Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) announced new legislation to close the loophole that allows donors benefitting from federal contracts to pour increasingly obscene amounts of campaign contributions into American elections. The lawmakers’ bill would end the “Musk loophole” by expanding current law that prevents federal contractors from donating to a political party, candidate, or committee to ensure that those with the most to benefit, like corporate executives and major shareholders, fall within the law.
“Federal contractors shouldn’t be able to use their positions to buy influence. This bill strengthens the ban on campaign contributions from senior federal contractors, ensuring that government contracts are awarded on merit, not political connections. I am proud to join Senator Van Hollen to hold federal contractors to the highest standards of accountability,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
“We need to end the rotten political system that allows individuals like Elon Musk to spend unlimited sums of money to elect candidates who turn around and vote to send your tax dollars to their corporations through huge federal contracts. This legislation will close that corrupt campaign cash-for-contracts loophole. It will help ensure that our federal government prioritizes the needs of the American people, not corporations making billions of dollars from taxpayer-funded federal contracts,” said Senator Van Hollen.
The Close the Campaign Cash-for-Contracts Loophole Act would:
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Expand the current ban to cover federal contractors’ executive office holders, major shareholders, and affiliated corporations
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Establish a one-year “cooling off” period after the completion of a federal contract to prohibit federal contractors from making contributions soon after finishing performance on a contract only then to seek additional contracts
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Prevent dark money organizations from being used as pass-throughs by requiring any federal contractor donations to be held separately and prohibit them from being spent on any campaigns or electoral materials
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Add a prohibition on accepting (as opposed to just soliciting) illegal federal contractor contributions
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Require illegal contributions to be turned over to the Treasury rather than simply refunded to the donor
The legislation is supported by Campaign Legal Center, Brennan Center for Justice, Democracy 21, Public Citizen, End Citizens United Action Fund, Common Cause, Indivisible, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and Democracy Defenders Action.
A summary of the bill is available here.
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