SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's Congress has voted to create a new public campaign financing fund amid outrage over revelations that companies used election contributions to secure favors.

Brazil banned corporate campaign contributions in 2015, and lawmakers want to compensate for the lost funding before next year's presidential and legislative elections. Donations in last year's municipal elections — the first since the new rule took effect — fell by nearly 50 percent.

Congress' lower house voted late Wednesday to create a $540 million fund for next year's campaigns. The Senate already approved the proposal.

A corruption investigation has revealed that companies funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in legal and illegal donations to politicians in exchange for favors, including winning public contracts. At least some of the contributions came from inflating those same contracts.