Aug 31, 2004 -- Reform Groups: FEC Must Act on Complaints Against 527s

Three campaign finance reform groups - the Campaign Legal Center, Democracy 21 and the Center for Responsive Politics - urged the Federal Election Commission today to act on their months-old complaints against several 527 groups, despite the agency's refusal to issue new rules for 527s in this election cycle.

The complaints - against The Media Fund, the Leadership Forum, the Progress for American Voter Fund and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - allege that these groups are violating longstanding federal law by failing to register with the FEC as political committees. Under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974, any group that has a "major purpose" of influencing a federal election, and raises or spends more than $1,000 doing so, must register with the FEC and adhere to the rules for such committees. Under those rules, these groups must adhere to "hard money" contribution limits and source prohibitions and must disclose their activities to the FEC.

These 527s are now raising and spending tens of millions of dollars in soft money, with the obvious purpose of influencing the outcome of the coming election.

The FEC in August declined to issue new rules that would have clarified when 527 groups become "political committees." The agency appears likely to use their inaction to justify failing to act on the reform groups' complaints against the 527s.

"The FEC's trying to use their failure to issue new rules for 527s as an excuse to ignore the fact that these groups are violating the current rules," said Trevor Potter, president and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center and a former FEC commissioner and chairman. "It's yet more evidence that the agency isn't up to the job of enforcing the campaign laws."

In their letter, the groups emphasize that their complaints allege the 527s are violating current law, and must be dealt with by the FEC regardless of the agency's failure to issue new rules.

"The Commission's failure to take enforcement action on our complaints already has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in soft money being spent in the 2004 presidential election in plain violation of the campaign laws, " the groups said in their letter. "The Commission's failure to adopt new regulations on when 527 groups must register as political committees . . . provides no legal basis for the Commission to fail to prosecute our pending complaints and to hold the 527 groups named as respondents accountable for illegally spending soft money in the 2004 presidential election."

The reform groups also called on the FEC to act on their complaint alleging that Americans Coming Together (ACT), another 527 organization, is violating the federal allocation rules. The agency has issued a new set of allocation rules that will apply only after the 2004 elections; the reform groups argue that the agency must adjudicate their complaint immediately, under current law.

Contact: Mark Glaze, 202-232-6222

Click here to view the letter filed with the FEC.