On May 24, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Dara Lindenbaum to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

In January, FEC Vice Chair Steven T. Walther announced he would be stepping down as commissioner upon the nomination and confirmation of his replacement.

Lindenbaum, who was nominated by President Joe Biden on January 21, is currently an attorney with Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., previously worked with the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. According to her profile on her law firm’s website, she also currently serves as General Counsel to Stacey Abrams’ campaign for Governor of Georgia.

With the appointment of Lindenbaum, there will be three registered members of the Republican Party, and three registered members of the Democratic Party.

On May 17, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) made available its updated FEC Form 1, the Statement of Organization for Political Committees, which now includes designations for superPACs and Hybrid Committees.

SuperPACs, which are technically independent expenditure-only political committees, and Hybrid Committees, which in turn are committees with separate non-contribution accounts, were required to file separate letters along with the old FEC Form 1 to receive those designations.

Additionally, the FEC has also released a new version of FECFile, its Windows-based software system committees can use for electronic filing, and a new version of its online webform.

On May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a part of federal campaign finance law regulating the repayment of loans from candidates to their own campaigns.

Generally, Section 304 of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 barred campaigns from using more than $250,000 of political contributions raised after the election day to repay a candidate’s personal loans to their campaign committee.

In striking down the law, the majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Roberts and joined by five other Justices, concludes the law “increases the risk that candidate loans over $250,000 will not be repaid in full, inhibiting candidates from making such loans in the first place.”

The majority in FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, et al. concluded the law burdens core political speech without proper justification. The majority found the Federal Election Commission failed to demonstrate that the loan-repayment limit serves an interest in preventing quid pro quo corruption.

The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Kagan and joined by Justice Breyer and Justice Sotomayor, argued the burden of the law is minimal and the reasoning behind the enactment of the law remains valid: money given after an election to a candidate’s campaign committee, which will go directly to the candidate as repayment for their loan to the campaign committee, creates a heightened risk of corruption.

Senator Ted Cruz, the plaintiff in the case, loaned his campaign committee $260,000 one day before he was reelected. While the amount was $10,000 over the limit, the campaign committee had a 20-day grace period in which Cruz could have been fully repaid. It has been reported Cruz allowed the repayment to lapse beyond that date in order to establish a legal basis for bringing a challenge to the law.

On May 3, the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration favorably reported to the full Senate its approval of the nomination of Dara Lindenbaum to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

In January, FEC Vice Chair Steven T. Walther announced he would be stepping down as commissioner upon the nomination and confirmation of his replacement.

Lindenbaum, who was nominated by President Joe Biden on January 21, is currently an attorney with Sandler Reiff Lamb Rosenstein & Birkenstock, P.C., previously worked with the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. According to her profile on her law firm’s website, she also currently serves as General Counsel to Stacey Abrams’ campaign for Governor of Georgia.

With the appointment of Lindenbaum, there will be three registered members of the Republican Party, and three registered members of the Democratic Party. No more than three members of the FEC may be registered with the same political party.

To become a commissioner, Lindenbaum must now be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The public has until June 21 to comment on a proposed rule allowing federal employees to accept gifts of certain legal costs.

The proposed rule would create new federal regulations governing a federal employee’s acceptance of payments for legal expenses or pro bono legal services for matters arising in connection with the employee’s official position, the employee’s prior position on a campaign of a candidate for president or vice-president, or the employee’s prior position on a Presidential Transition Team.

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics (OGE) wants to make related amendments governing the solicitation and acceptance of gifts from outside sources and establish limits of the amount of the value of the donations.

They are proposing a contribution limit of $10,000 per year from any single permissible donor to a legal expense fund. The fund would be required to be formed as a trust for employees to receive contributions and to make distributions of legal expense payments. Lobbyists would be prohibited from acting as trustees administering an employee’s legal expense fund.

Additionally, federal employees would be prohibited from accepting pro bono services from lobbyists, foreign governments or agents, or persons substantially affected by the performance or nonperformance of the employees’ duties.

According to the OGE, there are currently no statutory or regulatory frameworks in the executive branch for establishing a legal expense fund. The proposed rule was published on April 21 in the Federal Register.

“Going forward,” the Federal Election Commission (FEC) will require disclosure requirements for contributions received from limited liability companies (LLCs) be applied to independent expenditure-only political committees (i.e., Super PACs) in the same manner in which they are applied to all other political committees.

On April 15, four of the six commissioners issued a “Statement of Reasons” for their conclusion of a closeout of a complaint. In the statement, which refers to Matters Under Review (MUR) 7454, Chairman Allen Dickerson, Vice Chair Steven T. Walther, Commissioner Shana M. Broussard, and Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub assert, “contributions from LLCs to committees must be attributed pursuant to Commission regulations, and those regulations apply to all committees, including [Super PACs]. The Commission will apply that understanding going forward, and may seek civil penalties in appropriate future cases.”

In MUR 7454, the Super PAC in question had not obtained the required attribution information for two contributions made by LLCs. The Super PAC attributed the contributions only to the LLCs. Regulations require committees to report certain attribution information for contributions from LLCs.

An LLC that has a single natural-person member and is not taxed as a corporation must be attributed only to the natural person member, and not the LLC. A contribution by an LLC that is disregarded for tax purposes and does not have a single natural-person member is treated as a partnership contribution; and, a partnership contribution must be attributed to both the partnership and each partner, either in proportion to his or her share of the partnership profits or by agreement among the partners.

In prior cases premised on similar facts, the FEC could not agree whether, following the Citizens United and SpeechNow.org v. FEC court decisions, LLC reporting rules and conduit contribution rules applied to contributions made to the newly formed Super PACs authorized by those judicial rulings. The commissioners determined that “with the passage of time, [Super PACs] have become a regular part of the campaign finance landscape, and…there is no longer a lack of clarity concerning the application of LLC reporting rules and conduit contribution rules in these circumstances.”

