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Oct 13, 2006 -- Legal Center Weekly Report: October 13, 2006
The Senate Finance Committee's Minority staff released a report this week calling for full scale investigations of tax exempt issues by the Department of Justice and by the Internal Revenue Service. According to a statement by Campaign Legal Center IRS Program Director Fran Hill, "both agencies should heed this call and move forward on an expedited basis." She continues, "Even assuming that only a very small number of exempt entities were involved in these scandals, this kind of abuse and misuse of exempt entities by lobbyists, by Members of Congress and by the organizations' own leaders raise profound issues that transcend the immediate facts of the Abramoff matter."
To read the full press release, click here .
Legal Center Joins Democracy 21 in Filing Complaint Against 527s
On October 12, 2006, the Campaign Legal Center along with Democracy 21 filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) charging that the Economic Freedom Fund (EFF), a pro-Republican 527 group, and Majority Action, a pro-Democratic 527 group, are spending soft money to influence the 2006 congressional elections in violation of the federal campaign finance laws.
According to the FEC complaint, longstanding federal campaign finance laws and Supreme Court decisions, including the McConnell decision, make clear that 527 groups spending money to influence federal elections are required to register as federal political committees and comply with federal campaign finance laws, including limits on the contributions they receive.
Both EFF and Majority Action, organized under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code, are, by definition, a "political organizations" that are operated "primarily" for the purpose of influencing candidate elections.
To read the full press release, click here .
To read the complaint, click here .
To read the corresponding exhibits, click here .
Groups Call on House Leadership to Overhaul Ethics Process
Reform groups - including the Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause, Democracy 21, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen and U.S. PIRG - sent letters on October 11th to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), calling on each of them to make a public commitment now to lead an effort next year to overhaul and reform the failed House ethics enforcement process, regardless of which party controls the House in the next Congress.
According to the letter from reform groups, "Our organizations believe that regardless of which party controls the House in the next Congress, it is essential to fundamentally overhaul the process for enforcing the House ethics rules." It continues, "The performance of the House Ethics Committee in this Congress has been a complete failure and the House ethics enforcement process today has no credibility with the American people."
To read the letter sent to Speaker Hastert, click here .
To read the letter sent to Democratic Leader Pelosi, click here .
In Their Own Words: Congress' Unkept Promises
Both the House and Senate have received significant criticism over their failure to effectively address the lobbying and ethics scandals in the 109th Congress. The Campaign Legal Center compiled statements made by the House and Senate Leadership as the scandals broke and throughout the legislative process for distribution to reporters and editorial boards to draw attention to the failed efforts to enact reforms. These quotes highlight the discrepancy between the lawmakers' early statements and the legislative actions they took.
The Legal Center also distributed a timeline of the lobbying and ethics scandals in the 109th Congress.
To view a PDF version of the quotes, click here.
To view a PDF version of the timeline, click here.
Legal Center Staff Addresses Students
Campaign Legal Center Policy Director Meredith McGehee spoke to a class of American University law school students regarding nonprofit/public interest lobbying. Paul S. Ryan, FEC Program Director and Associate Legal Counsel, spoke to a group of Brigham Young University students on campaign finance issues.
Legal Center Blog Highlights
Each week, the Campaign Legal Center staff posts blog entries on its site, www.clcblog.org. Click to read this week's entries: "New 527 Complaints Filed with FEC, but 2004 Complaints Still Pending," "In Their Own Words: Promises Made, Promises Unkept on Lobbying and Ethics 'Reform'," and "Rampant Abuse of Tax Exempt Status in Abramoff Scandal" or to sign up for blog updates, click here.
To read a variety of this week's editorials and articles on campaign finance, please click here. |
