BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2525

By: Smith, Todd

Elections

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Currently, corporations are prohibited from making a political contribution or a political expenditure that is not specifically authorized. A violation of the law is a felony of the third degree.  Current law provides that certain expenditures made to finance administrative functions of a general-purpose committee are not violations of this law.

C.S.H.B. 2525 clarifies the authorized types of corporate expenditures for a general-purpose committee and clarifies the prohibited types of corporate and labor organization expenditures for a general-purpose committee. The bill authorizes the Texas Ethics Commission to consider relevant federal election laws and opinions for guidance in issuing an advisory opinion relating to a political expenditure by a corporation or a labor organization.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2525 amends the Election Code to authorize a corporation to make an expenditure for the maintenance and operation of a general-purpose political committee, in addition to any other expenditure that is considered permissible under Texas election laws, and provides examples of expenditures included in this authorization.  The bill prohibits a corporation or labor organization from making expenditures for political consulting to support or oppose a candidate; telephoning or telephone banks to communicate with the public; brochures and direct mail supporting or opposing a candidate; partisan voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives; political fund-raising; voter identification efforts, voter lists, or voter databases that include persons other than its stockholders or members, as applicable, or the families of its stockholders or members; polling designed to support or oppose a candidate other than of its stockholders or members or the families of its stockholders or members; or recruiting candidates.  The bill exempts from this prohibition a corporation or labor organization making an expenditure to communicate with its stockholders or members or with the families of its stockholders or members.

C.S.H.B. 2525 amends the Government Code to authorize the Texas Ethics Commission to consider relevant federal election laws and opinions for guidance in issuing an advisory opinion determining whether a political expenditure by a corporation or labor organization is for the establishment or administration of a general-purpose committee.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the act does not receive the necessary vote, the act takes effect September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2525 differs from the original, in specifying permissible corporate expenditures for the maintenance and operation of a general-purpose committee, by allowing an expenditure for office space maintenance and repairs, rather than for office space itself as in the original. The substitute differs by authorizing an expenditure for telephone or Internet services, whereas the original authorizes an expenditure for telephones. The substitute differs by specifying salaries for routine clerical assistance, rather than just clerical assistance as in the original, and by adding salaries for data entry, and by adding a provision making an expenditure allowable for salaries for routine clerical assistance, data entry, and administrative assistance allowable when necessary for the proper administrative operation of the committee.  The substitute adds an expenditure for management and supervision of the committee and an expenditure for expenses incurred in hosting candidate forums in which all candidates for a particular office in an election are invited to participate on the same terms.

C.S.H.B. 2525 differs from the original by adding that a corporation's or labor organization's prohibited expenditures include expenditures not only for telephone banks, as in the original, but also other telephoning, and differs by referring to telephoning and telephone banks to communicate with the public, rather than to communicate with voters to support or oppose a candidate.  The substitute differs from the original, in the prohibition relating to voter identification efforts, voter lists, and voter databases, by adding a specification referring to efforts, lists and databases that include persons other than the corporation's stockholders, the labor organization's members, or the families of such stockholders or members. The substitute differs from the original, with respect to the prohibition on expenditures for polling designed to support or oppose a candidate, by limiting the applicability of the prohibition to a candidate other than of the stockholders or members or the families of the stockholders or members.