	Background

Campaign-related activity by entities commonly referred to as 527 groups or 527s has increased over the past several election cycles. These groups are a subset of the political organizations that qualify for tax-exempt status under Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). Although these "issue advocacy" communications are widely viewed as intending to influence elections, some argue that they are not regulated—and cannot be constitutionally regulated—by the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) due to an interpretation of the Supreme Court's campaign finance law jurisprudence only permitting regulation of communications expressly advocating for the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate. IRC § 527 provides beneficial tax treatment to qualifying "political organizations." FEC Rule and Enforcement Action 18

In 2004, after considering but not adopting several approaches for classifying 527 groups as political committees under FECA, the FEC adopted a regulation relevant to political committees. Summary of Selected Legislation

In the 110 th Congress, the 527 Reform Act of 2007 ( H.R. 420 and S. 463 ) would have amended FECA to define "political committee" to include any committee, club, association, or group of persons that has given notice to the IRS of its status as a § 527 political organization. Legislation regulating 527 organizations has not yet been introduced in the 111 th Congress.
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 "political committees," and Section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), which provides tax-exempt status to "political organizations." Some groups that qualify for beneficial tax treatment as "political organizations" seemingly intend to influence federal elections in ways that may place them outside the FECA definition of "political committee." 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 "political committees" 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 "political committees." Similar legislation has not yet been introduced in the 111th Congress.