communications made in cooperation, consultation, concert, or at the request or suggestion of a candidate, campaign, party committee, or agents, as well as republication or use of campaign materials. It preserves exceptions for news, commentary, editorials, and candidate debates or forums. It says policy discussions alone do not create coordination if there is no campaign-advertising, message, strategy, polling, resource-allocation, fundraising, or campaign-activity communication. It disregards firewalls for coordination determinations and treats a spender as coordinated if the candidate helped form it, solicits funds for it, appears at fundraising, provides donor lists, shares recent campaign consultants or staff, uses professional services tied to the campaign, or is managed by immediate family. Covered communications include express advocacy, functional equivalent advocacy, promote-support or attack-oppose communications, and election-period candidate references. The bill also bars federal candidates and officeholders from soliciting, receiving, directing, or transferring funds for Super PACs, noncompliant political committee accounts, and certain 527 organizations, except state or local party committees or state/local candidates, for elections after January 1, 2026.

Who Benefits and How

Voter organizations benefit because outside spending coordinated with candidates would be treated as candidate contributions subject to FECA limits and reporting. Campaign finance watchdog organizations benefit from clearer statutory coordination tests for Super PACs, shared consultants, fundraising ties, and republication. Federal Election Commission enforcement staff benefit from detailed rules defining coordinated spenders, covered communications, exceptions, and election periods. Candidate committees benefit when rival campaigns cannot use nominally independent unlimited-money committees as coordinated campaign arms.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Super PAC organizations bear the burden because coordinated expenditures would count as contributions to candidates and can violate contribution limits. Federal candidate committees must stop soliciting, receiving, directing, or transferring funds for covered Super PACs and 527 organizations. Campaign consultant organizations must manage four-year and two-year lookback rules for employment, professional services, and campaign relationships. Political donor organizations face less ability to route unlimited funds through outside groups that coordinate with federal candidates.

Key Provisions

• Expands FECA's contribution definition to include coordinated expenditures by outside spenders.
• Defines coordinated expenditures to cover cooperation, candidate requests, republication, shared fundraising, shared consultants, family ties, and covered communications.
• Protects exceptions for bona fide news, commentary, editorials, and candidate debates or forums.
• Requires coordination determinations to disregard firewalls.
• Prohibits federal candidates and officeholders from fundraising for Super PACs and certain 527 organizations after January 1, 2026.