ActBlue scrutiny fuels new GOP bills to tighten election donation rules
FIRST ON FOX: House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., introduced a legislative package on Monday designed to improve transparency and security in campaign finance as a major Democratic payment...
By Fox News · Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., introduced a legislative package on Monday designed to improve transparency and security in campaign finance as a major Democratic payment processor faces scrutiny over foreign donations. Steil’s package includes two bills: The Campaign Finance Transparency Act and the Preventing Foreign Influence in American Elections Act, Fox News Digital learned. The first piece of legislation would impose a suite of new transparency regulations on organizations that process political donations , such as ActBlue, while the second proposed law seeks to prevent foreign nationals from funding election-related activities through means other than campaign contributions. A spokesman for Steil confirmed to Fox News Digital that they plan to expedite consideration of these bills through the administration committee. "My investigation into ActBlue has demonstrated that the current campaign finance laws weren’t drafted for the modern era we live in," the congressman told Fox News Digital. "The major gaps we’ve uncovered are being exploited by fraudsters and foreign nationals to make illegal political donations. For example, right now an individual can easily make a fraudulent donation online in someone else’s name and avoid getting caught. That’s an unacceptable vulnerability that bad actors are taking advantage of." DEM FUNDRAISING GIANT ACTBLUE ROCKED BY ALLEGATIONS IT MISLED CONGRESS ABOUT FOREIGN DONATIONS ActBlue is under increased scrutiny from congressional Republicans after the New York Times in April reported, citing leaked internal memos, that the payment processor’s lawyers warned that it may have misled Congress regarding its efforts to stop foreign nationals from donating to American politicians. "It can be alleged that ActBlue accepted and/or facilitated the acceptance of foreign-national contributions into American elections ," one memo reportedly stated. "In addition, because ActBlue’s staff was awa…