Skip to main content
CivicGate

S 538
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Eliminating Leftover Expenses for Campaigns from Taxpayers (ELECT) Act of 2025

To reduce Federal spending and the deficit by terminating taxpayer financing of Presidential election campaigns.

Introduced Feb 12, 2025

Latest action (Feb 12, 2025) Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Policy area
Issues
Economy & Taxes

Summary

This bill terminates the federal program that allows taxpayers to designate $1 of their income tax payments to finance presidential election campaigns. It eliminates the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which previously provided public financing for presidential candidates who opted to participate, and the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account. Any remaining funds in these accounts would be transferred to the general Treasury to reduce the federal deficit. The changes take effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2024, and apply to all presidential elections after the bill's enactment.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Joni Ernst’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • NULL $57,653
  • CAPITAL GROUP $40,000
  • SOROBAN CAPITAL $13,200
  • CAPITAL GROUP COMPANIES $7,500
  • GOOGLE $6,800

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Joni Ernst → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)

  1. Feb 12, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
  2. Feb 12, 2025 Introduced in Senate

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

Full text

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

February 12, 2025

Ms. Ernst introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To reduce Federal spending and the deficit by terminating taxpayer financing of Presidential election campaigns.

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 “Eliminating Leftover Expenses for Campaigns from Taxpayers (ELECT) Act of 2025”.

SEC. 2. TERMINATION OF TAXPAYER FINANCING OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGNS.

(a) Termination of Designation of Income Tax Payments.—Section 6096 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

“(d) Termination.—This section shall not apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2024.”.

(b) Termination of Fund and Account.—

(1) Termination of presidential election campaign fund.—

(A) In general.—Chapter 95 of subtitle H of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“SEC. 9013. TERMINATION.

“The provisions of this chapter shall not apply with respect to any Presidential election (or any Presidential nominating convention) after the date of the enactment of this section, or to any candidate in such an election.”.

(B) Transfer of remaining funds.—Section 9006 of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

“(d) Transfer of Funds Remaining After Termination.—The Secretary shall transfer the amounts in the fund as of the date of the enactment of this subsection to the general fund of the Treasury, to be used only for reducing the deficit.”.

(2) Termination of account.—Chapter 96 of subtitle H of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

“SEC. 9043. TERMINATION.

“The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any candidate with respect to any Presidential election after the date of the enactment of this section.”.

(c) Clerical Amendments.—

(1) The table of sections for chapter 95 of subtitle H of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

“Sec. 9013. Termination.”.

(2) The table of sections for chapter 96 of subtitle H of such Code is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

“Sec. 9043. Termination.”. <all>

Comments

Comments

Loading comments…