Price, Van Hollen, Udall Introduce Bill to Modernize Presidential Campaign Public Financing

Today, Congressman David Price (D-N.C.),Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) announced that they have introduced legislation to reduce the influence of money in presidential elections by empowering candidates who decline support from wealthy special interests. With mega-donors exerting increasing influence on elections and increasing public disgust for out-of-control special interest electioneering, the Empowering Mass Participation to Offset the Wealthy's Electoral Role (EMPOWER) Act would modernize the presidential public financing system to help publicly funded candidates compete. By increasing the government's match for small donations to 6:1, increasing the ability of political parties to financially support candidates and taking other important steps, the bill would help restore the public's trust that they -- not a few wealthy donors -- can affect the outcome of our presidential elections.

The presidential public financing system is one of the country's most significant post-Watergate campaign finance reforms. It offers public matching funds to candidates who demonstrate their viability by raising small contributions. In exchange, participating candidates must abide by voluntary limits on private fundraising. Public financing has helped level the playing field for lesser-know presidential candidates, funding almost every presidential campaign for more than two decades. One of the original champions in Congress of public financing legislation was former U.S. Rep. Mo Udall (D-Ariz.), who ran for president in 1976. Several candidates have benefited, including President Ronald Reagan. But the program has not been updated since 1974, and it has become increasingly inadequate for modern, post-Citizens United presidential campaigns.

"Presidential public financing was a landmark post-Watergate reform, but the system needs modernizing for the Super PAC era, when a few wealthy donors outspend millions of ordinary citizens," Price said. "Empowering small-dollar donations with a matching system would be an important first step in taking our elections back from billionaires and corporations."

"With secret special interest spending reaching epic proportions in our electoral process, it is more important than ever to have a system that gives individual voters a voice,"Van Hollen said. "We will keep fighting to make our democracy more accountable to the American people, not well-heeled special interests."

"With the 2016 campaign already getting started, we urgently need a comprehensive plan to roll back big money in politics, which is why I'm leading the push to amend the Constitution to overturnCitizens United. But meanwhile, Congress must act to fix the presidential campaign financing system so it works for today's candidates and grassroots donors," Udall said. "Our democracy should be built on the power of ordinary citizens, not a few billionaires with huge checkbooks. But when it comes to presidential elections, one look at recent headlines shows that's no longer the case. By empowering voters to impact elections, we can restore faith in our democracy and encourage even more people to participate. My uncle Mo Udall was a champion for public campaign financing in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and I'm proud to follow in his footsteps by pushing for this reform."

The EMPOWER Act would modernize the public financing system by increasing public matching funds available to candidates and enhancing the role of donors who contribute $250 or less by increasing the match to 6:1 (from 1:1). The bill would also eliminate spending limits on participating candidates, require publicly funded candidates to agree to accept contributions of no more than $1,000, empower national parties to compete alongside Super PACs by allowing them to make unlimited expenditures for publicly funded candidates, ensure candidates have broad support to qualify for public financing by requiring them to first raise a minimum amount to qualify for the program, and increase funding for the program through the voluntary income tax "check-off."

Several leading campaign finance reform organizations support the legislation, including Brennan Center for Justice, Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Democracy 21, Issue One, League of Women Voters, People For the American Way, and Public Citizen. The New York Times editorial board has endorsed several ideas to reform the presidential public financing system, many of which are incorporated into the bill.

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