Late in the evening on December 15, congressional leaders from both major parties released the text of the omnibus budget bill. It doesn’t change any laws relating to public funding for presidential candidates. Some members of Congress had been working for a provision that would have ended primary season matching funds and used the money instead to pay for major party presidential conventions. Thanks to the Center for Competitive Politics for this news.

UPDATE: the bill does not relax any existing limits on how political parties spend their money, but it does change some policies on disclosure. See this report from Rick Hasen’s ElectionLawBlog.