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      AO 2012-15: American Physical Therapy Association may use payroll deduction

FEC Record: Advisory opinionsAO 2012-15: American Physical Therapy Association may use payroll deductionJune 8, 2012 Corporations owned by members of the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) may provide payroll deduction to enable member-employees to contribute to the association’s political action committee, but APTA must pay the corporations in advance for
    their services. By paying corporations ahead of time for all costs incurred to administer payroll deductions, APTA’s planned fundraising model would not violate the prohibitions on making or accepting corporate contributions, nor would it violate the ban on corporate
    facilitation of contributions. **Background** APTA is a membership organization that represents physical therapists, physical therapy assistants and students who anticipate entering these fields. 11 CFR 114.1(e)(1). APTA also qualifies as a trade association, which is one kind of membership organization. 11 CFR114.8(a). It is the connected organization for the APTA Physical Therapy Political Action Committee (PT-PAC), the association’s separate segregated fund (SSF). Under the Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) and Commission regulations, membership organizations (including trade associations) may pay their SSFs’ administrative and solicitation costs, and may solicit voluntary contributions to their SSFs
    from their individual members. 11 CFR 114.5(b), 114.7(a). Trade associations may also, with prior approval, solicit voluntary contributions to their SSFs from the executives and stockholders of their member corporations. 11 CFR 114.8. APTA has no corporate members, but some of its individual members practice through corporations that they wholly or partly own. Some of those corporations employ other individuals who are also APTA members. APTA asks whether these member-owned corporations
    could provide payroll deduction as a means for member-employees to contribute to PT-PAC. The association or PT-PAC would pay in advance all of the corporations’ costs to administer the payroll deductions. **Analysis** The Act and Commission regulations prohibit corporations from making contributions in connection with a federal election. See 2 U.S.C. § 441b(a); 11 CFR 114.2(b)(1). In addition, Commission regulations prohibit corporations from facilitating the making
    of contributions to candidates or political committees, other than to the SSFs of the corporations themselves. See 11 CFR 114.2(f)(1). Neither APTA nor the member-owned corporations would violate these prohibitions by implementing the payroll deduction system as described.  As a membership organization, APTA may use any method to facilitate the making of voluntary individual contributions
    to its SSF. 11 CFR 114.7(f). Given that fact, if APTA or PT-PAC pays the corporations in advance for all of the administrative costs associated with the payroll deductions, no corporate resources will be used for fundraising, and no prohibited corporate
    facilitation or corporate contribution will occur. Additionally, in compliance with 2 U.S.C. § 441b(b)(6), APTA has indicated that participating corporations will provide payroll deduction at cost to any labor organization that represents their employees and requests the service. See also AO 1990-25 (Community Psychiatric). Date issued: May 24, 2012; 10 pages. **Resources:** Advisory opinion 2012-15 [PDF; 2 pages]
    Commission discussion of AOR 2012-15Audio File Icon
 Author
          Alex  Knott


Read next: AO 2012-12: Corporation may solicit affiliated individual franchisees for contributions to SSF
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This information is not intended to replace the law or to change its meaning, nor does this information create or confer any rights for or on any person or bind the Federal Election Commission or the public. The reader is encouraged also to consult the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (52 U.S.C. 30101 et seq.), Commission regulations (Title 11 of the Code of Federal Regulations), Commission advisory opinions and applicable court decisions.


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