Description:
H.R. 1087 would require public companies to disclose details about their expenditures for political activities in quarterly reports to the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) and to their investors. The bill also would require public companies to annually disclose to investors political expenditures in the previous year that were greater than $10,000 as well as those made for any election where their total expenditures exceeded $10,000. Companies with those expenditures would be required to include information on the amounts and nature of any political expenditures planned for the upcoming year. H.R. 1087 would require the SEC to report annually to the Congress on the compliance of public companies with those requirements and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to report periodically on the SEC’s enforcement efforts. CBO estimates that implementing the reporting requirements would cost the SEC and GAO a total of $1 million over the 2021-2026 period. However, because the SEC is authorized to collect fees each year to offset its annual appropriation, CBO expects that the net effect over the 2021-2026 period would be insignificant, assuming appropriation actions consistent with that authority. H.R. 1087 contains private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). CBO estimates that the cost to comply with those mandates would be small and would not exceed the threshold established in UMRA ($170 million in 2021, adjusted annually for inflation).
