On April 19, a campaign finance bill in Ontario concerning contribution limits, political activities, and voting processes received Royal Assent.

Bill 254, the Protecting Ontario Elections Act, 2021, allows individuals to make contributions in an amount up to $3,300 per calendar year or campaign period to party and non-party candidates, leadership contestants, constituency associations, nomination contestants of a party or a constituency association of an independent member, and any one registered party. That amount will increase by $25 for each calendar year beginning on January 1, 2022.

Bill 254 enhances the law concerning collusion with third parties. Contributions from one third party to another third party for the purposes of political advertising are deemed as part of the expenses of the contributing third party.

Additionally, a third party is prohibited from trying to circumvent the rules and spending limits by splitting itself into two or more third parties, acting in collusion with another third party so that combined political advertising expenses exceed the applicable limit, and colluding with, including sharing information with, a registered party, registered constituency association, registered candidate, registered leadership contestant, or registered nomination contestant or any of their agents or employees for the purpose of circumventing the limit.

The Municipal Elections Act, 1996, is amended to provide that a registered third party may withdraw their registration by filing a written withdrawal in the clerk’s office during the time for filing a notice of registration.

The bill also allows independent members of the Assembly to endorse constituency associations, mandates the Chief Electoral Officer establish an advisory committee on voting equipment and vote counting equipment, and codifies certain administrative penalties.

Elections Canada recently published the updated limits on expenses for regulated activities of third parties involved in federal elections in Canada.

The Canada Elections Act imposes a limit on expenses a third party can incur for regulated political activities.

For the period of April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, a third party is prohibited from incurring overall election advertising expenses of a total amount of more than $525,700 during a general election. The previous limit was $521,850. For the same period of April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022, a third party is prohibited from incurring election advertising expenses in a given electoral district of a total amount of more than $4,506 during a general election. The previous limit was $4,473.

Adjustments are made annually based on a formula of a base amount multiplied by the inflation adjustment factor in effect for the period.

On April 1, the United States Supreme Court unanimously decided automatic text messages sent to telephone numbers culled from a database of a sender, in this case from Facebook, and not from a system having the capacity either to store or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator, is not prohibited under The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA).

While this decision does not apply to robocalls, it does seem to permit those in political campaigns to allow voice calls and text messages, taken from their databases, to be automatically made from technology not using a random or sequential number generator without fear of violating the TCPA.

In Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, Noah Duguid, who had never created a Facebook account, continually received text messages from Facebook. Duguid alleged that Facebook violated the TCPA by maintaining a database storing phone numbers and sending automated text messages from that database. In a 9-0 decision, the court agreed with Facebook’s technical argument that the TCPA does not apply because the technology it used to text Duguid did not use a “random or sequential number generator.”

The TCPA was enacted to prevent the abuse of telemarketing made with an “automatic telephone dialing system” and other troublesome tactics.

Beginning on April 1 and continuing until July 31, 2021, the threshold for requiring a formal tender process in the Northwest Territories will be reduced from $25,000 to $10,000 for general goods and services.

This temporary change, being implemented by the Departments of Finance and Industry, Tourism, and Investment, is an effort to allow more territorial businesses have a “fair and equal opportunity to compete for [government] contracts by increasing transparency, and awareness of government procurement opportunities,” according to a press release by the Government of Northwest Territories.

Starting on April 1, all government purchasing above $10,000 will be processed through the public procurement process. Departments seeking goods and services estimated to be $10,000 and over will use requests for proposals or tenders.

This change was made in response to a procurement review held earlier this year with input from the government’s business development staff and the Northwest Territories’ business community.

On March 17, a comprehensive bill aimed at reforming U.S. campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws, and improving voter rights and election integrity, was introduced in the U.S. Senate. The sweeping bill, Senate Bill 1, For the People Act of 2021, is companion legislation to House Bill 1, which passed the House on March 3. That bill, also called the For the People Act of 2021, was received in the Senate on March 11.

The bill would require the registration as a federal lobbyist for those counseling in support of lobbying contacts; require super PACs, 501(c)4 groups and other organizations spending money in elections and on judicial nominations to disclose donors who contribute more than $10,000; and, under the definitions of the Federal Election Campaign Act, add “paid internet or paid digital communication” to the definition of public communication and add “qualified internet or digital communication” to the definition of electioneering communication.

The bill creates a reporting requirement under campaign finance laws for disclosing certain foreign contacts and creates an obligation for political committees to notify the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Election Commission of those contacts. It also prohibits foreign nationals from participating in decision-making about contributions or expenditures by corporations and other entities; prohibits the establishment of a corporation to conceal election contributions and donations by foreign nationals; and requires foreign agents to disclose transactions involving things of financial value conferred on officeholders.

