II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 630
To establish a democracy advancement and innovation program, and for
other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH2, 2023
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself, Ms. WARREN, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. MERKLEY,
Mr. P
ADILLA, Mr. WELCH, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. KING,
Mr. M
ARKEY, Ms. SMITH, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. SANDERS, and Mr. KAINE)
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the
Committee on Rules and Administration
A BILL
To establish a democracy advancement and innovation
program, and for other purposes.
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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Sustaining Our Democracy Act’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents of 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
TITLE I—PAYMENTS AND ALLOCATIONS TO STATES
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Sec. 101. Democracy Advancement and Innovation Program.
Sec. 102. State plan.
Sec. 103. Prohibitions.
Sec. 104. Amount of State allocation.
Sec. 105. Procedures for disbursements of payments and allocations.
Sec. 106. Office of Democracy Advancement and Innovation.
TITLE II—STATE ELECTION ASSISTANCE AND INNOVATION
TRUST FUND
Sec. 201. State Election Assistance and Innovation Trust Fund.
TITLE III—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. Definitions.
Sec. 302. Rule of construction regarding calculation of deadlines.
Sec. 303. Severability.
TITLE I—PAYMENTS AND 1
ALLOCATIONS TO STATES 2
SEC. 101. DEMOCRACY ADVANCEMENT AND INNOVATION 3
PROGRAM. 4
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established a pro-5
gram to be known as the ‘‘Democracy Advancement and 6
Innovation Program’’ under which the Director of the Of-7
fice of Democracy Advancement and Innovation shall 8
make allocations to each State for each fiscal year to carry 9
out democracy promotion activities described in subsection 10
(b). 11
(b) D
EMOCRACY PROMOTION ACTIVITIESDE-12
SCRIBED.—The democracy promotion activities described 13
in this subsection are as follows: 14
(1) Activities to promote innovation to improve 15
efficiency and smooth functioning in the administra-16
tion of elections for Federal office and to secure the 17
infrastructure used in the administration of such 18
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elections, including making upgrades to voting 1
equipment and voter registration systems, voter reg-2
istration and nonpartisan voter outreach activities, 3
securing voting locations, expanding polling places 4
and the availability of early and mail voting, and 5
promoting cybersecurity. 6
(2) Activities to recruit, train, and retain non-7
partisan election officials and poll workers and to 8
protect election officials (both nonpartisan and those 9
elected or appointed to their position) from threats 10
against them in the course of their work admin-11
istering Federal elections. 12
(3) Activities to increase access to voting in 13
elections for Federal office by underserved commu-14
nities, individuals with disabilities, racial and lan-15
guage minority groups, individuals entitled to vote 16
by absentee ballot under the Uniformed and Over-17
seas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and voters resid-18
ing in Indian lands. 19
(c) P
ERMITTINGSTATESTORETAIN ANDRESERVE 20
A
LLOCATIONS FOR FUTUREUSE.—A State may retain 21
and reserve an allocation received for a fiscal year to carry 22
out democracy promotion activities in any subsequent fis-23
cal year. 24
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(d) REQUIRINGSUBMISSION AND APPROVAL OF 1
S
TATEPLAN.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State shall receive an allo-3
cation under the Program for a fiscal year if— 4
(A) not later than 90 days before the first 5
day of the fiscal year, the chief State election 6
official of the State submits to the Director the 7
State plan described in section 102; and 8
(B) not later than 45 days before the first 9
day of the fiscal year, the Director, in consulta-10
tion with the Election Assistance Commission 11
as described in paragraph (3), determines that 12
the State plan will enable the State to carry out 13
democracy promotion activities and approves 14
the plan. 15
(2) S
UBMISSION AND APPROVAL OF REVISED 16
PLAN.—If the Director does not approve the State 17
plan as submitted by the State under paragraph (1) 18
with respect to a fiscal year, the State shall receive 19
a payment under the Program for the fiscal year if, 20
at any time prior to the end of the fiscal year— 21
(A) the chief State election official of the 22
State submits a revised version of the State 23
plan; and 24
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(B) the Director, in consultation with the 1
Election Assistance Commission as described in 2
