District of Columbia Campaign Finance Reform Act

District of Columbia Campaign Finance Reform Act - Title I: Short Title, Definition - Defines the terms used in the Act. Title II: Financial Disclosures - Requires every political committee to have a chairman and treasurer, each of whom may authorize expenditures on behalf of political committees, in the District of Columbia. States that every person who receives a contribution of $10 or more for or on behalf of a political committee shall, on demand of the treasurer, and in any event within five days after receipt of such contribution, submit to the treasurer of such committee a detailed account thereof, including the amount, the name and address (including the occupation and the principal place of business, if any) of the person making such contribution, and the date on which such contribution was received. Requires the treasurer of a political committee, and each candidate, to keep a detailed and exact account of contributions and expenditures made to or by such committee or candidate. States that each candidate for office in the District of Columbia shall designate in writing one political committee as his principal campaign committee. Requires the treasurer of each such committee to file reports and statements of candidates designating such committee as his principal committee with the Division of Campaign Finance of the District of Columbia Board of Elections. Requires each political committee, and each candidate accepting contributions or making expenditures, to designate one national bank located in the District of Columbia as the campaign depository of that political committee or candidate. Permits the maintenance of a petty cash fund by political committees and candidates. Requires each political committee to file a statement of organization with the Division within ten days of organization, and specifies the items to be included in such statement of organization. Requires individual candidates to file a registration statement with the Division. Specifies the times at which political candidates and committees shall file reports with the Division, and the disclosures to be contained in such report. Requires contributors who contribute more than $50 within a year to a political committee or candidate to file with the Division a statement containing specified information. States that any candidate who anticipates spending or spends less than $250 in any one election, and who has not designated a principal campaign committee, shall be exempt from the provisions of this Act. Title III: Division of Campaign Finance - Establishes within the Board of Elections a Division of Campaign Finance, and specifies the composition and powers of the Division. Enumerates duties of the Division consonant with the purposes of and requirements established by this Act. Title IV: Finance Limitations - Enumerates maximum amounts which may be contributed and received in one year with respect to candidates running for specified offices in the District of Columbia. Enumerates maximum amounts which may be expended by any principal campaign committee for a candidate seeking a specified office. Title V: Penalties and Enforcement Tax Credits, Use of Surplus Campaign Funds, Voters' Information Pamphlets, Study of 1974 and Report by Council, Effective Dates, Amendments to District of Columbia Election Act, and Authorization - Provides that any person or political committee in the District of Columbia who violates any of the provisions of this Act shall be fined not more that $5,000, or imprisoned up to six months, or both. Provides for a tax credit of 50 percent of any contribution made to any candidate seeking any office referred to in this Act, provided, such credit shall not exceed $12.50. States that, not sooner than thirty-five days or later than twenty days prior to each election (except a runoff election), the Board shall mail to each registered qualified elector a voters' information pamphlet containing campaign statements and photographs of candidates in that election who submit such information, as provided in this Act. Provides for a study of the operation and necessity for modification of this Act and the District of Columbia Election Act during 1975 including hearings and investigations to consider, but not be limited to, specified items. Authorizes to be appropriated, out of any money in the treasury to the credit of the District of Columbia, such sums as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on May 14, 1974. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.