Drain the Swamp Act
Sponsored By: Representative Landsman, Greg [D-OH-1]
Introduced
Summary
Tighten ethics and stop financial conflicts among top officials. This multi‑title package bars many covered investments for Members, executives, and justices, boosts disclosure and enforcement, and remakes campaign, court, and voting rules into a single reform effort.
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- Covered officials and families: bans ownership of defined "covered investments" during federal service and forces divestiture within 90 or 180 days. Violations carry disgorgement and a fee equal to 10% of the investment and expanded public disclosure.
- Presidents and former Presidents: expands oversight of pardons, tolls statutes of limitations for presidential offenses, bars certain payments and emoluments without congressional consent, and authorizes forfeiture of benefits for finally convicted former Presidents. Civil penalties and criminal fines apply for emoluments violations, including fines up to $50,000 and possible imprisonment.
- Voters, campaigns, and States: rewrites campaign disclosure rules, bans corporate PACs, requires 24‑hour disclosure for certain inaugural donations over $1,000, and sets new nonpartisan redistricting criteria plus a practice‑based preclearance regime and a 25‑year Voting Rights Act lookback.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
15 provisions identified: 8 benefits, 4 costs, 3 mixed.
Bringing back preclearance-style coverage
If enacted, the bill would set clear numeric triggers and dates to reimpose preclearance-like federal coverage. It would use a 25-year lookback and trigger statewide coverage at 15 violations, 10 with at least one by the State, or 3 in areas the State runs; subdivisions are covered at 3 violations. Coverage would start January 1 of the year it applies and last 10 years, with special rules about applicable start dates. The bill would also add a retrogression standard to Section 2 going back to January 1, 2021 and define what counts as a voting-rights violation using Census guidance.
Easier voting-discrimination lawsuits and relief
If enacted, courts would be able to keep more voting-discrimination claims and plaintiffs would find it easier to get temporary court orders. The bill would expand the legal bases for courts to retain jurisdiction and change the preliminary-injunction test to favor relief when plaintiffs raise a serious question and would face greater harm. Courts could not deny relief just because an election is near unless the opposing party shows clear and convincing evidence of irreparable harm, and courts must weigh public reliance on orders. The bill would also make it easier for some winning plaintiffs to recover attorney fees.
New limits on partisan redistricting
If enacted, States would be barred from using a Member's residence or voters' party or voting history when making congressional maps, except as needed to meet legal criteria. The bill would ban plans that statewide materially favor one party and set a quick enforcement process: challenges within 30 days, a hearing within 15 days, and testing using the two most recent presidential and two most recent Senate elections. A quantitative threshold equals the greater of 7% of districts or one seat, and a timely challenge would automatically stop the plan from being used.
New rules for congressional mapmaking
If enacted, States would have to use single-member congressional districts and follow a ranked list of mapmaking rules. The bill would require equal population first, then compliance with the Voting Rights Act, then protections for protected groups, and then keeping communities of interest. People and the Attorney General could sue about bad maps; courts could step in, draw replacement or interim plans, and must speed appeals. The bill would apply many rules to plans tied to the April 26, 2021 apportionment notice.
Preclearance and private voting suits
If enacted, States and localities would need approval before using certain voting changes. Covered practices (like some redistricting moves, stricter ID, cuts to multilingual materials, poll-hour or location changes, and some list-maintenance actions) could not be implemented unless a D.C. court says they are lawful or the Attorney General reviews and does not object within 60 days. The bill would expand who can sue when a rule likely denies voting rights and give the Attorney General new power to appoint observers and demand documents before suing.
New investment limits for officials
If enacted, covered Federal officials would be barred from entering prediction-market contracts tied to political events and from owning or trading certain covered investments, with narrow exceptions. Officials who acquire covered investments other than by purchase would generally have 90 days to divest at fair market value, subject to limited extensions. Ethics offices could impose a penalty equal to 10 percent of the investment's value and require disgorgement of illegal profits, with penalties payable to the U.S. Treasury. Some payments of penalties and certain trust exceptions are tightly limited.