paragraph (3), determines that the revised 3
version of the State plan will enable the State 4
to carry out democracy promotion activities and 5
approves the plan. 6
(3) E
LECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION CON -7
SULTATION.—With respect to a State plan sub-8
mitted under paragraph (1) or a revised plan sub-9
mitted under paragraph (2)— 10
(A) the Director shall, prior to making a 11
determination on approval of the plan, consult 12
with the Election Assistance Commission; and 13
(B) the Election Assistance Commission 14
shall submit to the Director a written assess-15
ment with respect to whether the proposed ac-16
tivities of the plan satisfy the requirements of 17
this Act. 18
(4) C
ONSULTATION WITH LEGISLATURE .—The 19
chief State election official of the State shall develop 20
the State plan submitted under paragraph (1) and 21
any revised plan submitted under paragraph (2) in 22
consultation with the majority party and minority 23
party leaders of each house of the State legislature. 24
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(5) RULES FOR STATES THAT DO NOT SUBMIT 1
A STATE PLAN.—If a State fails to submit a State 2
plan described in section 102 before the date re-3
quired under paragraph (1)(A), under rules estab-4
lished by the Director— 5
(A) for purposes of this title (other than 6
section 104)— 7
(i) each political subdivision within 8
the State shall be treated as a State for 9
purposes of this title (other than section 10
104); and 11
(ii) in applying this title to such polit-12
ical subdivision, any duties required of the 13
chief State election official shall be under-14
taken by the executive official of such po-15
litical subdivision charged with the admin-16
istration of elections; 17
(B) in applying this subsection to any po-18
litical subdivision of the State— 19
(i) paragraph (1)(A) shall be applied 20
by substituting ‘‘the first day of the fiscal 21
year’’ for ‘‘90 days before the first day of 22
the fiscal year’’; 23
(ii) paragraph (1)(B) shall be applied 24
by substituting ‘‘30 days after the first day 25
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of the fiscal year’’ for ‘‘45 days before the 1
first day of the fiscal year’’; and 2
(iii) paragraph (4) shall not apply; 3
and 4
(C) the amount of the allocation made to 5
each such political subdivision under the Pro-6
gram shall be the sum of— 7
(i) an amount which bears the same 8
proportion to the amount determined 9
under section 104 with respect to the State 10
in which the political subdivision is located 11
as— 12
(I) the population of the political 13
subdivision; bears to 14
(II) the population of such State; 15
plus 16
(ii) an amount (not to exceed 100 per-17
cent of the amount determined with re-18
spect to the political subdivision under 19
clause (i)) which bears the same proportion 20
to the unsubscribed funds of the State 21
as— 22
(I) the population of the political 23
subdivision; bears to 24
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(II) the population of the number 1
of political subdivisions within the 2
State that submitted a plan under 3
section 102 before the date required 4
under paragraph (1)(A) (after appli-5
cation of subparagraph (B)). 6
For purposes of subparagraph (C)(ii), the 7
unsubscribed funds of any State is the sum of the 8
amounts described in subparagraph (C)(i) with re-9
spect to political subdivisions in the State which did 10
not submit a plan under this subsection before the 11
date required under paragraph (1)(A) (after applica-12
tion of subparagraph (B)). 13
(e) S
TATEREPORT ONUSE OFALLOCATIONS.—Not 14
later than 90 days after the last day of a fiscal year for 15
which an allocation was made to the State under the Pro-16
gram, the chief State election official of the State shall 17
submit a report to the Director describing how the State 18
used the allocation, including a description of the democ-19
racy promotion activities the State carried out with the 20
allocation. 21
(f) P
UBLICAVAILABILITY OFINFORMATION.— 22
(1) P
UBLICLY AVAILABLE WEBSITE .—The Di-23
rector shall make available on a publicly accessible 24
website the following: 25
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(A) State plans submitted under para-1
graph (1) of subsection (d) and revised plans 2
submitted under paragraph (2) of subsection 3
(d). 4
(B) The Director’s notifications of deter-5
minations with respect to such plans under sub-6
section (d). 7
(C) Reports submitted by States under 8
subsection (e). 9
(2) R
EDACTION.—The Director may redact in-10
formation required to be made available under para-11
graph (1) if the information would be properly with-12
held from disclosure under section 552 of title 5, 13
United States Code, or if the public disclosure of the 14
information is otherwise prohibited by law. 15
(g) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section shall apply with 16
