Three Democratic lawmakers are urging the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to implement a proposed rule that would require broad disclosure of bundled contributions by lobbyists.
In a written comment to the FEC, Sens. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) indicated the importance of the commission's adopting a final rule that is consistent with the congressional intent when lawmakers passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA).
The lawmakers
were instrumental in adding a bundling provision to the final version of HLOGA,
which President Bush signed into law in September. The provision places the
burden of reporting bundling contributions on candidates and committees rather
than on the lobbyists themselves.
The proposed
FEC rule would define the term "bundled contribution" as any contribution that a
lobbyist/registrant or lobbyist/registrant political action committee (PAC)
forwards to the reporting committee from the contributor or that the reporting
committee receives from the contributor but credits to the lobbyist/registrant
or lobbyist/registrant PAC.
This would mean
that forwarded contributions would always be considered bundled, regardless of
whether the "bundler" receives credit from the reporting
committee.
The lawmakers
said they believed a definition of "forwarded" would be
useful.
"Such a
definition would help make clear, for example, that if a lobbyist collects
groups of checks for a candidate but arranges for an employee or third party to
give them to the candidate rather than deliver them personally, those checks
still would have been 'forwarded' and the campaign must report that bundling,"
they wrote.
While lawmakers
praised the new definition, others, like the AFL-CIO, advised
caution.
"Because the
law reposes responsibility to identify a 'bundler' and the amounts he or she
'bundled' solely in the recipient committee … those who are potentially so
identified are highly dependent upon the recipient getting the identification
right, lest they be incorrectly attributed with unpopular conduct that will be
reflected in a sworn and well publicized public record," the organization
wrote.
The FEC
received eight comments on the proposed rule from various organizations,
including: Marc Elias of the law firm Perkins Coie; Public Citizen; the IRS;
Sandler, Reif & Young; the Coalition for Tax Equality; and a joint comment
from Democracy 21, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, Campaign Legal
Center and U.S. PIRG.
Elias wrote
that while he supports and welcomes a definition of "forwarded," he feels it
should be limited to the physical delivery of contributions and not electronic,
because there is no statutory language mentioning any other method of delivery.
Under HLOGA,
authorized committees, leadership PACs and political party committees are
required to report certain information when lobbyists and registrants, or their
PACs, provide bundled contributions totaling in excess of $15,000 during a
specific "covered period" of time.
The proposed
rule would change the definition of "covered period" to the semi-annual periods
of Jan. 1 through June 30 and July 1 through Dec. 31. It would also require
committees that file their reports monthly to report bundling on a quarterly
basis, a change the lawmakers supported.
The comment
letter stated that "disclosure of bundling must be made for any reporting period
in which the threshold amount of contributions are bundled. This means that if
the semi-annual threshold is reached in the first quarter (or third quarter),
there must be disclosure in the reports that cover those
quarters."
In its joint
comment, Democracy 21, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters,
Campaign
Legal
Center and U.S. PIRG
advocated that the reporting requirements go even further.
In addition to
"reporting the aggregate amount bundled within a semi-annual period," the
organizations said they wanted the FEC to require a committee to report "an
aggregate amount bundled within a calendar year by any given
bundler."
The FEC also
raised the issue of whether an employee who is not a registered lobbyist, but
who is acting as an agent of a lobbyist or registrant for bundling activity,
should be covered under the disclosure provisions.
"The starting
and ending point of this analysis is who is being credited by the campaign with
the fundraising," the lawmakers wrote. "If it is a lobbyist, or a registrant
that employs lobbyists, then the bundling must be reported."
No reporting
would be required if bundlers are acting independently of their employers, they
reasoned.
