Oral Arguments for Federal Election Commission (FEC) vs. Ted Cruz for Senate will be held on Jan. 19, 2022. Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has filed two amicus briefs in this case, urging the Court to uphold the constitutionality of the challenged law that limits post-election fundraising.

On February 20, 2019, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) submitted a statement for the record to the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee on HR 1. The statement highlights HR 1's expansion of Office of Government Ethics OGE oversight duties, codification of the ethics pledge, and requirements related to the disclosure of certain dark money provisions.

On May 23, CLC submitted a complaint to the Office of Government Ethics alleging an ethics pledge violation by the former Acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen P. Vaughn.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint asking the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) to investigate possible violations of House rules by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy appears to have paid below market rate for a luxury apartment, an improper gift in violation of House gift rules; in the alternative, he may have used leadership political action committee (PAC) funds to offset the cost of rent, which would be a violation of the personal use ban.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) ​filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee requesting an investigation into whether Sen. Ted Cruz violated Senate ethics rules by converting campaign funds to personal use. Sen. Cruz’s campaign committee spent up to $18,000 on Facebook ads exclusively promoting Sen. Cruz’s book, for which he stands to receive royalties, seemingly in violation of the personal use ban. 

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. James "Jim" Hagedorn for possibly accepting and failing to report illegal in-kind contributions in the form of free campaign office space in violation of federal law and House rules. 

Campaign Legal Center submitted a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics calling on the committee to immediately address threats from congressional staff to condition official actions and access to elected officials on campaign contributions.

CLC filed a complaint against the leadership PAC, New PAC, sponsored by Devin G. Nunes for unlawfully using PAC funds for non-commercial air travel. Since March of 2018, New PAC paid Paramount Business Jets $5,518. House candidates and their authorized committees and PAC's are not able to make expenditures for a flight on a non-commercial aircraft unless the aircraft is owned by the candidate or a federal or state government. 

CLC and Issue One sent a petition for rulemaking to the FEC asking them to revise and amend regulations relating to the personal use of leadership PAC funds. Three Republican and two Democratic former members of Congress signed onto the petition. 

Today, CLC filed comments with the Federal Election Commission on REG 2018-02 that would revise and amend regulations relating to the personal use of leadership PAC funds. These comments were filed in coordination with Issue One and former United States Representatives Rod Chandler (R-WA), Larry LaRocco (D-ID), Peter Smith (R-VT), Claudine Schneider (R-RI), and John Tanner (D-TN).

CLC filed a letter with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) urging the agency to proceed with several long-pending rulemaking matters pertaining to digital ad disclaimers, "zombie campaigns," abuses of leadership PAC funds, donor transparency, and more.

In advance of the first Federal Election Commission (FEC) meeting with its new quorum, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) sent a letter to the agency urging it to proceed with several long-pending rulemaking matters pertaining to abuses of leadership PAC funds, donor transparency, digital ad disclaimers, "zombie campaigns," and more.

Issue One and Campaign Legal Center released a report documenting the ongoing abuses of leadership PACs. In the absence of action by Congress and the FEC, politicians continue to use their leadership PAC funds for travel, resort stays, meals, and more—while many devote only a minority of funds to contributions to other candidates and political groups. CLC, Issue One, and five former members of Congress also attached this report to a letter to the FEC urging it to proceed with a rulemaking on this issue.

Read our original July 2018 report here, our July 2018 rulemaking petition here, and our November 2018 comments to the FEC here. 

CLC, Issue One, and five former members of Congress submitted a letter to the FEC urging it to proceed with a rulemaking on extending the personal use prohibition to politicians’ leadership PACs. Included with this letter was a copy of CLC and Issue One’s new report, All Expenses Still Paid, which documents the ongoing abuses of leadership PAC funds.

Read our original July 2018 report here, our July 2018 rulemaking petition here, and our November 2018 comments to the FEC here.

On May 20, 2021, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Issue One (IO) submitted a letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Commissioner Sean Cooksey urging his support for a rulemaking petition to ban lawmakers from using leadership PAC funds for personal expenses. 

New research from Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Issue One shows scores of lawmakers are using leadership PAC funds for lavish dining, lodging and travel expenses. In a follow up report to findings published in 2018 and 2019, CLC and Issue One found that 120 lawmakers spent less than half of their leadership PAC funds on political spending during the 2019-20 election cycle. 

Read CLC's rulemaking petition to the FEC to revise and amend regulations of the personal use of campaign funds by leadership PACs here and additional comments submitted to the FEC here.

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Moore for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 12% of Rep. Moore's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups. 

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Mike Kelly for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 22% of Rep. Kelly's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups. 

Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) asking for an investigation into Rep. Seth Moulton for possibly converting leadership PAC funds to personal use, in violation of the House Rules. Only 8% of Rep. Moulton's leadership PAC spending from 2019 to 2020 went toward other candidates and political parties and groups.