respect to fiscal year 2024 and each succeeding fiscal year. 17
SEC. 102. STATE PLAN. 18
(a) C
ONTENTS.—A State plan under this section with 19
respect to a State is a plan containing each of the fol-20
lowing: 21
(1) A description of the democracy promotion 22
activities the State will carry out with the payment 23
made under the Program. 24
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(2) A statement of whether or not the State in-1
tends to retain and reserve the payment for future 2
democracy promotion activities. 3
(3) A statement of how the State intends to 4
distribute resources under the plan, including how 5
the distribution of resources will address geographic 6
and racial disparities within the State. 7
(4) A description of how the State intends to 8
allocate funds to carry out the proposed activities, 9
which shall include the amount the State intends to 10
allocate to each such activity, including (if applica-11
ble) a specific allocation for— 12
(A) activities described in subsection 13
101(b)(1) (relating to election administration); 14
(B) activities described in section 15
101(b)(2) (relating to activities to recruit, train, 16
retain, and protect election workers); and 17
(C) activities described in section 18
101(b)(3) (relating to activities to increase ac-19
cess to voting in elections for Federal office by 20
certain communities). 21
(5) A description of how funds allocated under 22
paragraph (4) will be allocated to political subdivi-23
sions of the State. 24
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(6) A description of how the State will establish 1
the fund described in subsection (b) for purposes of 2
administering the democracy promotion activities 3
which the State will carry out with the payment, in-4
cluding information on fund management. 5
(7) A description of the State-based administra-6
tive complaint procedures established for purposes of 7
section 103(a)(2). 8
(8) A statement regarding whether the pro-9
posed activities to be funded are permitted under 10
State law, or whether the official intends to seek 11
legal authorization for such activities. 12
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR FUND.— 13
(1) F
UND DESCRIBED.—For purposes of sub-14
section (a)(6), a fund described in this subsection 15
with respect to a State is a fund which is established 16
in the treasury of the State government, which is 17
used in accordance with paragraph (2), and which 18
consists of the following amounts: 19
(A) Amounts appropriated or otherwise 20
made available by the State for carrying out the 21
democracy promotion activities for which the 22
payment is made to the State under the Pro-23
gram. 24
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(B) The payment made to the State under 1
the Program. 2
(C) Such other amounts as may be appro-3
priated under law. 4
(D) Interest earned on deposits of the 5
fund. 6
(2) U
SE OF FUND.—Amounts in the fund shall 7
be used by the State exclusively to carry out democ-8
racy promotion activities for which the payment is 9
made to the State under the Program. 10
(3) T
REATMENT OF STATES THAT REQUIRE 11
CHANGES TO STATE LAW .—In the case of a State 12
that requires State legislation to establish the fund 13
described in this subsection, the Director shall defer 14
disbursement of the payment to such State under 15
the Program until such time as legislation estab-16
lishing the fund is enacted. 17
SEC. 103. PROHIBITIONS. 18
(a) P
ROHIBITEDUSES OFPAYMENTS.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—A State may not use a pay-20
ment made under the Program to carry out— 21
(A) any activity described in paragraph 22
(2); or 23
(B) any other activity which has the pur-24
pose or effect of diminishing the ability of any 25
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eligible voter to participate in the electoral proc-1
ess. 2
(2) P
ROHIBITED ACTIVITIES.—The following 3
are activities described in this paragraph: 4
(A) Activities that intimidate, threaten, or 5
coerce voters, poll workers, or election adminis-6
trators. 7
(B) The restriction of the distribution of 8
food or nonalcoholic beverages to voters while 9
waiting at polling places (other than restrictions 10
on distributions made on the basis of the elec-11
toral participation or political preference of the 12
recipient). 13
(C) The removal of election administrators 14
from their positions other than for negligence, 15
neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. 16
(D) Defending against lawsuits alleging 17
voter-suppression practices or proposed prac-18
tices. 19
(E) The investigation of claims of voter 20
fraud based on the mere invocation of interests 21
in voter confidence or prevention of fraud. 22
(F) The performance of audits that— 23
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(i) fail to meet best practices estab-1
lished by the Election Assistance Commis-2
sion; 3
(ii) fail to meet the requirements for 4
