On July 11 during a public hearing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is set to consider a regulation on "hybrid ads," to possibly allow political parties help finance the television advertising of campaigns. The proposed new FEC rule would allow a party to pay for up to 75 percent of any candidate's advertising costs. The hybrid ad rulemaking came up after the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign used Republican National Committee funds to pay over $40 million in ads. The Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 filed comments with the FEC on the proposed rulemaking.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that environmentalist Ted Smith, founder and senior strategist for Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition sued the city of San Jose, California charging that its expanded lobbying definition of who must register, pay fees and report activities is so broad it violates free-speech rights. As many other candidates nationwide, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's victory in November was in part due to an ethics reform agenda, and Reed commented on the importance of promoting a transparent government. "I don't see how it affects anybody's free speech.

Today, The Washington Post published a good article by David Brown which discusses Congress's recent efforts to renew the Prescription Drug User Fee Act and to reform drug safety at FDA. The must-pass legislation will improve FDA's ability to conduct post-market surveillance. While FDA needs more authority in this area, the article rightly points out post-market surveillance is "the regulatory equivalent of chasing the horses after they are out of the barn."

Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Wisconsin Right to Life (WRTL) case last week, on June 29 the Court sent back another case (Christian Civic League of Maine Inc. v. Federal Election Commission) to the lower court for a new ruling consistent with the WRTL June 25th decision. The Christian Civic League (CCL) had asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that dismissed its challenge to restrictions on funding of political ads under the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA).