# Plain Language Summary: Recurring Campaign Donation Consent Bill

This bill changes the rules for how political campaigns can collect money from donors who want to give repeatedly. Right now, some campaigns use a system where they automatically charge a donor's credit card or bank account month after month unless the donor actively stops it. This bill would ban that practice for federal elections.

Under this new rule, campaigns would only be allowed to set up automatic, recurring donations if the donor explicitly agrees to it first. In other words, a donor would have to actively say "yes, charge me $25 every month" rather than campaigns being able to start automatic charges and making donors cancel if they don't want it. This is sometimes called an "opt-in" requirement instead of an "opt-out" system. The difference matters because many people forget to cancel subscriptions they didn't actively choose, so campaigns end up collecting more money this way.

The bill applies specifically to campaigns for federal office—meaning presidential, Senate, and House races. It doesn't affect donations to state or local campaigns, political parties, or other political organizations. Campaigns could still accept one-time donations however they want, and donors could still choose to set up recurring donations as long as they clearly agree to it upfront. The main practical effect would be that campaigns lose the ability to rely on people forgetting to cancel automatic charges, which means they'd likely collect less money from recurring donations overall.

To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to prohibit the solicitation and acceptance of a recurring contribution or donation in a campaign for election for Federal office by any method which does not require the contributor or donor to give affirmative consent to making the contribution or donation on a recurring basis, and for other purposes.

Levin, Mike

This bill places restrictions on recurring political contributions or donations. Specifically, the bill prohibits any person from soliciting a recurring contribution or donation for a political committee, an independent expenditure, or an electioneering communication by any method that does not require the affirmative consent of the contributor or donor. In addition, the bill prohibits a political committee, a person funding an independent expenditure, or a person funding an electioneering communication from accepting a recurring contribution or donation unless the contributor or donor gave affirmative consent. This affirmative consent cannot be a passive action by the contributor or donor, such as failing to uncheck a prechecked box. Further, any person who accepts a recurring contribution or donation must (1) provide a receipt for the initial contribution or donation and for each recurrence that clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms, (2) provide all information needed to cancel the recurring contribution or donation in each communication with the contributor or donor, and (3) immediately cancel recurring contributions or donations upon request of the contributor or donor.