Pay to Play Law Blog : Pay to Play Lawyer & Attorney : Bribery, Campaign Contributions

A new complaint was filed with the Federal Election Commission yesterday alleging that Chevron USA violated campaign finance laws and corollary “federal pay-to-play” laws by contributing $2.5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a Super PAC tied by press reporting and former staffers to House Speaker Boehner. While the FEC complaint was filed by organizations likely more interested in “poking the bear” because of Chevron’s environmental footprint than its politics (Public Citizen, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and Oil Change International, hereinafter referred to as “The Usual Suspects”), the complaint has facial merit and needs to be on the radar screen of government contractors, national banks, and foreign nationals everywhere.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

In a post I wrote for the Politics, Law and Policy Blog, I noted that change is coming to Washington in the form of an anticipated overhaul of federal election and tax laws. You can read the whole post here but federal lobbyists – and those who employ them – should take particular note of an initiative launched this week by an organization known as “United Republic”. This group represents the tip of a grass-roots spear pointed at Washington and no one can argue they have a political agenda. Any organization with as diverse a Board of Advisors as United Republic can boast (representing as they do Wall Street, the Occupy Movement, Jack Abramoff, former FEC Chairman Trevor Potter, academics, nonprofits and political operatives) defies partisan categorization. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

By Stefan C. Passantino

The White House is very serious about mandating contribution and issue advocacy disclosure obligations on federal contractors.

We have reported several times (most recently here) on the various tell-tale signs, tea leaves and trial balloons that would lead one to believe that the White House is very serious about mandating disclosure by executive order. Much of the drama stemmed from a draft Executive Order (discussed here) that was floated last April and didn’t appear to get very far.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The team here at Pay to Play Law Blog wants to welcome a phenomenal group of commentators to the McKenna Long & Aldridge blogosphere.  Last week, MLA launched its newest blog, “Politics, Law and Policy,” authored by a bipartisan group of attorneys and public policy advisors in the firm’s nationally-recognized government affairs practice.  The blog will serve as an important resource for those seeking analysis and resources on the impact of federal and state politics and public policies on a wide range of issues and debates, including health care, energy, infrastructure, taxes, transportation, cybersecurity, and campaign and election compliance.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

By Stefan Passantino & Ben Keane

It has been almost exactly 19 months since the Supreme Court handed down its controversial decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, but the plot continues to thicken as those favoring mandatory corporate disclosure of political activities look for a non-judicial fix to the ruling. 

To date, the fields are littered with detritus of failed efforts at identifying a mechanism that compels corporations and wealthy individuals to disclose all exercise of their newly-recognized First Amendment freedoms. This blog has previously reported on failed efforts to mandate such disclosure in Congress, as well as the Obama White House’s proposed executive order circumventing both Congress and the Supreme Court.  To achieve these same goals, groups such as Democracy21 and the Campaign Legal Center have promoted changes to the Internal Revenue Code, while the American Bar Association has encouraged Congress to make pertinent amendments to the Lobbying Disclosure Act. 

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Last year, we reported here and here that certain elements of the Executive Branch have been looking into ways to impose federal pay-to-play restrictions and disclosure requirements on those doing business with the federal government. Today, the White House confirmed that President Obama is strongly contemplating issuing an executive order designed to impose pay-to-play disclosures on federal contractors in a big way.

As announced by the White House, the President is examining an order that would mandate that all federal contractors disclose any and all contributions to groups that engage in political activities. This is contemplated, the White House says, in direct response to the Supreme Court’s opinion in Citizens United v. FEC (discussed here) and Congress’ failure to enact the DISCLOSE Act (discussed here).

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Pay-to-play law blog author Stefan Passantino, has recently co-authored the "Handbook on Corporate Political Activity: Emerging Corporate Governance Issues," published by The Conference Board. As a co-author, Mr. Passantino draws on some of the experiences commented upon in this blog and offers an overview of the legal rules and standard practices related to political activity, as well as a discussion of internal oversight of political spending. Like the blog, the Handbook focuses on the challenges confronting corporations and other groups looking to comply with the myriad of inconsistent and ever-changing regulations affecting the Political Law space and offers some compliance best-practices from some of the largest corporations in the country. Also, like this blog, IT'S FREE!

Click here for a preview of the Handbook.

The "Handbook on Corporate Political Activity" addresses:

• The legal framework for understanding political giving, including an overview of federal/state pay-to-play laws
• How corporations can monitor the political engagement and policy positions of the trade associations to which they belong 
• Standards of director conduct that can potentially be applied to political activity 
• The rewards of a robust political engagement program, and the risks if such programs aren't managed well 
• Examples of companies that have successfully managed political engagement programs 
• The importance of embedding political-spending decisions into a corporation's ethical framework

To download a complimentary copy of the "Handbook on Corporate Political Activity" by The Corporate Board, go to http://bit.ly/aJW1U6.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

My apologies for the headline, but sometimes one must succumb to the siren song of the obvious.

In one of its last acts before its Members left Washington to fight for their jobs, the House passed the “State Ethics Protection Act of 2010” to avoid a growing concern that Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) procurement rules were in direct conflict with the ever-growing roster of state-mandated pay-to-play laws. Lost in the noise of the shuffle out of town is the potential signal that Congress is getting closer to expanded pay-to-play regulation of its own.

Recently, government transportation officials recognized they had a problem. FHWA provides over $40 billion each year to states to offset the costs of various highway projects. As a condition of receiving those funds, state procurement rules must remain consistent with FHWA competitive bidding policies. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), neither Congress nor FHWA have seen fit to impose procurement restrictions on contractors associated with individuals who contribute money to candidates or parties - which puts FHWA policy in direct conflict with the many states that do. Theoretically, this conflict would preclude pay-to-play states from entitlement to FHWA funds. According to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure summary accompanying the proposed legislation, FHWA has gone so far as to threaten to withhold such funds in light of the conflict.

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link