Read the text of our comments to the Federal Election Commission in proposed regulations implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. These regulations would ban broadcasts that mention federal candidates within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary, and are scheduled to go into effect the day after this year's Congressional election. For more background on the issue see our August 5 newsletter article. To download a copy of the original comments click here. August 21, 2002 Mai T. Dinh, Acting Assistant General Counsel Federal Election Commission 999 E Street NW

Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) has introduced a Senate version of the "Houses of Worship Political Speech Protection Act" (S. 2886) which is sponsored in the House by Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) (H.R. 2357). This legislation would allow churches to engage in express electoral advocacy, which is currently prohibited for all 501(c)(3) charities, including churches.

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In the wake of the widening corporate accounting scandals, both the House and Senate have passed versions of corporate accountability and reform legislation and a conference committee hammered out the differences, sending the bill the to the President on July 26. The conference agreement re-named the legislation the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, after its primary sponsors in each house. The final bill does not contain the philanthropy disclosure requirements from the original bill in the House.