Constitutional and Effective Reform of Campaigns Act of 1999

Constitutional and Effective Reform of Campaigns Act of 1999 - Title I: Enhancement of Citizen Involvement - Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) to revise the prohibition against a foreign national's making a contribution in connection with any political election. Extends such prohibition to include: (1) any individual not registered to vote in a Federal election; and (2) donations. (Sec. 101) Defines the term "donation" to mean a gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money or anything else of value made by any person to a national committee of a political party or a Senatorial or Congressional Campaign Committee of a national political party for any purpose, but does not include a contribution. (Sec. 102) Increases the $1,000 individual per candidate limit on contributions to $2,000. Provides for the indexing of such limit and other contribution limits. (Sec. 103) Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to allow individuals a limited tax credit for the aggregate amount of contributions made to local congressional candidates during the taxable year. Title II: Leveling the Playing Field for Candidates - Amends FECA to permit certain House and Senate individual and multicandidate political committee contribution limits to be increased up to four times until the aggregate amount of contributions accepted exceed specified limits. (Sec. 202) Increases individual and multicandidate political committee contribution limits for a particular election when personal expenditures in excess of $25,000 are made by an opposing candidate. Requires Senate candidates making expenditures from personal funds in excess of such amount in connection with any election to file a notification within 24 hours. (Sec. 203) Amends Federal postal law to revise provisions concerning time limits on the mailing of any mass mailing as franked mail by Members or Members-elect, including adding a provision which prohibits a Member of the Senate from mailing any mass mailing as franked mail during a year in which there will be an election for the seat held by the Member during the period between January 1 of that year and the date of the general election for that office, unless the Member has made a public announcement that he or she will not be a candidate for reelection to that office in that year. Title III: Voluntariness of Political Contributions - Sets forth requirements for the voluntary, written authorization of the use of dues and fees of employees of labor organizations. (Sec. 301) Amends the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 to require a labor organization's annual financial report to include such information as will allow labor organization members and employees to determine whether disbursements categorized as other disbursements were necessary to perform the duties of exclusive representation of the employees in dealing with the employer on labor- management issues. Directs the Secretary of Labor, upon the written request of any person, to make available the complete copies of a labor organization's constitution, bylaws, and annual financial reports. (Currently, such documents may be inspected but there is no specific requirement to make available complete copies.) (Sec. 302) Amends FECA to require corporations, required by any Federal law to submit annual reports to shareholders, to disclose the aggregate amount of donations made and the name of the political committee to which each donation was made. Title IV: Elimination of Election Campaign Excesses - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit the solicitation or receipt of donations (as well as contributions) on Federal property. (Currently, the prohibition is limited to solicitation or receipt of contributions.) (Sec. 402) Amends FECA to set forth provisions concerning the return to donors of certain contributions and donations. (Sec. 403) Prohibits an individual's aggregate (soft money) donations to a national committee of a political party (or any subordinate committee of a national party) or a Senatorial or Congressional Campaign Committee of a national political party (or an entity that is either directly or indirectly established, financed, maintained, controlled by, or acting on behalf of, such a committee) from exceeding, in the aggregate, $100,000 during a calendar year. Increases the following limits: (1) from $20,000 to $50,000, the limit on an individual's contributions to political committees of a national political party; and (2) from $25,000 to $50,000, the limit on an individual's aggregate contributions. (Sec. 404) Revises provisions concerning the prohibition on the conversion of contributions to personal use. Title V: Enhanced Disclosure - Amends FECA to revise certain reporting requirements with respect to candidates, including requiring the treasurer of a candidate's principal campaign committee to file weekly reports beginning 30 days before a general election. (Sec. 502) Directs the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to make information contained in FECA reports available on the Internet and at FEC offices. (Sec. 503) Sets forth provisions requiring the reporting of independent expenditures made within 20 days before an election which, in the aggregate, total more than $1,000. Requires, in addition, a report within 48 hours when during such time, in the aggregate, they total more than $10,000. (Sec. 504) Amends the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, regarding semiannual reports by registered lobbyists, to require: (1) such lobbyists to disclose contributions and donations in such reports; and (2) such reports to include specified information if the registrant, the registrant's employer, or a separate segregated fund of such employer made contributions or donations to covered executive branch officials, covered legislative branch officials, or political committees. Title VI: Federal Election Commission Reform - Amends FECA to: (1) provide for the filing of reports using computers and facsimile (fax) machines; (2) revise the term limit for members of the FEC to establish a single term of eight years for new members; (3) increase the penalty for knowing and willful violations of FECA or of IRC provisions relating to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund and the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account; (4) permit an individual who is responding with a brief to an alleged violation of FECA or of the preceding IRC provisions to submit, with the brief, a request to present oral arguments before the FEC; (5) establish civil penalties for minor reporting violations; (6) change certain reporting from a calendar year basis to an election cycle basis; and (7) provide for the appointment of the staff director and general counsel of the FEC by the President, subject to Senate confirmation (currently such appointments are made by the FEC). Title VII: Improvements to the National Voter Registration Act - Amends the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to: (1) repeal the requirement for States to provide for voter registration by mail; (2) require applicants registering to vote to provide certain additional information; (3) permit States to remove certain registrants from the official list of eligible voters; (4) permit States to require voters to produce a valid photographic identification and provide a signature (unless illiterate or disabled) before receiving a ballot for voting; and (5) repeal the requirement that States permit registrants who have changed residence and now have a new polling place, but are still within the same registrar's jurisdiction and the same congressional district, to vote at the polling place for their former address.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on May 24, 1999. 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.