Congress moves to block corrupt donations to White House, presidential monuments
S. 3191 — Stop Ballroom Bribery Act · Filed by Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Nov 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits donations to White House, Vice President's residence, and federal monuments honoring sitting or recent Presidents and Vice Presidents if the donor is involved in litigation, federal investigations, seeking federal contracts or grants, lobbying the executive branch, seeking a pardon, or seeking federal appointment. It requires NPS and OGE approval before accepting donations, mandates public disclosure of all donors and their meetings with executive officials, and imposes civil and criminal penalties up to $100,000 and 5 years imprisonment for violations. The bill aims to prevent quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of impropriety in donations to presidential properties and monuments.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a conflict-of-interest screen and transparency mandate for donations to presidential properties and monuments. It is designed to prevent quid pro quo corruption and the appearance of impropriety in executive fundraising, not to advance a narrow private interest or sector carve-out.
What the text implies
- The 2-year cooling-off period on lobbying by donors may chill legitimate advocacy by citizens and nonprofits who wish to donate to presidential events or monuments, creating a chilling effect on free speech and petition rights.
- The broad definition of 'donation' (including services) and 'covered project' (including events on presidential property) may capture routine volunteer work or in-kind contributions from ordinary citizens, requiring disclosure and creating compliance burden.
- The requirement that donors disclose all meetings with executive officials 1 year before and 1 year after donation may expose donors' private communications and create a de facto registry of who meets with the President, raising privacy concerns.
- The bill grants state attorneys general enforcement authority alongside federal enforcement, creating potential for politically motivated prosecutions or inconsistent application across states.
- Disgorgement authority granted to OGE director may be applied retroactively to donations already accepted, creating legal uncertainty for past donors and nonprofits managing presidential fundraising.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill restricts donations that pose corruption risks (from those seeking federal contracts, pardons, or involved in litigation with the government) and mandates transparency, strengthening public trust in executive integrity. Citizens benefit from reduced quid pro quo risk and full disclosure of who funds presidential properties and events.
Named in the bill
White House, Naval Observatory (Number One Observatory Circle), National Park Service (NPS), Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. Attorney General, State Attorneys General, Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofits, Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Democrats.
- Nov 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Nov 18, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $103,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 26 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Elizabeth Warren, the sponsor, reported $19,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Public Citizen — $73,000 on 1 filing
- Transparency International U.S. (a Project of the Fund for Constitutional Govt) — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 15, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (14,282 characters) on Aug 24, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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