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Transparency in Government Act 2008

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Title IV - Improving Lobbyist Reporting and Disclosure of Information

Sec. 405. Reporting of bundled contributions made by persons other than registered lobbyists.

Chief executives of major corporations and other wealthy donors have the ability to collect and deliver large quantities of contributions from others. In doing so, they become known and influential to Members of Congress. But, because current reporting requirements do not require non-lobbyist bundlers to be disclosed, they remain unknown to the public. Requiring these powerful contributors to report when they bundle sheds light on an otherwise hidden part of the campaign finance system.

  1. REQUIRED DISCLOSURE- Each political committee shall be required to file under this section after each covered period (as defined in paragraph (2)) a separate schedule setting forth the name, address, and employer of each person reasonably known by the committee who provided two or more bundled contributions to the committee in an aggregate amount greater than the applicable threshold during the covered period, and the aggregate amount of the bundled contributions provided by each such person during the covered period.




  2. COVERED PERIOD- In this subsection, a `covered period’ means, with respect to a committee—




    1. the period beginning January 1 and ending June 30 of each year;




    2. the period beginning July 1 and ending December 31 of each year; and




    3. any reporting period applicable to the committee under this section during which any person described in paragraph (7) provided two or more bundled contributions to the committee in an aggregate amount greater than the applicable threshold.






  3. APPLICABLE THRESHOLD-




    1. IN GENERAL- In this subsection, the `applicable threshold’ is $5,000, except that in determining whether the amount of bundled contributions provided to a committee by a person exceeds the applicable threshold, there shall be excluded any contribution made to the committee by the person or the person’s spouse.






  4. PUBLIC AVAILABILITY- The Commission shall ensure that




    1. information required to be disclosed under this subsection is publicly available through the Commission Web site in a manner that is searchable, sortable, and downloadable; and




    2. the Commission’s public database containing information disclosed under this subsection is linked electronically to the Web sites maintained by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives containing information filed pursuant to the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995.






  5. COMMITTEES DESCRIBED- A committee described in this paragraph is an authorized committee of a candidate, a leadership PAC, or a political party committee.




  6. DEFINITIONS- For purposes of this subsection, the following definitions apply:




    1. BUNDLED CONTRIBUTION- The term `bundled contribution’ means a contribution (subject to the applicable threshold) which is—




      1. forwarded from the contributor or contributors to the committee by the person; or




      2. received by the committee from a contributor or contributors, but credited by the committee or candidate involved (or, in the case of a leadership PAC, by the individual referred to in subparagraph (B) involved) to the person through records, designations, or other means of recognizing that a certain amount of money has been raised by the person.






    2. The term bundled contribution’ shall not include any contribution forwarded by or credited to (through records, designations, or other means of recognizing a certain amount of money has been raised) a person who is a regularly paid employee of the committee.