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Subcommittee backs amendment to extend ban on foreign contributions to local measures
Summary
A legislative subcommittee reviewed a 'replace-all' amendment to SB 534 that would expand existing prohibitions on foreign expenditures to ban foreign contributions for local ballot measures, clarify definitions (including 'measure'), adjust notice requirements, and refine penalties and enforcement language; members debated definitions and the 'willfully' standard before taking an informal voice vote to submit the amendment.
A legislative notice subcommittee on SB 534 advanced an amendment intended to expand the state’s prohibition on foreign money in politics to cover local ballot measures and related local vote formats.
The chair opened the subcommittee at 10 a.m. and invited members to discuss Representative Lane’s replace-all amendment to Senate Bill 534. Lane said the draft separates provisions that apply to local measures from those that apply to presidential primaries and would make both contributions and expenditures by foreign nationals illegal at the local level, effectively mirroring sections already applied to expenditures. "I did actually read the statute," Representative Lane said, explaining the goal was to ensure measures—town meetings and other popular-vote questions—are covered where federal definitions fall short.
Why it matters: supporters said the change closes a potential loophole where a foreign national could give to a committee that then makes an expenditure, and it would…
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