The 28th Amendment

PROPOSED 28th AMENDMENT TO

THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

Section 1. General election campaigns for seats in the United States Congress, and for the office of President, shall be conducted in accordance with the requirements and limitations set forth herein.

(1) The Legislatures of the respective states shall acquire and allocate public funds for the purpose of financing Congressional general election campaigns conducted within their states, and shall establish a budget for each such campaign in an amount agreeable to a simple majority of the authorizing legislators. In setting budgets for Congressional general elections, the state legislatures shall assume a contribution from the Federal treasury of one dollar for each dollar of authorized state funds.

(2) The Congress of the United States shall acquire and allocate public funds for the purpose of financing Presidential general election campaigns, and for providing matching funds to the States in accordance with sub-section (1) above. The Congress shall establish a budget for each Presidential general election no later than September 30th of the year preceding the election year, in an amount agreeable to a simple majority of both Houses of Congress.

(3) Candidates appearing on the ballot of a covered general election who received ten percent or more of the total votes cast in an immediately preceding primary (or primary run-off) election will qualify to receive public funds for the general election campaign.

(4)The public funds budgeted for disbursement to qualifying candidates shall be allocated in direct proportion to the percentage of primary votes each candidate received, relative to the total number of primary votes received by all qualifying candidates.

(5) For each covered general election, the amount of money disbursed to the candidate receiving the largest share of Public Funds shall represent the maximum amount of money to be spent by any candidate running in that election.

(6) All candidates appearing on the ballot of a covered general election, other than the candidate who received the largest share of public funds, shall be authorized to solicit private contributions to supplement their allocation of public funds (if any), up to a combined amount not to exceed the maximum amount defined in the preceding sub-section 5. The solicitation, acceptance and reporting of such private contributions shall be subject to all applicable Federal and state laws.

(7) Funds allocated to or raised by candidates pursuant to this Amendment shall be the only funds used by the candidates in the conduct of their general election campaigns.

(8) General election campaigns for seats in the Congress and for the office of President shall last no more than seventy days. During the final thirty days of each such campaign, no individual, organization, political party or committee, other than the candidates' personally authorized General Election Campaign Committees, shall facilitate, sponsor, or pay for mass media advertising that names, pictures or conveys the identity of any candidate running in said general election.

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3: This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an Amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within ten years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. Upon ratification, the Amendment shall apply to all Federal general elections held after the third anniversary of the ratification date.