Subcommittee reports HB 44 to appropriations for searchable campaign‑finance database

The campaigns and candidates subcommittee reported House Bill 44 and recommended that the full committee report the bill to appropriations. Delegate Henson said the bill (patron: Delegate Krizek) would require the Department of Elections to provide an interface to make campaign‑finance reports searchable and sortable by candidate, office, committee, contributor, contributions, receipts, disbursements, loans and similar categories.

Delegate Henson said he believed the subcommittee recommended reporting the bill by an 8‑0 vote and moved to report and refer HB 44 to appropriations. The committee recorded a roll‑call tally of 18‑0 in favor of reporting the bill to appropriations.

The recommendation to refer the bill to appropriations signals the need for funding to build or host the searchable interface; no appropriation amount was specified during the subcommittee report.