FCC again signals no plan to require political ads to name top donors

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler again signaled his agency is not focusing on a Democratic push that would require some political ads to name the top donors behind them.

Wheeler, instead, pointed to another FCC proposal that would expand an online database that includes information about political advertising buys around the country. 

{mosads}”Currently, the commission is concentrating its resources on a proceeding to expand the online file requirements to cable operators, satellite TV providers, broadcast radio licensees, and satellite radio licensees,” Wheeler wrote in a letter to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who has pushed for increased disclosure in political ads. 

“The expanded rules, if adopted, will bring sunlight to political advertising, ensuring that the public has access to the political files of all broadcasters and [satellite and cable companies], not just television broadcasters,” Wheeler added. 

The letter sent earlier this month was published Thursday night. 

Nelson and a group of Democrats have pushed for the commission to update its sponsorship rules to require super-PACs and other outside groups to include the names of major donors at the end of television and radio ads. They argue that the true sponsors of ads are currently allowed to hide behind generic-sounding organizations who purchase the airtime. 

But the FCC has previously signaled it has no intention of taking up the change on its own, which would undoubtably set off a partisan fight. Wheeler noted he would continue to track Nelson’s legislation, which stands no chance of passage in a GOP controlled Congress. 

In December, Wheeler published a notice of proposed rule making on the separate issue of expanding the online database. A 2012 rule forced television broadcasters to post information on an online FCC database detailing the size of ad buys and the name of the group who sponsored them. Those files had previously only been available in hard copy at broadcast stations. 

The December proposal would require cable, satellite and radio companies to post online information about political ad buys as well. The rule would bring those companies in line with broadcast television stations.

Comments and replies on the measure ended in April.