Government By the People Act of 2015

referredUnited States· United States Congress· EN

Introduced

21 January 2015

Last action

30 March 2015 · Referred

Status

Referred to the Subcommittee on Trade.

Summary

Government By the People Act of 2015 Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to allow a refundable credit of 50% of qualified congressional House campaign contributions paid or incurred during the taxable year (contributions of cash by an individual to a House candidate or a political committee established and maintained by a national political party if the contribution is not prohibited under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 [FECA], to be known as "My Voice Federal" contributions). Directs the Government by the People Oversight Commission, established by this Act, to launch a pilot program under which it shall select three eligible states to operate a voucher pilot program. Requires a state under a voucher pilot program to provide each qualified individual during the election cycle, upon his or her request, with a "My Voice Voucher" worth $50, which will be assigned a routing number. Authorizes the individual to submit the My Voice Voucher to qualified federal election candidates, allocating a portion of its value in $5 increments. Requires the Commission to pay any candidate who transmits a My Voice Voucher that portion of its value which the individual allocated to the candidate. Considers this transaction a contribution by the individual to the candidate for purposes of FECA. Requires a state operating a voucher pilot program also to permit an individual to revoke a My Voice Voucher within two days after submitting it to a candidate. Requires such a state to establish a commission or designate an existing entity to oversee and implement the program in the state, except that no such commission or entity may be composed of elected officials. Amends FECA with respect to: benefits for participating House of Representatives candidates; Federal Election Commission (FEC) payments to such candidates; candidate use of payments; qualified small dollar contributions, expenditures, and fundraising requirements; certification of participating candidates; campaign administration; prevention of the unnecessary spending of public funds; establishment of the Freedom From Influence Fund in the Treasury and of a Government by the People Oversight Commission in the FEC; remittal of unspent funds to the Freedom From Influence Fund after an election; eligibility of participating candidates for additional payments; civil penalties for violation of contribution and expenditure requirements; a Commission action appeals process; and contributions and expenditures by multicandidate and political party political committees on behalf of participating candidates. Prohibits a certified participating candidate's authorized committee from establishing a joint fundraising committee with any political committee other than another authorized committee of the candidate. Prohibits a certified participating candidate from establishing, financing, maintaining, or controlling a leadership PAC (political action committee). Prohibits use of contributions by a participating candidate for any purposes other than an election campaign. Revises bundler disclosure requirements to repeal a specified exception and so require disclosure of persons who provided bundled contributions to the reporting committee. Amends FECA to empower the FEC to petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to appeal a civil action to enforce the Act. Requires all political committee designations, statements, and reports required to be filed under FECA to be filed: (1) directly with the FEC; and (2) in electronic form accessible by computers. Reduces to 24 hours after their receipt the deadline for the FEC to make designations, statements, reports, or notifications available to the public in the FEC office and on the Internet. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to set a station's lowest unit price for preemptible use as the charge for a broadcast by the national committee of a political party for an affiliated candidate. Authorizes the FEC to revoke a broadcast station license or construction permit only for at least three willful failures to allow reasonable access to, or to permit purchase of reasonable amounts of time for the use of, a broadcasting station or cable system by a legally qualified candidate for federal office. Amends the IRC to allow taxpayers to designate overpayments of tax for contribution to the Freedom From Influence Fund.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

21 January 2015
Introduced
Referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Source: IntroReferral
21 January 2015
Introduced
Referred to the Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
Source: IntroReferral
21 January 2015
Introduced
Introduced in House
Source: IntroReferral
21 January 2015
Introduced
Introduced in House
Source: IntroReferral
23 January 2015
Referred
Referred to the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
Source: Committee
30 March 2015
Referred
Referred to the Subcommittee on Trade.
Source: Committee

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

Introduced in House · 21 January 2015 · Download file

Documents

3 official files

Introduced in House (text)

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Introduced in House (text)
Introduced in House · EN · 21 January 2015
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Introduced in House (PDF)
Introduced in House · EN · 21 January 2015
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Introduced in House
summary · EN · 21 January 2015
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Related records

related to → Government By the People Act of 2017
related to ← Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act
related to ← Clean Money Act of 2016

Sources

PoliticalRepo is an index and interpretation layer, not the authoritative legal source.

Official source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/20
Open data entity: https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/114/hr/20
us · 114-hr-20 · source updated 12 August 2025