The bill defines the prohibited coordination between campaigns and super PACs, includes creating a “coordinated spender” category in the law to ensure single-candidate super PACs do not operate as arms of candidates, and defines the prohibited coordination between campaigns and super PACs. The bill would repeal existing prohibitions on the Securities and Exchange Commission from finalizing rules to afford shareholders the opportunity to know about the political spending of publicly traded companies and would require shareholder authorization before a public company may make certain political expenditures. It would also repeal existing prohibitions on the executive branch from promulgating rules to require government contractors to disclose all of their political spending.

The bill requires presidential inauguration committees to disclose their expenditures, limits aggregate contributions, and restricts funds being used for purposes unrelated to an inauguration. Additional measures in the bill include a publicly financed 6-1 matching system on small-dollar donations for Senate and presidential candidates, more ethics changes to the executive branch, and substantial changes to federal election law and voter rights.

The British Columbia Office of the Registrar of Lobbyists released new guidance documents this month outlining key considerations for lobbyists when declaring government funding in the Lobbyists Registry and guidance on the term “provincial entity” as it is used in the Lobbyists Transparency Act (LTA).

The LTA requires lobbyists provide information in their Registration Return about government funding, whether received or requested by their organization or client, from any government, government agency, or provincial entity in the preceding 12-month period. This is not limited to funding related to lobbying in British Columbia. Government funding includes those of any level of government, including foreign, federal, provincial, or municipal governmental entities. Non-refundable funding given in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is reportable. Now that the online Registry has been updated to permit lobbyists to declare funding, the guidance provides instructions on how to enter, remove and modify the information on a lobbyist’s report.

Similar government funding disclosure obligations are also required by federal lobbyists and lobbyists in Alberta.

The document providing guidance on the term “provincial entity” is intended to help lobbyists understand which persons working for a provincial entity are covered individuals for purposes of disclosure in lobbying reports. “Provincial entity” is specifically defined by regulation and generally refers to provincial government bodies or corporations outside core government. Provincial entities include crown corporations, school districts, public sector post-secondary institutions, such as colleges and universities, and health authorities.

The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada has released information concerning COVID-19 emergency funding and registration requirements online.

Several key points are emphasized by the Office: communications with public office holders about the making, developing or amending of a government-funding program linked to COVID-19 are registrable activities; disclosure of any non-repayable portion of COVID-19 relief funding received¸ from any level of government entity, foreign or domestic, must be disclosed in a lobbyist’s registration; and updates to registrations are required no later than 15 days after the end of the month in which the funding was provided.

Examples of COVID-19-related funding programs include the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, the Canada Emergency Business Account, and the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance.

The disclosure of funding by lobbyists is not limited to COVID-19 relief or to lobbying the federal government. Other reportable government funding includes all grants, non-repayable contributions, forgiven portions of government loans, and any other non-repayable funding.

Disclosure is still not required for repayable contributions, repayable portions of government loans, tax credits, refunds, exemptions, rebates, remissions of taxes, and payment of goods or services contracts.

Applying to a federal government funding program linked to COVID-19 alone is not a registrable activity.

Legislation aimed at reforming U.S. campaign finance, lobbying, and ethic laws has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 1, For the People Act 2021, is a sweeping 791-page bill. The proposed new law, which passed the House on March 3, now heads to the U.S. Senate.

Among the changes in the bill, H.R. 1 restructures the Federal Election Commission and amends federal conflict of interest and lobbying laws. Introduced by Rep. John Sarbanes, the bill requires enhanced disclosure of donors making political contributions, creates a multiple matching system for small donations for political campaigns, and amends rules governing super PACs.

If passed, the bill also requires presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns, prohibits partisan gerrymandering, increases oversight over election vendors, creates an automatic voter registration across the country, and changes registration requirements for lobbyists and foreign agents.

One of the federal lobbying registration thresholds for organizations employing in-house lobbyists has been increased. Now, an organization employing in-house lobbyists whose total expenses in connection with lobbying activities do not exceed and are not expected to exceed $14,000 in the quarterly period is not required to be registered. The previous level was $13,000. This threshold amount is adjusted every four years based on the Consumer Price Index.

The threshold amount for lobbying firms remains the same. A lobbying firm or individual lobbyist whose total income for matters relating to lobbying activities on behalf of a particular client does not exceed or is not expected to exceed $3,000 in the quarterly period is exempt from registration with respect to such client.

