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S. 1849 119th Congress Senate

Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act

Official title: A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a former candidate for election for Federal… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require each authorized committee or leadership PAC of a former candidate for election for Federal office to disburse all of the remaining funds of the committee or PAC after the election, and for other purposes.

Introduced: May 21, 2025 Introduced by: Michael F. Bennet Democratic · Colorado See on congress.gov
Government Operations and Politics
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 Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
May 21, 2025
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.
May 21, 2025
Introduced in Senate
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What's happening now May 21, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act

This bill establishes certain requirements for disbursing unused funds after a federal election. The bill also requires former candidates serving as registered lobbyists or foreign agents to comply with disbursement requirements.

Specifically, the bill requires each authorized committee or leadership political action committee (PAC) of a candidate to disburse all unused funds within a specified time period beginning after an election or before the candidate registers as a lobbyist or foreign agent, unless the candidate files to run for office again before the disbursement period begins.

A committee or PAC disbursing unspent funds shall first pay any obligations incurred. If funds are left over, the committee or PAC may only disburse the remaining funds for the following purposes: (1) returning funds to donors; and (2) making contributions to nonprofit organizations. The bill generally prohibits disbursements to relatives of the candidate or certain nonprofit organizations related to the candidate.

A former candidate must, in order to register as a lobbyist or foreign agent, comply with the disbursement requirements outlined by this bill.

 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 3

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 1849: Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1849/
MLA
"S. 1849: Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1849/.
Bluebook (legal)
S. 1849, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1849/.
Markdown link
[S. 1849: Zeroing Out Money for Buying Influence after Elections (ZOMBIE) Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-1849/)
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