Clean Money Act of 2016

Clean Money Act of 2016

This bill amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA) to entitle a candidate in a congressional general election who is certified as a participating candidate under FECA to political advertising vouchers disbursed by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as well as funds to defray the costs of postage.

Participating candidates shall return to the FEC any political advertising vouchers provided to the authorized committees of the candidate which remain unused.

The Clean Money Fund is established in the Treasury to be available to redeem vouchers that are accepted by broadcasting stations as payment for the purchase of broadcasting time for political advertisements.

The bill imposes civil penalties for violation of contribution and expenditure requirements and requires repayment for improper use of payments made to defray costs of postage.

The bill amends the FECA with respect to: (1) contributions and expenditures by multicandidate and political party political committees on behalf of participating candidates, and (2) restrictions on permitted uses of funds by candidates receiving small dollar financing.

This bill amends the Communications Act of 1934 to set a station's lowest unit price for preemptible use as the charge for a broadcast by the national committee of a political party for an affiliated candidate.

The FEC is authorized to revoke a broadcast station license or construction permit only for at least three willful failures to allow reasonable access to, or to permit purchase of reasonable amounts of time for the use of, a broadcasting station or cable system by a legally qualified candidate for federal office.