As Americans continue to struggle with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly $400 million sits in a widely ignored fund created to keep private money out of presidential elections.
“It all goes back to Democrats and Republicans in Congress not agreeing on what to do with this money,” Business Insider’s Dave Levinthal told hosts of WBEN’s A New Morning Wednesday.
Listen to your favorite News/Talk station now on Audacy
According to the Federal Elections Commission, public financing of presidential primaries, nomination conventions and presidential elections was established in 1974 following the Watergate scandal, which exposed corruption in presidential elections. Though many campaigns used public funds – provided by voluntary $3 contributions from taxpayers – from the 1970s through the 1990s, public funding began to fall out of use in 2000.
Business Insider explained that George W. Bush decided not to use the established public fund in the 2000 Republican presidential primary, citing financial advantages. By the 2004 presidential election, neither Bush nor his Democratic challenger John Kerry used public funding for their presidential primary campaigns.
Former President Barack Obama then became the first major party candidate not to use public funding for a general election in 2008, breaking a campaign promise to do so, according to Business Insider. Though John McCain used public funds for his failed 2008 campaign, no nominee from the Democratic or Republican party has used public funds since.
Related
That leaves a large sum of money in the fund, with Congress at odds about how to use it.
Democrats have included plans for the Presidential Election Campaign Fund in the For The People Act to expand voting rights and enact campaign finance reform, said Business Insider. However, Republicans have pushed back hard against the proposed legislation.
Republican lawmakers have offered their own plans for the funds, according to Business Insider. Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma proposed a bill diverting funds to a National Institutes of Health pediatric initiative and Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa introduced legislation calling for funds to be used to reduce the national deficit. Neither bill received a hearing.
Related
Outside of Congress, others also have ideas about what the often-neglected funds could be put towards.
“The best possible use of $400 million would be to provide funds for charities to help people and communities recover,” from the pandemic, Steven Taylor United Way Worldwide, an international network of non-profit fundraising affiliates, told Business Insider. “Charities are leading the way in addressing these problems, and $400 million in new funding would be a game changer.”
Related
