[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 749 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 749

 To establish a revenue source for fair elections financing of Senate 
   campaigns by providing an excise tax on amounts paid pursuant to 
              contracts with the United States Government.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                April 6 (legislative day, April 5), 2011

   Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Franken, Mr. 
Harkin, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Mikulski, 
  Mr. Sanders, Mrs. Shaheen, and Mr. Tester) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To establish a revenue source for fair elections financing of Senate 
   campaigns by providing an excise tax on amounts paid pursuant to 
              contracts with the United States Government.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Fair Elections Revenue Act of 
2011''.

SEC. 2. FAIR ELECTIONS FUND REVENUE.

    (a) In General.--The Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by 
inserting after chapter 36 the following new chapter:

 ``CHAPTER 37--TAX ON PAYMENTS PURSUANT TO CERTAIN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS

``Sec. 4501. Imposition of tax.

``SEC. 4501. IMPOSITION OF TAX.

    ``(a) Tax Imposed.--There is hereby imposed on any payment made to 
a qualified person pursuant to a contract with the Government of the 
United States a tax equal to 0.50 percent of the amount paid.
    ``(b) Limitation.--The aggregate amount of tax imposed under 
subsection (a) for any calendar year shall not exceed $500,000.
    ``(c) Qualified Person.--For purposes of this section, the term 
`qualified person' means any person which--
            ``(1) is not a State or local government, a foreign nation, 
        or an organization described in section 501(c)(3) which is 
        exempt from taxation under section 501(a), and
            ``(2) has contracts with the Government of the United 
        States with a value in excess of $10,000,000.
    ``(d) Payment of Tax.--The tax imposed by this section shall be 
paid by the person receiving such payment.
    ``(e) Use of Revenue Generated by Tax.--It is the sense of the 
Senate that amounts equivalent to the revenue generated by the tax 
imposed under this chapter should be appropriated for the financing of 
a Fair Elections Fund and used for the public financing of Senate 
elections.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of chapter of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting after the item relating to 
chapter 36 the following:

     ``Chapter 37--Tax on Payments Pursuant to Certain Government 
                              Contracts''.

    (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to contracts entered into after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
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