Wiley Rein's Mark Renaud to Testify before Congress Regarding Draft Order on Political Contributions by Government Contractors

On May 12, Election Law & Government Ethics Practice partner Mark Renaud testified at a joint hearing of the House Committee on Small Business and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding a draft executive order that would require government contractors to report their political contributions. Prior to his testimony, Mr. Renaud told BNA's Money & Politics Report that "rules prohibiting contractor contributions have not been interpreted to cover payments to other organizations 'for general purposes.'" He indicated that "such contributions are restricted by current campaign finance rules and could be subject to legal challenge." Mr. Renaud referred to regulations and court rulings "which narrow the applicability of terms such as campaign 'contributions' and 'expenditures' to mean money spent for messages directly related to supporting or opposing specific candidates." He also said that the executive order "contains broadly inclusive terms that are not defined within the draft text," which was made public last month.

Video of the testimony is available here.