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An Unusually Good Day at the FEC

By Jeremy Miller

Breaking from its customary approach, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) today made two significant, and nearly unanimous, decisions.  First, the agency blessed Stephen Colbert’s “Colbert Super PAC,” ruling that Viacom Corp. need only report any financial assistance given to Colbert for activities outside the “Colbert Report” show.  Second, the agency ruled that federal officeholders and candidates are prohibited from soliciting unlimited contributions for Super PACs.

The FEC’s decision was in response to Colbert’s request to extend the “press exemption” to allow Viacom Corp. to subsidize Colbert Super PAC without disclosing such in-kind contributions.  The press exemption allows media outlets to pay for costs associated with airing news stories, commentary, editorials and even endorsements of candidates and campaigns without having to report such expenditures to the FEC as political contributions.  

Today’s 5-1 ruling by the FEC finds that Viacom is entitled to the press exemption only with respect to the production of reporting and commentary on the Colbert Super PAC during the actual show.  Consequently, any costs accrued by Viacom with the production of political ads for Colbert Super PAC aired on other shows and networks, and any Viacom expenses on the PAC’s administrative costs, do not fall within the press exemption and thus must be reported.  If the FEC had denied Colbert’s request, Viacom would have had to disclose all financial resources expended to promote Colbert’s PAC., a result at odds with Viacom’s desire to stay out of politics. 

Here's Stephen Colbert outside the FEC earlier this morning:

In an even more important decision, the Commission ruled 6-0 that federal officeholders and candidates are prohibited from soliciting unlimited contributions for Super PACs.   Responding to an Advisory Opinion request by Majority PAC and House Majority PAC (pro-Democratic Super PACs) as to the legality of such schemes, the FEC sent a defiant signal to James Bopp, the first to announce the formation of such a political committee as a novel means to circumvent political spending limits, that using elected officials to fundraise for Super PACs is, in fact, illegal. If this new breed of super-duper PACs had been allowed to come into existence, Speaker of the House John Boehner or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would have been permitted to hit up Wall Street CEOs to donate millions of dollars to Super PACs, which could then spend directly on their re-elections.  Today’s decision prohibits such solicitations.  

It’s not every day CREW says so – in fact we’ve never said it – but good job FEC.