record retention under title III of the Civil 5
Rights Act of 1960 (52 U.S.C. 20701 et 6
seq.); or 7
(iii) otherwise jeopardize election 8
records, voting equipment, electronic poll 9
books, or election management systems (as 10
defined under the voluntary guidance 11
issued by the Election Assistance Commis-12
sion under section 311 of the Help Amer-13
ica Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 21101)). 14
(G) The removal of voters from voter rolls 15
based on evidence that is not reliable. 16
(H) Activities preventing individuals seek-17
ing to have their right to vote or register to 18
vote restored. 19
(I) The purchase of voting machines that 20
do not require the use of individual voter- 21
verifiable paper ballots marked through the use 22
of a nontabulating ballot marking device or sys-23
tem. 24
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(b) STATE-BASEDADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT 1
P
ROCEDURES.— 2
(1) E
STABLISHMENT.—A State receiving a pay-3
ment under the Program shall establish uniform and 4
nondiscriminatory State-based administrative com-5
plaint procedures under which any person who be-6
lieves that a violation of subsection (a) has occurred, 7
is occurring, or is about to occur may file a com-8
plaint. 9
(2) N
OTIFICATION TO DIRECTOR .—The State 10
shall transmit to the Director a description of each 11
complaint filed under the procedures, together 12
with— 13
(A) if the State provides a remedy with re-14
spect to the complaint, a description of the rem-15
edy; or 16
(B) if the State dismisses the complaint, a 17
statement of the reasons for the dismissal. 18
(3) R
EVIEW BY DIRECTOR.— 19
(A) R
EQUEST FOR REVIEW .—Any person 20
who is dissatisfied with the final decision under 21
a State-based administrative complaint proce-22
dure under this subsection may, not later than 23
60 days after the decision is made, file a re-24
quest with the Director to review the decision. 25
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(B) ACTION BY DIRECTOR.—Upon receiv-1
ing a request under subparagraph (A), the Di-2
rector shall review the decision and, in accord-3
ance with such procedures as the Director may 4
establish, including procedures to provide notice 5
and an opportunity for a hearing, may uphold 6
the decision or reverse the decision and provide 7
an appropriate remedy. 8
(C) P
UBLIC AVAILABILITY OF MATE -9
RIAL.—The Director shall make available on a 10
publicly accessible website all material relating 11
to a request for review and determination by 12
the Director under this paragraph, except that 13
the Director may redact material required to be 14
made available under this subparagraph if the 15
material would be properly withheld from dis-16
closure under section 552 of title 5, United 17
States Code, or if the public disclosure of the 18
material is otherwise prohibited by law. 19
(4) R
IGHT TO PETITION FOR REVIEW .— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Any person aggrieved 21
by an action of the Director under subpara-22
graph (B) of paragraph (3) may file a petition 23
with the United States District Court for the 24
District of Columbia. 25
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(B) DEADLINE TO FILE PETITION .—Any 1
petition under this subparagraph shall be filed 2
not later than 60 days after the date of the ac-3
tion taken by the Director under subparagraph 4
(B) of paragraph (3). 5
(C) S
TANDARD OF REVIEW .—In any pro-6
ceeding under this paragraph, the court shall 7
determine whether the action of the Director 8
was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discre-9
tion, or otherwise not in accordance with law 10
under section 706 of title 5, United States 11
Code, and may direct the Office to conform 12
with any such determination within 30 days. 13
(c) A
CTION BYATTORNEYGENERAL FORDECLARA-14
TORY ANDINJUNCTIVERELIEF.—The Attorney General 15
may bring a civil action against any State in an appro-16
priate United States District Court for such declaratory 17
and injunctive relief (including a temporary restraining 18
order, a permanent or temporary injunction, or other 19
order) as may be necessary to enforce subsection (a). 20
SEC. 104. AMOUNT OF STATE ALLOCATION. 21
(a) S
TATE-SPECIFICAMOUNT.—The amount of the 22
allocation made to a State under the Program for a fiscal 23
year shall be equal to the product of— 24
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(1) the Congressional district allocation amount 1
(determined under subsection (b)); and 2
(2) the number of Congressional districts in the 3
State for the next regularly scheduled general elec-4
tion for Federal office held in the State. 5
(b) C
ONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTALLOCATION 6
A
MOUNT.—For purposes of subsection (a), the ‘‘Congres-7
sional district allocation amount’’ with respect to a fiscal 8
year is equal to the quotient of— 9
