Facts About PACs Podcast
The Facts About PACs Podcast is the #1 PAC podcast in America. The show is produced especially for the members of the National Association of Business Political Action Committees (NABPAC). Each weekly episode includes a recap of the association's latest activities, actionable intelligence for the employee-funded and business trade association PAC community, and an interview with a featured guest. Show host Micaela Isler is the President and CEO of NAPBAC.
Facts About PACs Podcast
Ep. 33 FEC in Action 2021 | 02.04.21
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For those keeping score at home… the inflation-adjusted contribution limits for the 2021-2022 election cycle were announced by the FEC this week. Get the details on this and all recent and upcoming NABPACtivites in this episode.
Welcome back to the Facts About PACs podcast. This show is brought to you by NabPAC, the National Association of Business Political Action Committees. And I'm your host, Michaela Isler, NabPAC's executive director. It's February, and Groundhog Day has come and gone. Puxitani Phil saw his shadow, which means we are in for six more weeks of winter, Adam Belmar.
SPEAKER_01Well, we'll see about that. But it sure did feel that way this week. And I tell you what, the ice has melted around my house, and I am so glad to see the sun come back.
SPEAKER_00I know. The first snow of 2021 was a big hit with my daughter. Uh, we had so much fun, so I'll take it.
SPEAKER_01And I have to admit that anxiety about getting back and forth to the office really wasn't a big deal for most of us this time around. And I'm not too ashamed to admit that my milk and toilet paper stockpile was up to the challenge.
SPEAKER_00Well, you can definitely call that a win, Adam. And now, if you please.
SPEAKER_01The Facts About PACs podcast is produced especially for the members of the National Association of Business Political Action Committees. In every episode, we recap this week's NAPPAC activities, share actionable intelligence and best practices, all while connecting the PAC community. Today's episode is brought to you by Access Marketing Services. Access provides full service creative marketing solutions backed by the industry's best data, polling and engagement strategy to ensure you reached the right people the right way with the right message.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, Adam. And for those of you keeping score at home, the inflation adjusted contribution limits for the 2021-2022 election cycle were just announced by the FEC this week. I'm sure most of you saw that. And individuals can now contribute up to $2,900 per election to a candidate, and that is up from $2,800.
SPEAKER_01And because the primary and general count as separate elections, that means individuals may now give Michaela a total of $5,800 per candidate per election.
SPEAKER_00Correct. And that new limit on contributions from individuals to national party committees also increased for this cycle from $35,500 to $36,500 per year.
SPEAKER_01And all of it transparent and fully accounted for by mandatory filings with the Federal Election Commission. But you know what didn't change, Michaela?
SPEAKER_00Oh yes, I do know what did not change. And actually, it hasn't changed in over 40 years, and that is the PAC contribution limits.
SPEAKER_01Yes, ma'am. The $5,000 limit an individual can contribute to a PAC has not changed in over 40 years.
SPEAKER_00And of course, nobody's reporting on this, Adam, but no indexing for inflation, no statutory increases. And quite frankly, it's a real problem and one that NAPPAC has advocated on for many, many years.
SPEAKER_01It doesn't take a genius to realize that the practical impact of zero increases in contribution limits for four decades means the power of that after-taxed voluntary donation has significantly less value.
SPEAKER_00Especially when compared to inflation-indexed adjustments like the ones just announced by the FEC. And I want to keep going on this line of facts about PACs. But before we do, Adam, we need to take a minute to read out some very important NABPAC activities. NABPAC has now completed its 2021 board of directors annual meeting where new officers were elected, as well as six new members that were approved to serve on the board just last week. Tracy Wynn, PAC Manager at Anthem, is now our 2021 NABPAC president. Megan Killian Joyce of International Papers now serving as first vice president. Courtney Schoenborn of New York Life as second vice president. Bridget Sewell of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association is serving as our association secretary. Kit Maloney of the National Federation of Independent Businesses is now our treasurer. And finally, John Mason of Altria serves as an at-large member of the executive committee. I just want to take a moment and congratulate all of them and really thank each of them for their time and service. They've been wonderful leaders for NAPAC and really to the industry.
