December 23, 2015
FAST Act: Corp Fin Issues 4 More CDIs
On Monday, Corp Fin issued 4 more CDIs (#3-6) on the FAST Act, tripling the number issued so far…
SEC Rulemaking Petitions: Political Spending Rulemaking Not Happening (At Least Not Soon)
The recent omnibus spending bill from Congress (page 1982) contains a provision prohibiting the SEC from conducting rulemaking in the area of political contributions disclosures as I blogged last week on “The Mentor Blog.”
As noted in this blog by Steve Quinlivan, 28 Senators and 66 House reps then sent a letter to the SEC explaining that the agency is free to propose a rule to require disclosure of corporate political spending – so long as the SEC doesn’t finalize, issue or implement it. The letter is supported by an opinion from Professor John Coates. The upshot is that this means that the petition from Harvard’s Lucian Bebchuk – which has received over 1 million comments in support – is not going to be both proposed and adopted this year…
The prohibition is just for this budget year as this is a budget bill for the 2016 fiscal year. Section 707 of the bill provides: “[n]one of the funds made available by any division of this Act shall be used by the Securities and Exchange Commission to finalize, issue, or implement any rule, regulation, or order regarding the disclosure of political contributions, contributions to tax exempt organizations, or dues paid to trade associations.” So it seems that Congress would have to renew the prohibition next year (or do it differently) to make it permanent – as I read it. I think that’s why the letter talks about why the SEC is allowed to propose rules now and get the ball rolling. But I believe it could be done in the next fiscal year, so long as it doesn’t use FY 16 funds…
– Broc Romanek