Two bills introduced Monday by House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil would tighten campaign-donation rules, targeting online fraud and foreign influence as Republicans intensify scrutiny of ActBlue.
The package would ban gift-card political donations, require cardholder and donor names to match, and mandate citizenship or permanent-resident checks for donors without a U.S. mailing address.
A second measure would bar foreign nationals from funding election-related activity beyond direct contributions, including ballot harvesting, voter-registration drives, polling and state or local election administration.
ActBlue came under renewed pressure after the New York Times reported leaked internal memos said its controls may have allowed foreign donations; the platform denies wrongdoing and says its congressional statements were lawyer-reviewed.
The proposed rules would also cover WinRed, after a 2025 AP investigation found Trump campaign filings marked citizenship as verified for only 2 of more than 200 donors living abroad.
Can new tech secure online donations without creating hurdles for legitimate American donors?
If direct foreign donations are stopped, will illicit money simply find new paths into elections?