[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5410 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5410

    To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit 
 corporations which are subject to certain criminal or civil sanctions 
  from engaging in campaign-related activity under such Act, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2010

 Mr. Lipinski introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                   Committee on House Administration

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit 
 corporations which are subject to certain criminal or civil sanctions 
  from engaging in campaign-related activity under such Act, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; FINDINGS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Accountability in 
Corporate Political Activity Act of 2010''.
    (b) Findings.--Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC 
        allows a corporation to have increased access to the election 
        process by permitting unlimited disbursements from a 
        corporation's general treasury funds for the purpose of 
        political advocacy.
            (2) As established in the Citizens United case, the Court 
        rejected the argument that political speech of corporations or 
        other associations should be treated differently under the 
        First Amendment simply because such associations are not 
        ``natural persons'', thereby granting corporations the same 
        First Amendment rights as individuals regarding political 
        advocacy.
            (3) In the United States, 48 States prohibit individuals 
        from voting while incarcerated, and 2 States permanently bar 
        individuals convicted of a felony from voting.
            (4) Unlike individuals, corporations are not currently 
        subject to any form of disenfranchisement from the political 
        process due to the conviction of a crime.
            (5) Corporations should be subject to similar regulations 
        and punishments as individuals for violating the law and the 
        public's trust.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITING CORPORATIONS SUBJECT TO CERTAIN CRIMINAL OR CIVIL 
              SANCTIONS FROM ENGAGING IN CAMPAIGN-RELATED ACTIVITY.

    (a) Prohibition.--Section 316 of the Federal Election Campaign Act 
of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 441b) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subsection:
    ``(d) Prohibiting Corporations Subject to Certain Sanctions From 
Engaging in Campaign-Related Activity.--
            ``(1) Prohibition.--Subject to paragraph (2), a corporation 
        described in subsection (a) may not engage in any campaign-
        related activity if the corporation has been subject to any of 
        the following sanctions:
                    ``(A) The imposition of any criminal penalty under 
                any Federal law.
                    ``(B) The imposition of a civil money penalty under 
                this Act.
                    ``(C) The imposition of a civil money penalty under 
                any other Federal law in an amount equal to or greater 
                than $1,000,000.
            ``(2) Application of prohibition.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Paragraph (1) shall apply with 
                respect to a corporation only during such period of 
                time (if any) as may be determined appropriate by the 
                court or other entity which imposes the sanction 
                involved.
                    ``(B) Statement if prohibition not applied.--If the 
                court or other entity which imposes a sanction on a 
                corporation determines that it is not appropriate to 
                apply paragraph (1) to the corporation for any period 
                of time, the court or other entity shall, at the time 
                of imposing the sanction, publicly disseminate and file 
                with the Commission a statement of the court's or other 
                entity's reasons for not applying paragraph (1) to the 
                corporation.
            ``(3) Campaign-related activity defined.--In this 
        paragraph, the term `campaign-related activity' means, with 
        respect to a corporation--
                    ``(A) the making of a contribution by a separate 
                segregated fund of the organization established and 
                administered pursuant to subsection (b)(2)(C);
                    ``(B) the disbursement of funds for an independent 
                expenditure; or
                    ``(C) the disbursement of funds for an 
                electioneering communication described in section 
                304(f).''.
    (b) Dissemination of Information on Availability of Sanction.--Upon 
the enactment of this Act, the Federal Election Commission shall 
disseminate information to the public, and shall notify each State, 
regarding the availability of the prohibition described in section 
316(d) of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as added by 
subsection (a), as a sanction applicable to corporations subject to any 
of the sanctions described in section 316(d)(1) of such Act.
    (c) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to penalties imposed on or after the date of the 
enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. SEVERABILITY.

    If any provision of this Act or amendment made by this Act, or the 
application of a provision or amendment to any person or circumstance, 
is held to be unconstitutional, the remainder of this Act and 
amendments made by this Act, and the application of the provisions and 
amendment to any person or circumstance, shall not be affected by the 
holding.
                                 <all>