Trade associations, 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, other outside groups that pay for political advertisements, and their donors now have more answers to long-running questions regarding when donations to these groups are publicly reportable. After postponing consideration of the issue during its previous meeting, the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) approved Wednesday an interim final rule on
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The Supreme Court Strikes Down Restrictions on Repayment of Candidate Loans. What Next?
As we previewed in the fall, the Supreme Court today struck down the longstanding statutory prohibition on the use of funds raised after Election Day to repay a candidate loan in Federal Election Commission v. Cruz. Although the outcome of the case—which was brought by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) following his re-election in 2018—was…
Use of FEC Data – The Vice Chair Says the FEC Has Taken “A Wrong Turn”
There are few things as seductive in politics today as good data, and few things as challenging for commercial firms as the statutory bar on the use of FEC data for commercial purposes. That came to a head yesterday, when the FEC was unable to reach a decision on an advisory opinion request on use of the FEC’s donor data to, among other things, confirm the identity and score potential donors in a client’s existing database. The case highlights the gap between the regulated community and where a majority of FEC Commissioners may soon take the law.
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FEC Provides Short Webinar Training for Candidate Committees
The Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) is offering a 90-minute online training session on Wednesday, April 7th, for campaign committees that use FECFile to file their disclosure reports. The purpose of this training is to address common filing problems and to provide answers to questions committees may have prior to their quarterly FEC filing. FEC staff…
FEC Provides Corporate PAC Virtual Training
For many of us, the New Year brings new resolutions, both professionally and personally. For those of us that are involved with Corporate PAC’s, the Federal Election Commission (“FEC”) makes it simple to quickly check one of these goals—to cultivate a better understanding of the FEC regulations that govern Corporate PACs—off our list. On March…
FEC Increases Contribution Limits for 2021-2022
The Federal Election Commission has announced contribution limits for 2021-2022. The new “per election” limits are effective for the 2021-2022 election cycle (November 4, 2020 – November 8, 2022), and the calendar year limits are effective January 1, 2021.
The FEC increased the amount an individual can contribute to a candidate to $2,900 per election…
Covington Releases Investigations Manual for House and Senate Chiefs of Staff
Today Covington released an updated version of its manual for Chiefs of Staff to Members of Congress concerning best practices for responding to government investigations of Members and their staff. Titled “A How-To Guide for Chiefs of Staff,” the manual describes how government investigations of Members and staff unfold and the steps that Chiefs of…
FEC Reconvenes: What We Learned from the First Meeting of the New FEC
With a full complement of six commissioners for the first time since early 2017, the FEC met in open session yesterday. Led by FEC Chair Shana M. Broussard and Vice Chair Allen Dickerson, the first meeting addressed a number of non-controversial matters that lent themselves to consensus. That said, there were several interesting features to…
What to Expect as the FEC Reconvenes
With the swearing in of Shana M. Broussard, Sean J. Cooksey, and Allen Dickerson, the Federal Election Commission now has a full roster of six Commissioners for the first time since 2017. While the FEC briefly enjoyed a quorum with four Commissioners in May, since then it has lacked a sufficient number of Commissioners to…
The FEC Appears to be Exercising its Powers Without a Quorum
Over the past 10 days, the FEC has been quietly exercising authority reserved for when at least four Commissioners vote in favor of an action. Since July 3, however, the FEC has only had three Commissioners. This activity raises consequential questions about the FEC’s ability to act without a quorum, and presents important concerns about…