Campaign Contribution Limits Raised Again

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In every odd-numbered year the Federal Election Commission (FEC) is required to adjust certain contribution limits, expenditure limits, and the lobbyist bundling disclosure threshold by indexing them to inflation.  The FEC recently announced those adjustments for 2015 in the Federal Register and once again the basic contribution limit per candidate per election has been raised by $100. The change caps an individual’s contributions to a candidate at $2,700 and sets the limit an individual may give to a National Committee at $33,400. However, because of the new funds recently established by Congress for national committees, an individual may give as much as $801,600 per year if she chooses to donate the maximum amount allowed to each of the committee funds for a single party and twice that if she wanted to support both major parties. We previously discussed the three new national party committee funds, which significantly increase the amount individuals can donate to national parties, here.

Contributions from an individual to a candidate committee are $2,700 for a primary election and $2,700 for a general election, with another $2,700 contribution permitted for a recount fund.  Corporate contributions may not be made to candidate committees.

Certain political committees must disclose to the FEC contributions received that have been bundled by lobbyists/registrants.  The threshold amount for those disclosures has been raised to $17,600.

Each of the contributions referenced herein must be disclosed to the FEC and publicly reported in accordance with regular disclosure deadlines applicable to the receiving committee.

The below chart details the allowable limits individuals and Multi-Candidate PACs may contribute to National Party Committees and their recently established special funds.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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