SPEAKER_01They have, and they're also incredibly giving of their time. The majority of the people whose names you just mentioned have been a part of NAPPAC in a meaningful way for a very long time, including their service here in 2021, but also taking time to help us launch and keep the Facts About PAC's podcast going and even getting really involved in task force work and our post-election conference. So kudos to them. But Michaela, while we're at it, we have some important NAPPAC activities coming up in the next few weeks that I want our listeners to have a heads up on. The first one is coming up on Tuesday, February 9th at one o'clock Eastern. NAPPAC is hosting a webinar on standing up for business packs in the 117th Congress. The panel, which discusses members you need to know, who you might have missed during the election, strategies for building key relationships, and what you can do to guarantee the future existence of business packs. I will be there with Bells on. On Tuesday, February 16th at 1 p.m. Eastern, our webinar, where do we go from here? Our special guest, Mike Duhain, partner at Mercury Public Affairs on strategies for moving forward and what you can be doing now to position your pack for future strength. I guess that's what you can do in addition to listening to this podcast, Michaela. And finally, coming up on Thursday, February 18th at 6 p.m. That's right, 6 p.m. Eastern time. It's our NABPAC meet and greet this time with DCC, frontline candidates. Those are three great events. And the meet and greet is a great way to kick off the new year and keeping all of our NABPAC members in a process, even virtually, of meeting and getting to know and building relationships with members, Michaela.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Adam. And I'm really excited to continue our partnership with the DCCC and uh look forward to continuing to build on these great relationships that we've uh worked on really hard over the last several years.
SPEAKER_01And I think we all have to remind ourselves and the people who are in our corporations or associations that not all PACs are the same, Michaela. Employee funded PACs and trade association PACs, they're not super PACs. They are not dark money, quote unquote. And every bit that you learn about what it is to be an FEC-regulated, transparent political action committee means that you can understand more about what it takes to give to those groups and why that money is important. And it speaks for industries and for entire groups of employees. For our membership, Association and Employee Funded PACs, Michaela, we're more moderate in our viewpoints, to be sure, and we contribute demonstrably on a more bipartisan basis than super PAC.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there was a really interesting study by Michael Barber, and he actually talked a lot about this. He spent pretty extensive time researching business and their giving and really talking about if you remove the corporate PAC giving from the equation, you really are in the end going to have more of those engaged on sort of the far extremes on the right or left, and really making the case for why we need the business community's voice in the political process.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we've spent 40 years keeping one group down while removing all the stops from another. And one group is more moderated, certainly more bipartisan. And while everyone's voice should be heard, they should be able to be heard on an equal footing. And as we know, traditional PACs are highly regulated. They all have to register with the FEC, file monthly, quarterly reports. They have to document every candidate and committee to which they contribute funds. And of course, for every individual who makes a contribution, Mikael, in excess of $200 per year to a PAC, that also is on the record with the FEC.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think one thing too that really differentiates us too from the super PACs is we're also regulated in how much we can actually take in from our donors. Unlike super PACs can take in any amount from any organization unlimited, we can only receive $5,000 per year from any donor. And every single penny of that is reported to the Federal Election Commission. And so it's it's frustrating when we get lumped in with other super PACs because we couldn't be more different.
SPEAKER_01One of the things that we hear a lot within our own community is this understanding that going back decades and decades, PACs were established to allow citizens of average means to join together to pool their small after-tax and voluntary contributions to compete with wealthy individual donors. And that was really a recognition that we are a nation of interests and we all have a constitutional right to participate in the electoral process. And PACs, Mikhail, I think you'll agree, channel that involvement in a fully transparent, accountable, and limited manner.
SPEAKER_00We've been saying this for as long as I can remember. And here we are, nearly five decades later. PACs are one of the few reforms that have functioned exactly as intended by promoting civic understanding and involvement. We've we've done that across the board with millions of constituents across this country and really have stimulated that engagement from those Americans across all political parties to become active in the process.
