Note: This article about ASA-PAC refers to the ASA National PAC. ASA California has a separate Political Action Committee and does its own solicitations, (including the $50.00 voluntary line item on your membership invoice), under different rules.
The rules governing political action committees are extremely complicated. Who can be asked for contributions? Who can give? How much can one give? Add the differences between federal and state rules, and one’s head begins to spin. But there is one simple thing that can be done to help further ASA’s national political efforts — fill out a prior approval form for the ASA-Political Action Committee (ASA-PAC).
The rules governing political action committees are extremely complicated. Who can be asked for contributions? Who can give? How much can one give? Add the differences between federal and state rules, and one’s head begins to spin. But there is one simple thing that can be done to help further ASA’s national political efforts — fill out a prior approval form for the ASA-Political Action Committee (ASA-PAC).
Federal law requires ASA to obtain signed prior approvals from members prior to soliciting them for contributions to the ASA-PAC. The prior approval forms merely give the ASA-PAC permission to request a contribution; they do not obligate the signators to make contributions. If the signators then decide to donate, the ASA-PAC uses donated funds to make contributions to candidates for federal office.
The Federal Election Commission has set a few simple rules to follow in collecting prior approval forms:
The Federal Election Commission has set a few simple rules to follow in collecting prior approval forms:
- A company may only give prior approval to one trade association PAC per year. A firm may alternate authorizations between trade associations, but may not allow solicitations from multiple trade associations in a given year. This does not preclude a firm from soliciting contributions for its own political action committee or a state-level political action committee.
- The individual signing the prior approval must have the authority to make such approvals on the company’s behalf (i.e., president, CEO, COO, etc.).
- Prior approval must be given each year, but can be given for up to four years in advance. This means that the company’s representative must sign the form four times in order to authorize ASA-PAC to solicit its employees for four years.
- Prior approvals expire on Dec. 31 of each year, so companies must sign new forms before that date in order to continue receiving solicitations from the ASA-PAC.
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