Campaign finance reports go digital; groups can pay by wire transfer
H.R. 8738 — FEC Administrative Improvements Act · Filed by Joseph Morelle (D-NY) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced May 12, 2026 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill requires people who make electioneering communications to file reports online. Electioneering communications are ads that mention candidates. They do not ask people to vote for or against them. The bill lets political committees send money by wire transfer, ACH, or credit card. Before, they could only use checks. All payments stay tracked and open to review.
Who it affects
People who make political ads and political committees. Citizens who want to see campaign finance records. Citizens will find it easier to search reports about who pays for ads.
One thing to notice
The bill changes how reports are filed and how money is sent. It does not change what counts as an electioneering communication.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- May 12, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 12, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on House Administration and Senate Committee on Rules and Administration · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on House Administration”
- May 14, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 14, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 11 - 0”
- Jul 13, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H4401-4402)”
- Jul 13, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Steil moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- electioneering communications — Ads that mention a candidate but do not ask people to vote for or against them
- political committees — Groups that raise and spend money for elections
- ACH — A way to move money between bank accounts electronically
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (624 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-17.
“Campaign finance reports go digital; groups can pay by wire transfer” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr8738/simple Report an error