FEC Approves Bundling Rule

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) unanimously approved a rule for campaign contributions bundled by lobbyists. The proposed rule was only released for public viewing instantly before the hearing. The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act require committees to disclose lobbyists who collect fundraising checks totaling more than $15,000. The rule will not go into effect until sometime next year and the FEC commissioners still need to approve an explanation for the approved rule. Some have been highly critical of the new rule, charging that it undermines the law's original intent and leaves open too much for opportunity for entities to decide what will be disclosed. For instance there will be no detailed reporting rules for fundraising events sponsored by multiple lobbyists. The Campaign Legal Center disapproved of the outcome, and suggest the rule creates "readily exploitable loopholes." "[U]nder the FEC's new rule, reportable bundling only occurs where the candidate bestows some tangible benefit on the lobbyist, such as title or an autographed photo, or where the candidate has a formal tracking system for bundled contributions. Knowledge on the part of a candidate that a lobbyist has bundled contributions is not enough under the new FEC rule to trigger reporting requirements. Instead, in the absence of a written record, knowledge plus a tangible benefit to the lobbyist is required to trigger the reporting requirements." Democracy 21 was also not pleased with the rule. "The regulation means that if a Member of Congress knows that a lobbyist has raised, for example, $200,000 for the Member, knows that these contributions have been received and gives the lobbyist full credit for raising the money, the Member will not have to disclose on his reports that the lobbyist bundled $200,000 for the Member, as long as the Member has had nothing in writing about the bundled contributions and the lobbyist does not receive some specific benefit." "[T]he FEC drilled a huge loophole into the new law by allowing easy evasion of the law's requirement for members of Congress to report contributions raised, or bundled, by lobbyists who host fundraising events for them."
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