The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced that it will be not be ready to consider proposed regulations on issue advocacy on July 25, as had been planned, delaying action until August 1. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in August 8 and public comments are due August 21. A hearing will be held on August 28 and 29 at the FEC’s office in Washington. A proceeding to define illegal coordination between campaigns and donors and advocacy groups will not begin until mid-September. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) requires that all rulemakings be completed by the end of the year. The issue advocacy rulemaking will set regulations implementing BCRA’s ban on broadcasts by corporations and nonprofits that mention federal candidates within 60 days of an election or 30 days of a primary, and the exceptions for independent expenditures and candidate debates. The law also gives the FEC power to create additional exceptions for communications, such as grassroots lobbying messages, that are unrelated to federal elections. (Click here for more details) Rules on soft money were approved in late June, and will be challenged in the Senate. The FEC published its 193 page Explanation and Justification for the new soft money rules July 15. Meanwhile, the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of BCRA is moving toward a September deadline for completing pre-trial “discovery” proceedings. All parties are seeking evidence to support their claims, and a hearing was held on July 25th to sort out disputes over how far parties can go in subpoenaing documents. The Republican National Committee has subpoenaed documents from the National Abortion Rights Action League and League of Conservation Voters, who not parties to the case. They are resisting the subpoenas, arguing that the RNC is abusing the subpoena power and seeking confidential records that are protected by federal law.