Name__________________

Campaign Finance Reform

Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971 and amended it in 1974 after the Watergate scandals. It was again amended in 1976 and 1979 after Supreme Court cases.

The Provisions of FECA

• Candidates must disclose the sources of both contributions to their campaigns and the money that their campaigns spend.
• In 1974 FECA created the 1)________________________ to administer and enforce the campaign finance laws. There are six members and no more than three can be from the same political party and they need four votes for any action.
• Under the law, organizations could establish 2)____________ which are private organizations created to elect or oppose political candidates in order to promote legislation that the organization is interested in.
• FECA had the following limits on contributions
• Individuals were limited to 3) $________ in donations to any candidate during any single elections.
• 4)_____________ and 5)___________ were prohibited from spending money on campaigns, but they could create 6)________________ which must have at least 50 members, donate to at least five federal candidates, and cannot give more than 7) $_________ to any candidate in any election or $15,000 per year to any 8) _________.
• Banks, government contractors, and foreign citizens are also barred from contributing to political campaigns
• FECA also established public funding for 9) ___________ primaries and general elections. Minor party candidates can receive federal funding if their party had won at least 10) ______% in the last election. Candidates who accept this money must agree to obey the legal limits on how much money they spend on the campaign. There is NO federal funding ever for 11)_________________candidates.

FECA led to the distinction between 12) _______and 13)_________ money. 14)______ money is the money gathered under the limitations of FECA. 15) ________ money can be given in unlimited amounts to 16) _________ _________ for activities such as voter-registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.

Effects of FECA

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Provisions of Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Bill) 2002

1. Banned 17)_______ _______contributions to political 18)_______.

2. Raised the limit on individual contributions to 19) $______.

3. Raised limit on individual contributions to the 20)_________ from $20,000 to $25,000.

4. Banned non-partisan “issue ads” by corporations and labor unions 21)____ days prior to a general election.

BCRA was upheld by the 2003 Supreme Court decision, 22)_______________

23)______ Organizations

These groups take advantage of a provision of the Internal Revenue Code allow unlimited expenditures. These groups can spend as much money as they want as long as they don’t 24) ____________________________.

Examples of these organizations

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Effects of BCRA

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