Commission issues notices of disposition on two petitions for rulemaking (2024)
The Commission has decided not to initiate rulemakings in response to two petitions for rulemaking.
REG 2015-03 (Contributions from Corporations and Other Organizations)
On May 14, 2015, the Commission received a petition for rulemaking from Make Your Laws PAC, Inc. and Make Your Laws Advocacy, Inc. The petition asked the Commission to establish a new rule requiring that “any person, other than a natural person, contributing an aggregate of more than $1,000 in any calendar year to any political committee, whether directly or indirectly” must do so from an account subject to certain reporting requirements. The petition asked the Commission to require that these accounts disclose “the original source of all election-related contributions and expenditures, traceable through all intermediary entities to a natural person, regardless of the amounts or identities involved.”
After considering the petition and comments received in response to a notification of availability, the Commission has decided not to initiate a rulemaking at this time. The Commission noted that the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) does not require corporations and other organizations (except for political committees) to make contributions from a separate account subject to the prohibitions and reporting requirements of the Act nor does the Act require such entities to disclose “the original source of all election-related contributions and expenditures, traceable through all intermediary entities to a natural person, regardless of the amounts or identities involved.” Therefore, the Commission lacks the statutory authority to promulgate the rule sought by the petition.
REG 2019-01 (Valuable Information)
On April 29, 2019, the Commission received a petition for rulemaking from Sai, Fiat Fiendum, Inc., Make Your Laws PAC, Inc., and Make Your Laws Advocacy, Inc. The petition asked the Commission to include within the definition of contribution certain “valuable information.” The petition proposed a definition of “valuable information” and set out two types of “valuable information” that would require special treatment: “foreign information “and “compromising information.” Under the petition’s proposal, any person who receives or is offered “foreign information” or “compromising information” would be required to notify the Commission in writing within three days. Upon learning of any of these types of information, the Commission would be required to automatically, without a vote of the Commission, take certain steps to initiate investigations, notify law enforcement, and notify every reasonably identifiable person against whom such information could be used or whose private information is disclosed.
After considering the petition and comments received in response to a notification of availability, the Commission has decided not to initiate a rulemaking at this time. The Commission noted that the existing definition of contribution includes “anything of value” and that the amendment sought would be redundant and potentially confusing to the public. Additionally, the Commission noted that the enforcement provisions sought by the petition conflict with certain provisions of the Act, including the requirement for an affirmative vote of at least four Commissioners to initiate an investigation or report apparent violations to the appropriate law enforcement authorities and the prohibition on disclosing any information about a pending investigation without the written consent of the respondent. Therefore, the Commission lacks the statutory authority to promulgate the rule sought by the petition.