Congress·In Committee·S. 538

Eliminating Leftover Expenses for Campaigns from Taxpayers (ELECT) Act of 2025

Campaign Finance: Ending Taxpayer Funding for Presidential Elections

Feb 12, 2025·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

This bill is one vehicle in a longer effort. See the full story across every version.View effort →

Next up: A senate committeeNo action in 16 months

The ELECT Act of 2025 is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It was recently introduced and sent to the Senate Committee on Finance for review. There are no upcoming votes scheduled at this time, and the bill is waiting for the committee to decide on its next steps.

Legislative Progress

Senate

House

President

Law

Unlikely to pass

This is a long-standing partisan issue where Republicans generally want to cut the funding while many Democrats want to keep or expand public campaign financing.

How we got here

This bill’s path across every version that has carried it.

Reintroduced
Reintroduced from S. 500 (118th), which died when its Congress ended.
S. 500 (118th) →

Key Points

This bill would stop the government from using tax money to help pay for presidential campaigns and political party conventions. It aims to reduce government spending by ending a program that has been around for decades.
It would remove the question on federal tax returns that asks if you want to give 3 dollars to the presidential election fund. This change would start with the 2025 tax year.
Any money currently sitting in the election fund would be sent back to the general Treasury. This money would be used specifically to help pay down the national debt.
If this becomes law, future presidential candidates would no longer be able to get matching government funds for their campaigns. They would have to rely entirely on private donations from individuals and groups.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

2 milestones2 actions

Feb 12, 2025Senate

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Feb 12, 2025

Introduced in Senate

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes or news coverage recorded for this bill yet.

Source Information

Document Type

Congressional Bill

Official Title

Eliminating Leftover Expenses for Campaigns from Taxpayers (ELECT) Act of 2025

Bill NumberS 538

Congress119th Congress

ChamberSenate

Latest ActionRead twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Data Sources

Congress.gov

Official legislative information

Read Full Bill Text

Sponsor

Analysis generated by AI. Always verify with official sources.