(1) the aggregate amount available for alloca-10
tions to States under the Program for the fiscal 11
year, as determined by the Director under sub-12
section (c); divided by 13
(2) the total number of Congressional districts 14
in all States. 15
(c) D
ETERMINATION OF AGGREGATE AMOUNT 16
A
VAILABLE FOR ALLOCATIONS; NOTIFICATION TO 17
S
TATES.—Not later than 120 days before the first day 18
of each fiscal year, the Director— 19
(1) shall determine and establish the aggregate 20
amount available for allocations to States under the 21
Program for the fiscal year, taking into account the 22
anticipated balances of the Trust Fund (including 23
any amounts appropriated pursuant to section 24
106(i)); and 25
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(2) shall notify each State of the amount of the 1
State’s allocation under the Program for the fiscal 2
year. 3
In making the determination under paragraph (1), the Di-4
rector shall consult with the Election Assistance Commis-5
sion, but shall be solely responsible for making the final 6
determinations under such paragraph. 7
(d) S
OURCE OFPAYMENTS.—The amounts used to 8
make allocations and payments under the Program shall 9
be derived solely from the Trust Fund. 10
SEC. 105. PROCEDURES FOR DISBURSEMENTS OF PAY-11
MENTS AND ALLOCATIONS. 12
(a) A
LLOCATION.—Upon approving the State plan 13
under section 102, the Director shall direct the Secretary 14
of the Treasury to allocate to the Election Assistance 15
Commission the amount provided for activities under the 16
plan. 17
(b) P
AYMENT TO STATE.—As soon as practicable 18
after receiving an allocation under subsection (a) with re-19
spect to a State, the Election Assistance Commission shall 20
make payments to— 21
(1) local election administrators in the State 22
with respect to amounts related to activities in the 23
State plan carried out directly by such local election 24
administrators; and 25
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(2) the State with respect to any amount not 1
described in paragraph (1). 2
(c) C
ONTINUINGAVAILABILITY OFFUNDSAFTER 3
A
PPROPRIATION.—A payment made to a State by the 4
Election Assistance Commission under this section shall 5
be available without fiscal year limitation. 6
SEC. 106. OFFICE OF DEMOCRACY ADVANCEMENT AND IN-7
NOVATION. 8
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established as an 9
independent establishment in the executive branch the Of-10
fice of Democracy Advancement and Innovation. 11
(b) D
IRECTOR.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Office shall be headed 13
by a Director, who shall be appointed by the Presi-14
dent with the advice and consent of the Senate. 15
(2) T
ERM OF SERVICE .—The Director shall 16
serve for a term of 6 years and may be reappointed 17
to an additional term, and may continue serving as 18
Director until a replacement is appointed. A vacancy 19
in the position of Director shall be filled in the same 20
manner as the original appointment. 21
(3) C
OMPENSATION.—The Director shall be 22
paid at an annual rate of pay equal to the annual 23
rate in effect for level II of the Executive Schedule. 24
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(4) REMOVAL.—The Director may be removed 1
from office by the President. If the President re-2
moves the Director, the President shall communicate 3
in writing the reasons for the removal to both 4
Houses of Congress not later than 30 days before-5
hand. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed 6
to prohibit a personnel action otherwise authorized 7
by law. 8
(c) G
ENERALCOUNSEL ANDOTHERSTAFF.— 9
(1) G
ENERAL COUNSEL .—The Director shall 10
appoint a General Counsel who shall be paid at an 11
annual rate of pay equal to the annual rate in effect 12
for level III of the Executive Schedule. In the event 13
of a vacancy in the position of the Director, the 14
General Counsel shall exercise all the responsibilities 15
of the Director until such vacancy is filled. 16
(2) S
ENIOR STAFF.—The Director may appoint 17
and fix the pay of staff designated as Senior staff, 18
such as a Deputy Director, who may be paid at an 19
annual rate of pay equal to the annual rate in effect 20
for level IV of the Executive Schedule. 21
(3) O
THER STAFF.—In addition to the General 22
Counsel and Senior staff, the Director may appoint 23
and fix the pay of such other staff as the Director 24
considers necessary to carry out the duties of the 25
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Office, except that no such staff may be com-1
pensated at an annual rate exceeding the daily 2
equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay in effect 3
for grade GS–15 of the General Schedule. 4
(d) D
UTIES.—The duties of the Office are as follows: 5
(1) A
DMINISTRATION OF PROGRAM .—The Di-6
rector shall administer the Program, in consultation 7
with the Election Assistance Commission, including 8
by holding quarterly meetings of representatives 9
