Congressman David Obey’s public funding bill for congressional candidates will be introduced on February 1. The bill will be roughly similar to Connecticut’s new public funding bill for state office. If the candidate is the nominee of a party that had averaged 25% of the vote in the last two elections for that particular office, that candidate will receive full funding. Independent candidates will be treated like parties, so that Bernie Sanders would receive funding if he had averaged 25% in the last two elections. However, independents running for the first time, and new parties, and parties that had not polled very well in the past could only get full funding if they submitted a petition signed by 20% of the last vote cast for that office. A 10% petition would result in partial funding. The bill would outlaw private money for everyone, so minor parties which couldn’t qualify for public funding would not be able to spend any money at all.