Last week the Federal Election Commission (FEC) held public hearings on its proposed regulations implementing the ban on broadcasts that refer to federal candidates within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 creates the new restriction on broadcasts by corporations, including nonprofits, and labor unions, but gives the FEC authority to create exemptions for broadcasts that are not related to elections. The hearing focused on how broad or narrow these exemptions should be.

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

The "Stealth PAC" law of 2000 was meant to inform the public about the sources and uses of soft money in federal elections. It required political action committees (PACS) to disclose their existence and to report soft money contributions and expenditures. It also requires the IRS to post information returns filed by political action committees on the web. However, the information has not been posted in a searchable, useful format.

Twelve members of Congress, including Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), have requested that the Health and Human Services (HHS) administration provide them with a list of individuals from organizations that receive any federal funds that attended July's International AIDS Conference in Barcelona. HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson was noisily heckled by members of more than a dozen AIDS service organizations while giving a speech at the conference. The protesters handed out flyers signed by twelve organizations criticizing the US for not spending enough money on AIDS in developing countries.