from such Commission. 10
(2) O
VERSIGHT OF TRUST FUND .—The Direc-11
tor shall oversee the operation of the Trust Fund 12
and monitor its balances, in consultation with the 13
Election Assistance Commission and the Secretary 14
of the Treasury. The Director may hold funds in re-15
serve to cover the expenses of the Office and to pre-16
serve the solvency of the Trust Fund. 17
(3) R
EPORTS.—Not later than 180 days after 18
the date of the regularly scheduled general election 19
for Federal office held in 2024 and each succeeding 20
regularly scheduled general election for Federal of-21
fice thereafter, the Director, in consultation with the 22
Election Assistance Commission, shall submit to the 23
Committee on House Administration of the House of 24
Representatives and the Committee on Rules and 25
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Administration of the Senate a report on the activi-1
ties carried out under the Program and the amounts 2
deposited into and paid from the Trust Fund during 3
the two most recent fiscal years. 4
(e) C
OVERAGEUNDERINSPECTORGENERALACT OF 5
1978
FORCONDUCTINGAUDITS ANDINVESTIGATIONS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 415(a)(1)(A) of title 7
5, United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘the 8
Office of Democracy Advancement and Innovation,’’ 9
after ‘‘Election Assistance Commission,’’. 10
(2) E
FFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 11
by paragraph (1) shall take effect 180 days after the 12
appointment of the Director. 13
(f) C
OVERAGEUNDERHATCHACT.—Clause (i) of 14
section 7323(b)(2)(B) of title 5, United States Code, is 15
amended— 16
(1) by striking ‘‘or’’ at the end of subclause 17
(XIII); and 18
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-19
clause: 20
‘‘(XV) the Office of Democracy Advance-21
ment and Innovation; or’’. 22
(g) R
EGULATIONS.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-24
graph (2), not later than 270 days after the date of 25
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enactment of this Act, the Director shall promulgate 1
such rules and regulations as the Director considers 2
necessary and appropriate to carry out the duties of 3
the Office under this Act and the amendments made 4
by this Act. 5
(2) S
TATE PLAN SUBMISSION AND APPROVAL 6
AND DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS .—Not later than 90 7
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 8
Director shall promulgate such rules and regulations 9
as the Director considers necessary and appropriate 10
to carry out the requirements of this title and the 11
amendments made by this title. 12
(3) C
OMMENTS BY THE ELECTION ASSISTANCE 13
COMMISSION.—The Election Assistance Commission 14
shall timely submit comments with respect to any 15
proposed regulations promulgated by the Director 16
under this subsection. 17
(h) I
NTERIMAUTHORITYPENDINGAPPOINTMENT 18
ANDCONFIRMATION OFDIRECTOR.— 19
(1) A
UTHORITY OF DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF 20
MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET .—Notwithstanding sub-21
section (b), during the transition period, the Direc-22
tor of the Office of Management and Budget is au-23
thorized to perform the functions of the Office under 24
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this Act, and shall act for all purposes as, and with 1
the full powers of, the Director. 2
(2) I
NTERIM ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES .— 3
(A) A
UTHORITY OF OFFICE OF MANAGE -4
MENT AND BUDGET .—During the transition pe-5
riod, the Director of the Office of Management 6
and Budget may provide administrative services 7
necessary to support the Office. 8
(B) T
ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY ; PER-9
MITTING EXTENSION.—The Director of the Of-10
fice of Management and Budget shall cease pro-11
viding interim administrative services under this 12
paragraph upon the expiration of the transition 13
period, except that the Director of the Office of 14
Management and Budget may continue to pro-15
vide such services after the expiration of the 16
transition period if the Director and the Direc-17
tor of the Office of Management and Budget 18
jointly transmit to the Committee on House Ad-19
ministration of the House of Representatives 20
and the Committee on Rules and Administra-21
tion of the Senate— 22
(i) a written determination that an or-23
derly implementation of this Act is not fea-24
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sible by the expiration of the transition pe-1
riod; 2
(ii) an explanation of why an exten-3
sion is necessary for the orderly implemen-4
tation of this Act; 5
(iii) a description of the period during 6
which the Director of the Office of Man-7
agement and Budget shall continue pro-8
viding services under the authority of this 9
subparagraph; and 10
(iv) a description of the steps that will 11
be taken to ensure an orderly and timely 12
