{ "id": "RS22895", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RS22895", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 343397, "date": "2009-01-26", "retrieved": "2016-04-07T02:51:42.403949", "title": "527 Groups and Campaign Activity: Analysis Under Campaign Finance and Tax Laws", "summary": "During recent election cycles, there has been controversy regarding the increased campaign-related activity of 527 groups and to what extent they are regulated under federal law. The controversy stems from the intersection between the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which regulates \u201cpolitical committees,\u201d and Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which provides tax-exempt status to \u201cpolitical organizations.\u201d Some groups that qualify for beneficial tax treatment as \u201cpolitical organizations\u201d seemingly intend to influence federal elections in ways that may place them outside the FECA definition of \u201cpolitical committee.\u201d This report refers to this subset of Section 527 political organizations as 527 groups or 527s. Considerable debate has been generated about the extent to which FECA currently regulates 527 groups as \u201cpolitical committees\u201d and the constitutional parameters of such regulation. In the 110th Congress, the 527 Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 420 and S. 463) would have amended FECA to generally treat all Section 527 political organizations active in federal elections as \u201cpolitical committees.\u201d Similar legislation has not yet been introduced in the 111th Congress.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RS22895", "sha1": "0ce87a4327fda7e27827fd9f1bdaa6e8ead5ac9c", "filename": "files/20090126_RS22895_0ce87a4327fda7e27827fd9f1bdaa6e8ead5ac9c.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RS22895", "sha1": "6cc7bc5e5057bc2525165ac4fe7849876ca831fc", "filename": "files/20090126_RS22895_6cc7bc5e5057bc2525165ac4fe7849876ca831fc.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc812478/", "id": "RS22895_2008Jun12", "date": "2008-06-12", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "527 Groups and Campaign Activity: Analysis Under Campaign Finance and Tax Laws", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20080612_RS22895_09f8d6abc0e10e10c0b565df6aeb4e4528a73261.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20080612_RS22895_09f8d6abc0e10e10c0b565df6aeb4e4528a73261.html" } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Constitutional Questions" ] }