| November 1, 2004 Vol.5, No.22:
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FEC Regulations to Stay in Effect Past the Election, Unpaid Broadcast Ban Appealed
Although a federal court judge refused to grant the Federal Election Commission (FEC) a stay of a September decision overturning 15 regulations implementing the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the rules will remain in effect until after the election on Nov. 2. The FEC has appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging the standing of Reps. Chris Shays (R-CT) and Marty Meehan (D-MA) to bring the suit and defending five of the 15 regulations.
In an Oct. 29 statement the agency said its appeal will include an exemption to the electioneering communications ban on unpaid broadcasts and the definition of what constitutes illegal coordination between federal campaigns and other groups. The other rules will be rewritten in regulatory proceedings. These include a general exemption for Internet communications and the electioneering communications exemption for 501(c)(3) organizations. If the appeals court rules in the FEC's favor on the standing issue, all of the regulations challenged would stand. However, the FEC is likely to begin re-writing the rules before the appeal is concluded, since it did not win a stay from the lower court. A schedule for further regulatory action is likely to be set by the end of the year.
The new rules may not be substantially different from the original rules, since the FEC noted that the court dismissed several of them on procedural grounds. The exemption for 501(c)(3) organizations is among those. FEC Chairman Bradley Smith said: "The Commission will present a strong case to the Court of Appeals that its rules reflect a proper exercise of agency discretion. It is also worth noting that none of the problems the plaintiffs predicted would be caused by the regulations have come to pass."