SPEAKER_01When you turn the light on yourself, and that is something that we've talked about already in 2021 here on the Facts About PACs podcast, corporations, employee-funded PACs within them, association PACs, we're examining what our criteria are for giving. And in some cases where there has been a pause, we're beginning to understand what is it that we need to do to be able to get moving again. All of this trying to be done in the most transparent way, even in the face of really deep, hard questions that are coming at us from the press. This is the way it should work, Michaela. When we get back on track, we can see already that members of Congress are appreciating, hey, this communication, this support for campaigns is important. And as you pointed out, for some who decided to push away from the table and say employee-funded PACs somehow aren't something I want to be a part of, this new daylight that's being shown on the entire industry is actually bringing people back into the fold.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I'm really proud of the business community and in particular our members who are taking this time to truly ensure that all of their policies and procedures and bylaws are in a place where they they're sound and justifiable and really have the involvement from their eligible class and their employees. The town halls, the discussions that they're having, the raw discussions and the very real discussions that they're having, I think is going to make everyone better in the end. And I think there's going to be a lot that we can stand on going forward.
SPEAKER_01We have uh a member of our team, uh Amy Adams, who's the president of Dunn Associates. She is on the other end of that NABPAC help hotline. And she takes a tremendous amount of time working with individual members and, of course, her own clients. She has great insight and is really a part of the resource emails that we put out frequently. The conversations with people that she's having in the C-suites and in other places really reflect a very thoughtful nature of how corporations and associations are approaching this, right? Because their mission of educating and working with legislators, that never changes. That must continue. But the operational side, it is something that is going to take a lot of energy to get us right back on track, but they're doing the hard work.
SPEAKER_00And I think, you know, we're kind of at a crossroads where the business community, particularly CEOs, you know, we're hearing more and more through various public opinions and surveys that they really need to be out front and protecting democracy. I mean, I that is an incredible load for these CEOs that I don't know has always been there. And this is a very different time. It's most focused on the company, taking care of our employees, taking care of our consumers, but making sure that they protect our democracy, that's that's got to be weighing heavily on a lot of the leadership around the table.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and they're turning to pack managers. And people who are listening to this show should know that Michaela Isler is not just the executive director of NADPAC. You too were a PAC manager right there in the trenches, working on these issues for many, many years.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Our engagement, we had a high number of employees that were engaged. It took over 10 years to build our program to be where it was at the height. And it really was through listening to those employees, going facility by facility to talk about the issues of importance to the organization, why an organization like ours would be involved in the political process, how as employees of our company could engage, and really more just good government. How do you get registered to vote? How do you know what the issues are of importance? Where is your polling location? Trying to make it as easy as possible for our employees to engage in the process. And that's exactly what is continuing today. And those employees have just the right as anybody else to engage in the political process through their company's PAC.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and NABPAC has forged a relationship with the problem solvers caucus, where we've had a number of events, and they will recognize, as we do, that PACs can and should be recognized as a model, not something that needs to be abolished or further limited. Because when you're putting the kibosh on voices of American voters, no matter where they work, and you're telling people that they don't matter, and that is antithetical to our democracy and just not consistent with what we believe in at NAPPAC, Michael.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And really the whole reason, Adam, that we created the Facts About PACs podcast uh to talk about these issues. We've um we've spent a lot of time in the last four to five weeks reaching out to the media, to various organizations to tell our side of the story. And unfortunately, not very many want to hear that side, but um, we can do that right here on the Facts About Packs podcast, and we will continue to do that and to defend the business pack community.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's how we ended up being the number one pack podcast in America, Michaela.
SPEAKER_00That's right, Adam. Well, thanks for putting the Facts About PAX podcast on your listen list. And if you haven't already, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your ear candy. Coming up next time, the woman behind the curtain of the NABPAC legal help hotline, Carol Laham from Wiley. And then coming up on February 18th, we explore the outreach and educational work of Association PACs on national policy issues like transportation and infrastructure with new NABPAC board member Ashley Jackson from the National Asphavement Association. So until then, stay safe, stay engaged, and keep moving forward.
