A campaign, elections, and ethics reform package that Democrats hope to make a signature achievement of their majority in the House of Representatives this Congress will come with a price tag of close to $2.5 billion.
That estimate comes from a report issued Friday by the Congressional Budget Office, the official budgetary scorekeeper of Congress. The actual cost would come from separate legislation to fund programs authorized by the bill. The authorized funding would be spread out over six years, including 2019, if the bill is signed into law.
Congress would also need to provide funds in separate legislation to match the amounts authorized, meaning that the bill would need a separate law to fund the majority of the spending programs within it.
Driving the estimated cost of the bill are programs aimed at beefing up cybersecurity for elections and the implementation of online and automatic voter registration.
Another section of the bill, which includes several programs aimed at dramatically increasing public financing of political campaigns, is not included in the initial estimate, but the CBO believes the total price tag of funding those programs would exceed $1 billion over 10 years. The section includes programs to match each dollar candidates receive from an individual donor, up to $200 from the same person, with six dollars of federal money.
The bill — H.R. 1, For the People Act of 2019, the first introduced by Democrats after they retaking a majority of seats in the House of Representatives — would also create a pilot program in three states to provide a $25 voucher to eligible voters who want to donate to candidates in $5 increments.
Democrats expect to pass the bill out of the House of Representatives, but it’s unlikely to be considered in or pass the Senate due to Republican opposition.
Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., the top Republican on the House Budget Committee, blasted the bill in a statement sent to the Washington Examiner.
“As the CBO report shows, this legislation leaves the door open for lawmakers to direct billions of dollars toward publicly-financed campaign contributions and the government-run infrastructure to support them,” said Womack. “As Democratic leaders look to advance H.R. 1, I caution my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to consider the dangerous precedent this proposal sets, not only for our budget, but for the future of our democracy.”
