|
Corporations and Labor Unions
Contributions and Expenditures
Electioneering Communications
Federal election law places similar restrictions on corporate and labor union political activity, and it makes few distinctions among different types of corporations. Whether the corporation is for-profit or non-profit by itself makes no difference.
Contributions and Expenditures
As a general rule, corporations and unions cannot make any contributions or expenditures to influence federal elections. There are, however, limited exceptions to this broad principle.
As noted above, corporations and unions may use their general treasury funds to set up and administer connected PACs and pay the costs incurred by the PAC to solicit contributions from permitted individuals. Connected PACs are allowed to accept up to $5,000 from any one individual or political committee and can use whatever funds they receive to make contributions and expenditures subject to federal limits and disclosure requirements.
A corporation or union may also spend treasury funds on communications directed to its own members, which are known as internal communications. These consist of a corporation's communications to its shareholders and executive and administrative personnel or a labor union's messages to its members. These communications can be on any subject, including an endorsement urging the election or defeat of a federal candidate. A corporation or union may not post express advocacy communications relating to a federal candidate on its PAC website unless the access to the site is restricted to those members of the corporation or union's restricted class (employees and board for a corporation; union members for a union). 
back to top
Electioneering Communications
Current law allows a corporation or labor union to spend an unlimited amount of treasury funds for ads that refer to federal candidates so long as the ads:
- do not contain express advocacy or solicit contributions;
- are not coordinated with a candidate or political party; and
- are not cable, satellite, or broadcast ads run in the period 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election, targeted to the candidate's constituency.
A corporation or union's connected PAC, however, may spend an unlimited amount of money for such communications so long as they are not coordinated with a candidate committee or political party.
back to top
|