Because the FEC has not previously made this conclusion under similar cases, they did not seek a civil penalty against the Super PAC.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its audit of federal lobbying compliance for 2021.

For the audit, the GAO reviewed a random sample of 98 quarterly disclosure reports filed for the third and fourth quarters of calendar year 2020 and the first and second quarters of calendar year 2021. They also reviewed random samples of 160 LD-203 reports for the year-end 2020 and midyear 2021 reports.

Among its findings, the GAO concluded 97  percent of filers of lobbying disclosure reports were able to provide documentation to support reported income and expenses, 7 percent of LD-203 reports were missing reportable contributions, and 92 percent of lobbyists who filed new registrations also filed LD-2 reports as required for the quarter in which they first registered.

The audit estimates at least 35 percent of all lobbying disclosure reports did not properly disclose formerly held covered positions.

The 57-page report, released on April 1, is titled “2021 Lobbying Disclosure: Observations on Lobbyists’ Compliance with Disclosure Requirements.“

On April 1, 2022, Elections Canada 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, 2022, to March 31, 2023, a third party is prohibited from incurring overall election advertising expenses of a total amount of more than $543,200 during a general election. The previous limit was $525,700.

For the same period of April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023, a third party is prohibited from incurring election advertising expenses in a given electoral district of a total amount of more than $4,656 during a general election. The previous limit was $4,506.

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

Today is the last day for all federal agencies to have ensured they have incorporated a $15 minimum wage in any of their new contract solicitations.

On April 27, 2021, President Joseph R. Biden had signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay $15 per hour for employees working on or in connection with a federal government contract. On November 22, 2021, Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh announced the final rule implementing the president’s order. In turn, on March 30, 2022, all federal agencies need to implement the minimum wage into new contracts.

Federal agencies are also directed to implement the higher wage into existing contracts when the parties exercise their option to extend such contracts. Contractors and subcontractors must certify they will meet this condition requiring the minimum wage. This certification is a condition of payment to the contractors from the government. The order applies, with certain exceptions, to any new contract; new contract-like instrument; new solicitation; extension or renewal of an existing contract or contract-like instrument; or exercise of an option on an existing contract or contract-like instrument.

This order does not apply to grants; contracts, contract-like instruments, or certain specific type of agreements with Indian Tribes.

Starting January 1, 2023, the minimum wage will be adjusted annually, but not lowered, by the U.S. secretary of labor based on a consumer price index formula and rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05. For tipped workers, the minimum wage mandated by the order is $10.50 per hour beginning January 30, 2022. Beginning January 1, 2023, tipped workers must receive 85% of the wage rate in effect for non-tipped employees, rounded to the nearest multiple of $0.05.

Then beginning January 1, 2024, and for each subsequent year, tipped workers must receive 100% of the wage received by non-tipped worker, eliminating the difference between the type of workers. Adjustments must be considered by employers of tipped workers who do not receive a sufficient additional amount on account of tips to equal to the minimum wage of non-tipped workers. If a state or municipality has a higher minimum wage, the Executive Order does not excuse noncompliance with the laws requiring the higher wage.

On March 21, Broadcasting Arbitrator Monica Song was reappointed to her position in charge of allocating broadcasting time among registered parties.

Ms. Song, who has served in the post since being originally appointed in 2020, is also a public law lawyer and partner with Dentons Canada LLP.

Besides allocating broadcasting time, a Broadcasting Arbitrator, which is a position mandated by the Canada Elections Act, has other duties. Responsibilities of this unique role mandated by the Canada Elections Act include issuing guidelines concerning the obligations of broadcasters during general elections and arbitrating disputes between political parties and broadcasters.

Song’s reappointment was made by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Stéphane Perrault, according to the Elections Canada press release.

On March 10, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved revisions to Form 1, the Statement of Organization for political committees, as well as to the instructions for the form and an Explanation and Justification for the revisions.

On January 13, the FEC had decided to revise its PAC registration form to explicitly include designations for superPACs and Hybrid Committees, instructing the agency’s staff to expand Form 1 (Statement of Organization). SuperPACs, which are technically independent expenditure-only political committees, and Hybrid Committees, which in turn are committees with separate non-contribution accounts, are currently required to file separate letters along with Form 1 to receive those designations.

The revised form takes effect 10 legislative days after the Form 1 Revisions package is received by Congress, unless Congress objects to the revisions.

On April 11, a provincial byelection will be held in the electoral division of Marie-Victorin for the Quebec National Assembly.

The election will be held to fill the vacant seat of former Member of the National Assembly Catherine Fournier, who resigned in November of last year after becoming elected the mayor of Longueuil.

The election was announced by Premier François Legault on March 8.

On February 25, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to Serve as Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jackson will replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who is retiring from the bench upon confirmation of his replacement. Breyer, at 83, is currently the oldest member of the Court, serving since 1994 when he was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

Jackson, who was once a clerk for Justice Breyer, is currently on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She has previously served as a federal district court judge, a member of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an attorney in private practice, and as a federal public defender.

On February 18, a Special Legislative Meeting of the Council of the District of Columbia will be held.

Chairman Phil Mendelson is calling the 13 councilmembers to come together under Council Rule 303(b) to consider legislation concerning COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the District, specifically the Public Health Protections Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2022 and the Public Health Protections Emergency Amendment Act of 2022. Nine votes are required to pass the emergency legislation. Additionally, the legislation cannot have costs associated with it.

This announcement came in part in reaction to Mayor Muriel Bowser lifting the requirement that District businesses check the vaccine status of patrons, according to WTOP News.