August 22, 2002 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The Federal Election Commission this month proposed rules that could exempt most charities from an advertising prohibition contained in the new campaign-finance law. The commission has asked charities and others to submit their views on the proposals.
The new law bars organizations from running ads that mention a candidate within the 60 days preceding an election. The ban applies even to ads about an issue or piece of legislation, a type of advocacy charities frequently use.
In the proposed rules, the commission said the prohibition on advertising that mentions candidates applies only to paid advertisements, so that public-service announcements or cable-television time that is donated to charities would not be restricted.
The commission also proposed creating an exemption for charities that run so-called grass-roots advertisements about legislation or issues. Without the exemption, some grass-roots ads by charities would be covered by the broad restrictions in the law.
The commission wants charities and others to comment on which of its proposed definitions of a grass-roots issue ad is best: ads that ask people to contact a member of Congress about a bill, but do not state the member’s position on the legislation; ads that ask people to contact a candidate and urge him or her to take a position on an issue, without referring to the candidate’s record or fitness for office; ads that refer to a bill or issue and include contact information; or ads that ask people to contact a lawmaker to urge support or opposition to specific legislation.
The commission said it wants to receive all comments from the public by August 29 and also has scheduled a public hearing on the subject August 28 and 29 at the commission’s headquarters in Washington.
Comments may be sent by e-mail to Mai T. Dinh, acting assistant general counsel, at electioneering@fec.gov. Written comments may be sent to Ms. Dinh at the FEC, 999 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20463. More information may be obtained by calling (800) 424-9530.
The proposed regulations were published in the August 7 issue of the Federal Register and can be found online by going to http://www.fec.gov/register.htm and selecting “Electioneering Communications.”
