February 2014

A coalition of 60 investors, led by the AFSCME Employees Pension Plan and Walden Asset Management, recently announced that they have submitted shareholder proposals seeking additional disclosures regarding political spending and lobbying activities. This announcement reflects a continuing desire among these groups to obtain additional disclosures from public companies regarding…
Continue Reading Activist Investors Announce Submission of Political Spending Shareholder Proposals to 48 Companies

Earlier today, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, in his first appearance before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government Oversight, stated that final regulations governing political activity by 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations are unlikely to be completed before the November elections.

His statement seems to differ from the…
Continue Reading Conflicting Signals on Finalizing the Proposed Treasury Regulations for 501(c)(4)s

Connecticut’s campaign finance regulator, the State Elections Enforcement Commission (“SEEC”) recently released an important advisory opinion that made clear that a state contractor that is otherwise barred from giving to a state political party under Connecticut’s pay-to-play law can give to the party’s federal account, a point SEEC staff had…
Continue Reading Connecticut Pay-to-Play Law Does Not Bar Giving to a State Party’s Federal Account

On January 30, 2014, the UK Parliament adopted the “Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014.”  Covington today issued a client advisory explaining the new law, which imposes mandatory registration and disclosure requirements on certain organizations that lobby in the UK.  Significantly, however, unlike in the…
Continue Reading UK Adopts Mandatory Lobbyist Registry

At the federal level, it is generally illegal for an outside group like a Super PAC or a 501(c)(4) organization to coordinate its independent expenditures with the candidate it supports.  The same is true in many states.  As we recently reported in our 2013 FEC Year in Review, however,…
Continue Reading State Action, Federal Inaction on Coordination Enforcement Cases

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) is more aggressive than ever and is employing new tactics.  The FPPC’s recently-released end-of-year report detailing enforcement activities in 2013 highlights some interesting statistics that should be on the radar of every company doing business in California.

Prosecutions of both “serious campaign cases” and…
Continue Reading Record-Setting Enforcement by California’s Campaign Finance Regulator

Covington & Burling LLP today released new data showing that the Department of Justice has maintained an increased level of Foreign Agents Registration Act audits,and settled into a consistent pattern of conducting 15 audits of FARA registrants each fiscal year.

In each of the last four years, the Department of…
Continue Reading Covington Releases New Data on FARA Audits Conducted by the Department of Justice

In conjunction with the Corporate Political Activity and Government Affairs Compliance Conference, which Covington is hosting today in Washington, D.C., the firm’s Election and Political Law Practice Group has issued its 2013 FEC Year in Review.  This is the second year in a row that we have undertaken a…
Continue Reading Covington Releases 2013 FEC Year in Review at its Corporate Political Activity Conference