I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 157
To require the use of independent nonpartisan commissions to carry out
congressional redistricting and to require States to hold open primaries
for elections for Federal office.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY9, 2023
Mr. F
ITZPATRICKintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on House Administration, and in addition to the Committee
on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To require the use of independent nonpartisan commissions
to carry out congressional redistricting and to require
States to hold open primaries for elections for Federal
office.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Citizen Legislature 4
Anti-Corruption Reform of Elections Act’’ or the 5
‘‘CLEAN Elections Act’’. 6
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•HR 157 IH
SEC. 2. REQUIRING USE OF INDEPENDENT NONPARTISAN 1
COMMISSIONS TO CARRY OUT REDIS-2
TRICTING. 3
(a) R
EQUIREMENT.— 4
(1) C
ONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING .—Each 5
State shall conduct Congressional redistricting (be-6
ginning with the redistricting carried out pursuant 7
to the decennial census conducted during 2020) in 8
accordance with a redistricting plan developed by a 9
nonpartisan independent redistricting commission. 10
(2) R
EDISTRICTING FOR STATE LEGISLATIVE 11
DISTRICTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of 12
law, a State may not use any funds provided by the 13
Federal Government directly for election administra-14
tion purposes unless the State certifies to the Elec-15
tion Assistance Commission that the State conducts 16
redistricting for State legislative districts in the 17
State (beginning with the first such redistricting 18
carried out after the date of the enactment of this 19
Act) in accordance with a redistricting plan devel-20
oped by a nonpartisan independent redistricting 21
commission. 22
(b) N
ONPARTISAN INDEPENDENT STATUS.—For 23
purposes of this section, a commission shall be considered 24
to be a nonpartisan independent commission if— 25
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•HR 157 IH
(1) the number of its members who are affili-1
ated with the political party with the largest percent-2
age of the registered voters in the State who are af-3
filiated with a political party (as determined with re-4
spect to the most recent statewide election for Fed-5
eral office held in the State for which such informa-6
tion is available) is equal to the number of its mem-7
bers who are affiliated with the political party with 8
the second largest percentage of the registered vot-9
ers in the State who are affiliated with a political 10
party (as so determined); and 11
(2) none of its members is an elected public of-12
ficial. 13
(c) S
TATEDEFINED.—In this section, the term 14
‘‘State’’ means each of the several States. 15
SEC. 3. REQUIRING OPEN PRIMARIES. 16
(a) I
NGENERAL.— 17
(1) E
LECTIONS FOR FEDERAL OFFICE .—Each 18
State shall hold open primaries for elections for Fed-19
eral office held in the State. 20
(2) E
LECTIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL OF -21
FICE.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 22
a State may not use any funds provided by the Fed-23
eral Government directly for election administration 24
purposes unless the State certifies to the Election 25
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•HR 157 IH
Assistance Commission that the State holds open 1
primaries for elections for State and local office. 2
(b) O
PENPRIMARIESDESCRIBED.—For purposes of 3
this section, a State holds open primaries for an election 4
for an office if any individual who is registered to vote 5
in a general election for such office in the State may cast 6
a ballot in any primary election (including a primary elec-7
tion held for the selection of delegates to a national nomi-8
nating convention of a political party and a primary elec-9
tion held for the expression of a preference for the nomina-10
tion of individuals for election to the office of President) 11
held by any political party to nominate candidates for elec-12
tion for that office, including a convention or caucus of 13
a political party which has authority to nominate a can-14
didate. 15
(c) S
TATEDEFINED.—In this section, the term 16
‘‘State’’ has the meaning given such term in section 901 17
of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21141). 18
(d) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—Subsection (a) shall apply 19
with respect to elections held after the date of the enact-20
ment of this Act. 21
Æ
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