White House Urged to Nominate FEC Commissioners Willing to Enforce the Law Enforcing the laws on the books is key to changing the way business is done in Washington. And the key to enforcing the law is cleaning house at the dysfunctional FEC - something sure to ruffle feathers on Capitol Hill. But as Legal Center Executive Director J. Gerald Hebert stressed in his letter to President Obama today, “it is a fight that your Administration must undertake to be true to the commitments you made during your presidential campaign, at your Inauguration, after the Court’s decision and at your State of the Union address.” A Wake-Up Call on Campaign Finance Reform President Obama was concerned enough by the Citizens United decision to condemn it in his State of the Union address. And Congress is scrambling to mitigate the damage, including closing a loophole opened up by the decision that would allow foreign-owned domestic corporations to spend in American elections. But bad as this decision was, it may represent only one step in a broader effort by anti-reform groups to dismantle most of the campaign finance reforms on the books. A “Regulatory” Agency Expeditious Only in Deregulation A nearly eight-year battle with the FEC over the agency’s ineffective implementation of the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) “coordination” provision continued yesterday with rulemaking comments filed by the Legal Center, together with Democracy 21. The heel dragging, obstruction, and unwillingness of the agency to adopt effective coordination regulations stands in stark contrast to its rapid action to repeal contribution regulations recently struck down by the courts. New Report: "Reform In The Age of Networked Campaigns" Yesterday, at an event held at The Brookings Institution, a new report was issued by campaign finance experts Tony Corrado, Michael Malbin, Tom Mann, and Norm Ornstein. The Report, entitled "Reform In The Age of Networked Campaigns--how to foster citizen participation through small donors and volunteers" offers a collection of important recommendations for reform. SpeechNow Seeks Immunity for "527 Groups" If SpeechNow.org were to be successful in its challenge, the “527 groups” active in past presidential elections would be authorized to operate almost entirely outside of the campaign finance laws, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars of soft money to flow back into federal elections. 
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