Federal Election Commission 2015 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commission announces its disposition of a Petition for Rulemaking (``petition'') filed on September 11, 2014, by Level the Playing Field. The petition asks the Commission to amend its regulation on candidate debates to revise the criteria governing the inclusion of candidates in presidential and vice presidential candidate debates. The Commission is not initiating a rulemaking at this time.

On November 18, 2014, the Federal Election Commission received a Petition for Rulemaking from Public Citizen. The petitioner asks the Commission to amend its regulations regarding federal contractors to include certain factors for determining whether entities of the same corporate family are distinct business entities for purposes of the prohibition on contributions by federal contractors. The Commission seeks comments on this petition.

Mississippi has scheduled a Special General Election on May 12, 2015, to fill the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by the late Representative Alan Nunnelee. Under Mississippi law, a majority winner in a nonpartisan special election is declared elected. Should no candidate achieve a majority vote, a Special Runoff Election will be held on June 2, 2015, between the top two vote-getters. Committees participating in the Mississippi special elections are required to file pre-and post-election reports. Filing dates for these reports are affected by whether one or two elections are held.

On October 21, 2014, the Commission published in the Federal Register a final rules implementing changes to its rules governing independent expenditures and electioneering communications by corporations and labor organizations. This document announces the effective date of amendments made by that final rule.

As mandated by provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (``FECA'' or ``the Act''), the Federal Election Commission (``FEC'' or ``the Commission'') is adjusting certain contribution and expenditure limitations and the lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold set forth in the Act, to index the amounts for inflation. Additional details appear in the supplemental information that follows.