According to a Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) press release, "federally oriented 527 and 501(c) groups have already collected or spent around $350 million and are on course to top $400 million." The CFI report goes on; Based on limited 501(c) group official reporting, self-descriptions of activities completed or planned by the groups, and press coverage of their activities, it is reasonably clear that these organizations are on course to spend somewhere in the range of $200 million this cycle on activities that arguably fall under the IRS definition of campaign activity or are close enough (e.g. they are reported to the FEC as "electioneering communications") to influence elections. This estimate is based on evidence, discussed below, that the main groups alone (those with at least $2 million programs) have already spent around $165 million, and the spending cycle is not yet complete. Thus 501(c) s have emerged as vehicles of unlimited soft money spending in elections that are now comparable in size to 527s. Many 501(c) s emphasize that their activities referring to candidates during elections are not intended to influence voting but are only a continuation of their "grass roots lobbying" to rouse constituencies around specific legislative issues. (This argument is sometimes weakened when a group's communications refer to a candidate's past votes rather than pending legislation). However, if grassroots lobbying disclosure were enacted, we would be able to know who was behind such groups that "have been heavily engaged in important and pending legislative initiatives."