Other determinations for registration include whether a lobbyist is an individual who, with respect to a particular client, makes more than one lobbying contact and whose lobbying activities constitute at least 20% of the individual’s time in services for that client over any three-month period.

On February 25, a bill was introduced in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to increase the province’s contribution limits and make other changes to its election laws.

Bill 254, Protecting Ontario Elections Act, 2021, as introduced by Attorney General Doug Downey, proposes to amend the Election Act, the Election Finances Act, the Members’ Integrity Act, 1994, and the Municipal Elections Act, 1996.

Some of the changes in the bill include increasing contribution limits made to individual registered parties, party and non-party candidates, leadership candidates, constituency associations and nomination contestants of any one party or to the constituency association of any independent member. That amount increases from $1,650 to $3,300 per calendar year, with an increase of $25 for each calendar beginning on January 1, 2022.

Additionally, when selling a ticket for a fund-raising event, all, or any portion of its cost up to a maximum of $30, may be considered not to be a political contribution.

The time period on limiting third party advertisers’ spending would increase from six months to 12 months before an election. The proposed legislation also includes penalties for violations, allows members of the Assembly to endorse constituency associations, establishes the allowance of certain candidate electronic filings for municipalities, directs the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to establish an advisory committee on voting equipment and vote counting equipment, and expands powers of the CEO with respect to designating advance polls.

The bill also allows members of the Assembly to explicitly use social media for any matters a member wishes to bring to the attention of the public, including partisan matters.

On February 25, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved an advisory opinion allowing certain PACs to use aggregated data collected from the PAC’s contributors to advance the PAC’s political interests.

Advisory Opinion 2021-02 holds an independent expenditure-only PAC may inform a member of Congress or congressional candidate of the number of its contributors who live in the relevant state or district and the collective dollar amount that they give to the PAC. The request for the opinion was made by FEN-PAC, an independent expenditure-only political committee engaging lawmakers and candidates to advocate on certain legislative and policy issues. FEN-PAC, in its request, said it would not disclose any contributor’s contact information, nor would FEN-PAC or any third parties use any individual contributor information to solicit contributions or to sell other products or services.

The FEC held such use of aggregate data does not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act or any FEC regulations because it is not being sold or used for either soliciting contributions or commercial purposes.

The FEC specifically did not address any other federal laws or regulations could be affected by the PAC’s use of the aggregated data.

On February 3, U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Ron Wyden reintroduced a bill to reverse a U.S. Treasury Department’s decision limiting IRS disclosure requirement of certain tax-exempt organizations engaging in political activities.

Senate Bill 215, the Spotlight Act, requires non-profit organizations engaging in political activity, such as donating to candidates and purchasing political ads, provide the IRS with the names and basic information of donors who contribute more than $5,000.

The bill repeals an IRS revenue procedure exempting certain tax-exempt organizations that are not 501(c)(3) organizations from the requirement to report the names and addresses of substantial contributors (persons who contribute more than $5,000 per year) on information returns that are filed with the IRS. The proposed legislation requires tax-exempt organizations falling under sections 501(c)(4), 501(c)(5), and 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (e.g., social welfare organizations, labor organizations, business leagues) to disclose the names and addresses of all substantial contributors on their returns. The bill also eliminates the authority of the IRS to provide exceptions to the disclosure requirements for tax-exempt organizations.

A version of the Spotlight Act was first introduced by the Senators in 2018

Today, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) published its price index adjustments for expenditure limitations and the federal lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold.

The lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold has increased for 2021 from $19,000 to $19,300. This threshold amount is adjusted annually. Federal law requires authorized committees of federal candidates, leadership political action committees (PACs), and political party committees to disclose contributions bundled by lobbyists and lobbyists’ PACs.

Additionally, the FEC published its adjusted Coordinated Party Expenditure Limits for political parties for 2021.

Today, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) published the 2021-2021 election cycle contribution limits, which have been indexed for inflation.

As required by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, the FEC must adjust certain contribution limits every two years. The individual and nonmulticandidate PAC contribution limit to federal candidates has increased from $2,800 to $2,900. This is applied to both primary and general elections, allowing for a total of $5,800 for a federal candidate.

The limits on contributions by individuals to national party committees has increased from $35,500 to $36,500 per calendar year. Therefore, individuals may now contribute $109,500 per calendar year to committees of a national political party for presidential nominating conventions, to committees of a national political party for preparation for and the conduct of election recounts and contests and other legal proceedings, and to committees of a national political party for the construction, purchase, renovation, operation, and furnishing of one or more buildings for party headquarters.