FEC won’t enforce ‘Millionaire’ rule

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced Friday that it will no longer enforce the Millionaire’s Amendment, which provided opponents of self-funding candidates with the ability to raise money above regular limits.

The FEC’s decision follows a Supreme Court ruling last month striking down the provision, and it applies to both House and Senate races.

{mosads}The Supreme Court specifically struck down the House version of the rule, but the FEC decided to nix the Senate version as well.

“The Court’s analysis in [the ruling] precludes enforcement of the House provision and effectively precludes enforcement of the Senate provision as well,” the FEC said in a release.

The FEC also said it would not require candidates who have used the rule to raise more from individuals to return that money, which had been another open question after the court’s decision.

The threshold for triggering the rule was $350,000 in the House and varied by state in the Senate.

All of the FEC’s decisions take effect retroactive to June 26, so opponents of self-funders are prohibited from having accepted the extra funds at any point over the last month.

The decision also prevents those opponents from accepting increased coordinated expenditures, which had been another benefit of the Millionaire’s Amendment.

The self-funding candidates will no longer have to file extra forms that state they are contributing money to their own campaigns or that they intend to in the future, but they will still have to report the contributions and loans on their regular financial reports.