FEC

Subscribe to FEC via RSS

Ramping Up for the 2016 Cycle Make Compliance a Priority for LobbyingThursday, March 26, 2015
1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET – Webinar

The Justice Department recently announced its first criminal prosecution for coordination. States like Virginia are revamping their ethics laws and California recently imposed new restrictions on lobbyists. Although the IRS has yet to issue regulations for 501(c)(4)s, many states have created new disclosure requirements for politically active nonprofit groups. Maryland has imposed tough new disclosure requirements on state contractors that make campaign contributions. 
Continue Reading Please Join Us: WEBINAR – Ramping up for the 2016 Cycle: Make Compliance a Priority for Lobbying and Political Activity

b2tfIn January 2010 –  as almost everyone already knows by now – the Supreme Court struck down major portions of campaign finance laws, allowing corporations to make independent expenditures in support of, or opposition to, candidates for federal office. Super PACs that could accept unlimited individual and corporate contributions soon followed based on lower court…

As it has done every two years since the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act indexed contribution limits for inflation, the FEC has announced revised contribution limits for the 2016 election cycle. In addition to the traditional limits for candidates, PACs, and parties, the FEC also set the indexed limit for the new special accounts created at the end of 2014 for the national political parties. This first chart shows the limits for individual and PAC contributions to candidates, PACs, and state and local party committees:

BlogImage1

This next chart shows the amounts that an individual may give to the national party committees. The general fund is the account that has always existed, while the other funds are the new accounts Congress created in 2014 to help the parties to defray certain costs:
Continue Reading More to Give: FEC Raises Contribution Limits

aftershockThe Supreme Court yesterday struck down the limit on the total amount an individual may contribute to federal candidates, PACs and political parties in a two-year election cycle. The 5-4 ruling is unlikely to have a major impact on political giving this year, but casts serious doubt on the constitutionality of similar state contribution schemes…

increaseLast week the Federal Election Commission increased the reporting threshold for contributions bundled by lobbyists to $17,300 (up from $17,100). Candidates, leadership PACs, and federal party committee must file lobbyist bundling reports if during a six-month reporting period they receive two or more bundled contributions exceeding the $17,300 threshold. We have written here about the…

With donors now allowed to give unlimited sums to Super PACs and other political advocacy groups, the biggest issue in campaign finance regulation is what such groups must disclose about their fundraising and spending, and when.  Some states have moved aggressively to bolster their disclosure rules, with a couple of states filing suit to force …

On May 16, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held oral arguments in the case challenging the long-standing ban on federal government contractor political contributions, Wagner v. Federal Election Commission.  Last fall, a lower federal court upheld the ban, in section 441c of the Federal Election Campaign Act (“FECA”), finding…

A federal court last week ruled that a small nonprofit, formed under Wyoming law to advocate positions on various political issues, may have to include certain federally-mandated disclosures on its ads and fundraising appeals, and may even have to register and report as a federal political committee.

The ruling is an important reminder that advocacy…