26 U.S.C. § 9038
Section 9038 · Examinations and audits; repayments
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 29 court decisions — leading case Bush-Quayle '92 Primary Committee, Inc. v. Federal Election Commission (1997)
Most recently applied in Jill Stein v. FEC (July 2023)
Applied most in the District Circuit Circuit (25 decisions)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
After each matching payment period, the Commission shall conduct a thorough examination and audit of the qualified campaign expenses of every candidate and his authorized committees who received payments under section 9037.
(1) If the Commission determines that any portion of the payments made to a candidate from the matching payment account was in excess of the aggregate amount of payments to which such candidate was entitled under section 9034, it shall notify the candidate, and the candidate shall pay to the Secretary an amount equal to the amount of excess payments.
(2) If the Commission determines that any amount of any payment made to a candidate from the matching payment account was used for any purpose other than—
(A) to defray the qualified campaign expenses with respect to which such payment was made, or
(B) to repay loans the proceeds of which were used, or otherwise to restore funds (other than contributions to defray qualified campaign expenses which were received and expended) which were used, to defray qualified campaign expenses,
it shall notify such candidate of the amount so used, and the candidate shall pay to the Secretary an amount equal to such amount.
(3) Amounts received by a candidate from the matching payment account may be retained for the liquidation of all obligations to pay qualified campaign expenses incurred for a period not exceeding 6 months after the end of the matching payment period. After all obligations have been liquidated, that portion of any unexpended balance remaining in the candidate's accounts which bears the same ratio to the total unexpended balance as the total amount received from the matching payment account bears to the total of all deposits made into the candidate's accounts shall be promptly repaid to the matching payment account.
No notification shall be made by the Commission under subsection (b) with respect to a matching payment period more than 3 years after the end of such period.
All payments received by the Secretary under subsection (b) shall be deposited by him in the matching payment account.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1976—Subsecs. (b)(1), (2), (d). Pub. L. 94–455 struck out “or his delegate” after “Secretary”.