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June 17, 2024
PACs and Super PACs in Federal Election Campaigns: Legal
Framework
Political action committees (PACs) and super PACs play
significant roles in federal election campaigns by raising
and spending money to influence elections. While PACs
have been a part of the campaign finance ecosystem for
decades, super PACs originated in 2010. This In Focus
provides an overview of the legal origins of PACs and
super PACs, discusses how each is regulated under federal
campaign finance law, and offers considerations for
Congress.
Key Acronyms and Terms Defined
Contribution: Money or anything of value given for the
purpose of influencing a federal election.
Electioneering communication: A broadcast, cable, or
satellite transmission that refers to a federal office candidate
and is transmitted within 60 days of a general election or 30
days of a primary.
FEC: Federal Election Commission; provides civil
enforcement of FECA.
FECA: Federal Election Campaign Act; body of law regulating
campaign finance in federal elections.
Independent expenditure: Money spent on a
communication that expressly advocates election or defeat of
a federal candidate, uncoordinated with any candidate or
political party.
PAC: Political action committee; a FECA-regulated political
committee that makes contributions and independent
expenditures.
Political committee: A group of persons that receive
contributions or make expenditures aggregating over $1,000;
required to register with the FEC and file disclosure reports.
Super PAC: A FECA-regulated political committee that
makes only independent expenditures, also known as an
independent expenditure-only committee.
PACs
FECA prohibits corporations and labor unions from making
campaign contributions directly from their own revenue
funds, i.e., general treasuries. However, corporations and
unions can establish PACs to make contributions and can
use their treasury funds to establish, administer, and solicit
contributions to the PACs. Such corporate and labor union-
connected PACs, also known as separate segregated funds,
can solicit contributions to their PACs from only a limited
group of individuals who are associated with the
corporations or unions. Corporations can solicit PAC
contributions from their stockholders and their families, as
well as from their executive or administrative personnel and
their families. Labor unions can solicit contributions from
their members and their families.
In FEC v. Beaumont, the Supreme Court upheld the
constitutionality of the prohibition on corporations making
direct campaign contributions from their general treasuries.
As the Court explained, its jurisprudence on campaign
finance regulation respects congressional judgment that the
corporate structure requires careful regulation to counter the
misuse of corporate advantages and that unlimited
contributions can necessitate restrictions to counter
corruption.
As a result of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens
United v. FEC, corporations and labor unions can make
independent expenditures and disbursements for
electioneering communications directly from their treasury
funds and do not need to establish PACs for such spending.
Against a First Amendment challenge, the Court in Citizens
United invalidated the FECA ban on corporate and union
spending from general treasury funds, even though the ban
permitted corporations and unions to establish PACs for
such spending. As the Court explained, PACs are separate
entities, and permitting corporate and union-connected
PACs to spend is not somehow allow[ing] a corporationto
speak.
Under certain circumstances, an individual or group of
individuals, within 10 days of raising or spending over
$1,000, must register with the FEC as a PAC known as a
nonconnected committee. Such PACs are not connected to
or sponsored by corporations or labor unions and may
solicit contributions from the general public, in accordance
with restrictions discussed below.
PACs are subject to FECA's contribution limits, source
restrictions, and disclosure requirements. For example, an
individual is limited to contributing up to $5,000 per year to
a PAC, and a PAC is limited to contributing up to $5,000 to
a candidate per election. Further, PACs cannot accept
contributions from federal government contractors or from
foreign nationals. FECA also requires PACs to register and
file periodic disclosure reports with the FEC, including the
disclosure of the total amount of all receipts and the total
amount of all disbursements during the reporting period.
These reports are made publicly available.
Super PACs
Relying on the ruling in Citizens United, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia in SpeechNow.org v.
FEC provided the legal underpinning for the creation of
super PACs. The court determined that, in view of the
Supreme Court's ruling that independent expenditures do](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govepgv0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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