COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AMENDMENTS TO H.B. 2255
(Reference to printed bill)
Page 1, after line 12, insert:
"Sec. 2. Legislative findings
The legislature finds that:
1. The federal government currently bans contributions and expenditures made "directly or indirectly" by foreign nationals in connection with a federal, state or local election, 52 United States Code section 30121; 11 Code of Federal Regulations section 110.20.
2. According to the tenth amendment to the United States Constitution "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." There is no prohibition in federal law that bars the states from restricting political contributions from outside state borders.
3. Nonstate residents who financially influence laws enacted within this state are not directly impacted by the negative consequences of the laws they have financially endorsed. It is the right of a sovereign state and its citizens to control and regulate external forces that seek to impose laws on a state that are not in the best interest of the citizens of the state and its local governments.
4. Article IV, section 4 of the United States Constitution states that "[t]he United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government." Voter referendums, especially those financed by external forces, are an exercise in direct democracy, and thus violate the guarantee of a republican form of government."
Amend title to conform