implementation of this Act during the pe-13
riod described in clause (iii). 14
(3) T
RANSITION PERIOD DEFINED .—In this 15
subsection, the ‘‘transition period’’ is the period 16
which begins on the date of the enactment of this 17
Act and ends on the date on which the first Director 18
is appointed. 19
(4) L
IMIT ON LENGTH OF PERIOD OF INTERIM 20
AUTHORITIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision 21
of this subsection, the Director of the Office of Man-22
agement and Budget may not exercise any authority 23
under this subsection after the expiration of the 24- 24
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month period which begins on the date of the enact-1
ment of this Act. 2
(i) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 3
are authorized to be appropriated from the Trust Fund 4
such sums as may be necessary to carry out the activities 5
of the Office for fiscal year 2024 and each succeeding fis-6
cal year. 7
TITLE II—STATE ELECTION AS-8
SISTANCE AND INNOVATION 9
TRUST FUND 10
SEC. 201. STATE ELECTION ASSISTANCE AND INNOVATION 11
TRUST FUND. 12
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established in the 13
Treasury a fund to be known as the ‘‘State Election As-14
sistance and Innovation Trust Fund’’. 15
(b) C
ONTENTS.—There is hereby appropriated to the 16
Trust Fund $2,000,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2024 17
through 2033. 18
(c) U
SE OFFUNDS.—Amounts in the Trust Fund 19
shall be used to make payments and allocations under the 20
Program and to carry out the activities of the Office. 21
(d) A
CCEPTANCE OFGIFTS.—The Office may accept 22
gifts or bequests for deposit into the Trust Fund. 23
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TITLE III—GENERAL 1
PROVISIONS 2
SEC. 301. DEFINITIONS. 3
In this Act, the following definitions apply: 4
(1) The term ‘‘chief State election official’’ has 5
the meaning given such term in section 253(e) of the 6
Help America Vote Act of 2002 (52 U.S.C. 7
21003(e)). 8
(2) The term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 9
the Office. 10
(3) The term ‘‘Indian lands’’ includes— 11
(A) Indian country, as defined under sec-12
tion 1151 of title 18, United States Code; 13
(B) any land in Alaska owned, pursuant to 14
the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 15
U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), by an Indian Tribe that 16
is a Native village (as defined in section 3 of 17
that Act (43 U.S.C. 1602)) or by a Village Cor-18
poration that is associated with an Indian Tribe 19
(as defined in section 3 of that Act (43 U.S.C. 20
1602)); 21
(C) any land on which the seat of the Trib-22
al government is located; and 23
(D) any land that is part or all of a Tribal 24
designated statistical area associated with an 25
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Indian Tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na-1
tive village statistical area associated with an 2
Indian Tribe, as defined by the Census Bureau 3
for the purposes of the most recent decennial 4
census. 5
(4) The term ‘‘Office’’ means the Office of De-6
mocracy Advancement and Innovation established 7
under section 105. 8
(5) The term ‘‘Program’’ means the Democracy 9
Advancement and Innovation Program established 10
under section 101. 11
(6) The term ‘‘State’’ means each of the several 12
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 13
of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United 14
States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the 15
Northern Mariana Islands. 16
(7) The term ‘‘Trust Fund’’ means the State 17
Election Assistance and Innovation Trust Fund es-18
tablished under section 201. 19
SEC. 302. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING CALCULA-20
TION OF DEADLINES. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—With respect to the calculation of 22
any period of time for the purposes of a deadline in this 23
Act, the last day of the period shall be included in such 24
calculation, unless such day is a Saturday, a Sunday, or 25
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a legal public holiday, in which case the period of such 1
deadline shall be extended until the end of the next day 2
which is not a Saturday, a Sunday, a legal public holiday. 3
(b) L
EGALPUBLICHOLIDAYDEFINED.—For the 4
purposes of this section, the term ‘‘legal public holiday’’ 5
means a day described in section 6103(a) of title 5, United 6
States Code. 7
SEC. 303. SEVERABILITY. 8
If any provision of this Act or any amendment made 9
by this Act, or the application of any such provision or 10
amendment to any person or circumstance, is held to be 11
unconstitutional, the remainder of such Act and amend-12
ments made by such Act and the application of such provi-13
sion or amendment to any other person or circumstance, 14
shall not be affected by the holding. 15
Æ
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