Public notice and local help for voters
If enacted, entities that draw or adopt congressional plans would have to run an open process, post plans and data publicly, and hold streamed hearings. Proposed plans and data must be online at least five days before any vote and written evaluations at least 48 hours before a vote. Places that change voting rules or polling places must give quick notice (often within 48 hours) and publish polling details before 30 days before a federal election. Very small places (10,000 people or less) could get grants to help publish required notices.
Tighter rules on campaign donations
If enacted, the ban on foreign nationals giving money for campaign activity would cover more kinds of transfers, including payments to anyone who made a covered transfer in the prior two years. Inaugural Committees would not be able to accept donations from non-individuals or foreign nationals. Individuals could give at most $50,000 in aggregate to an Inaugural Committee, with that limit indexed starting in 2028. Committees would report donations of $1,000 or more within 24 hours and file a final report within 90 days listing donations of $200 or more.
Members' pay cut during shutdowns
If enacted, after the November 2026 general election each Member of Congress would lose one day's pay for each 24-hour period a Government shutdown or a public-debt-limit condition lasts. The lost amount equals one day's pay (annual pay divided by 365) times the number of such 24-hour periods. For the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress, payroll administrators would withhold prorated amounts each pay period and put them in escrow until the last day of that Congress.
New limits and penalties for foreign gifts
If enacted, senior Federal officials would have to give written notice to the ethics Director before accepting any foreign payment. The Director must send that notice to Congress within 10 days, and officials could not accept foreign payments for two years after leaving office. Congress could block acceptance unless it passes a concurrent resolution within 90 days. Violations could mean civil fines, criminal fines and jail, forfeiture, and private civil suits, though a narrow safe harbor applies if officials quickly notify and return or remit the payment.
Stronger ethics enforcement and divest rules
If enacted, ethics offices (OGE and OSC) would get new enforcement powers like ordering disgorgement, fines, divestiture, and bringing civil actions. OGE must finalize rules on legal expense funds within one year and publish designation lists quickly. Covered officials would generally have to divest certain investments within 180 days (or 90 days if they become covered later), and supervising ethics offices could grant limited extensions. The bill would also require DOJ to give Congress prosecution and pardon materials after certain pardons and add extra court oversight for dismissal motions involving the President or President-elect.
New campaign finance disclosure and ad rules
If enacted, groups that spend more than $10,000 on campaign activity in a reporting cycle would file sworn 24-hour disclosures with the FEC, itemizing disbursements over $1,000 and listing large donors into segregated accounts. Spending on public ads about Federal judicial nominees would be counted separately and reported on a calendar-year basis, and FinCEN would give the FEC data and a report to Congress within six months. The bill would also propose a constitutional amendment letting governments limit campaign spending and allow public financing, and it would narrow which corporations can run corporate PACs to nonprofit corporations only.
New ethics and emoluments rules
If enacted, the bill would expand criminal and disclosure rules for Presidents and high officials. Pardons, commutations, and reprieves would count as a thing of value under bribery law and the President and nominees would face new emoluments reporting duties. It would bar accepting foreign government gifts or titles without Congress's consent and bar certain payments to the President from covered officials or clemency recipients, with required returns and deadlineed notices. The bill would also void any self-pardon, toll the statute of limitations while someone serves as President or Vice President, and limit Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuits by Presidents and certain family members.
Supreme Court term and ethics overhaul
If enacted, newly confirmed Supreme Court justices would serve only one 18-year term. The Chief Justice could temporarily assign retired justices if the Court has too few active justices. The bill would let the Chief Justice create an Office of Ethics Counsel and an Office of Investigative Counsel with paid lawyers, subpoena power, regular ethics training, and required reports to Congress. Current justices would be treated as retired in order of longest service when new justices are commissioned.
Treasury help for Congress payroll
If enacted, the Secretary of the Treasury would be required to help congressional payroll administrators carry out any pay-reduction rules in the title. This is administrative support to make payroll changes work. The change would not directly affect most households.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Landsman, Greg [D-OH-1]
OH • D
Cosponsors
Riley (NY)
NY • D
Sponsored 6/9/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov