Federal campaign finance law emphasizes limits on contributions, restrictions on funding sources, and public disclosure of information about fundraising and spending. These goals and others are embodied in the 1971 Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which remains the cornerstone of the nation's campaign finance law. Major FECA amendments (in 1974, 1976, and 1979) expanded the presidential public-financing system and placed limits on campaign contributions and expenditures. After these post-Watergate efforts to reduce the risk or appearance of corruption, campaign finance received relatively little legislative attention until the late 1990s. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002—also known as "BCRA" or "McCain-Feingold" for its principal Senate sponsors—constituted the first major change to the nation's campaign finance laws since 1979. Among other points, BCRA banned large corporate and union donations to political parties (soft money) in federal elections and restricted certain political advertising preceding elections (electioneering communications). Much of the policy activity since that time has emphasized implementing BCRA, particularly at the FEC and in the courts. Due to the loss of its quorum between January and June 2008, the FEC was unable to execute some of its core functions, including rulemaking to implement campaign finance law. On June 24, 2008, the Senate confirmed five nominations to the agency. Together with a sixth commissioner who continues to serve in holdover status, the FEC is now back at full strength. The new Commission held its first open meeting on July 10, 2008. At that meeting, Donald McGahn was unanimously elected chairman. Steven Walther was unanimously elected vice chairman. Pending issues facing the Commission include rulemaking to implement portions of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (HLOGA, discussed later in this report), pending enforcement cases and advisory opinion requests, and administering the presidential public campaign financing program. The Commission may also need to respond to ongoing litigation surrounding BCRA. During the first session of the 110 th Congress, the Senate considered four nominations—those of Robert D. Lenhard (D), David M. Mason (R), Steven T. Walther (D), and Hans A. von Spakovsky (R)—to the six-seat FEC. Mason originally began serving at the Commission in 1998 and had been re-nominated. Lenhard, Walther, and von Spakovsky were serving in recess-appointments at the agency. Amid controversy surrounding the von Spakovsky nomination in particular, and over whether the nominations should be considered separately or as a group, the Senate declined to confirm or reject any of the nominations. The three recess appointees' terms subsequently expired at the end of the first session of the 110 th Congress, leaving the agency with just two sitting commissioners (Mason (R) and Ellen L. Weintraub (D)). The stalemate over FEC nominations continued with few developments between January and April of 2008. In April, Lenhard requested that his nomination be withdrawn. In May 2008, in addition to withdrawing Lenhard's nomination, President Bush withdrew the Mason and von Spakovsky nominations. This series of events left the Walther nomination pending and Weintraub in holdover status. Also in April 2008, the President nominated Cynthia L. Bauerly (D), Caroline C. Hunter (R), and Donald F. McGahn II (R) to the Commission. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a confirmation hearing on the Bauerly, Hunter, and McGahn nominations on May 21, 2008. The committee favorably reported all three nominations on May 22, 2008. Also on May 22, the White House announced the President's intention to nominate Matthew S. Petersen (R) to the Commission. The Rules and Administration Committee did not hold a confirmation hearing on Petersen (a staffer on the committee). On June 24, 2008, the Senate confirmed Bauerly, Hunter, McGahn, Petersen, and Walther. The five new commissioners joined Ellen Weintraub, who continues to serve at the FEC in holdover status. McGahn was elected the Commission's chairman. Between January and June 2008, the FEC's operating status was significant because, under FECA, at least four Commissioners must vote affirmatively to approve, among other things, agency rules, enforcement decisions, and advisory opinions. The Commission also could not implement legislation without at least four Commissioners in office. Legislative activity regarding campaign finance has occurred on two fronts during the 110 th Congress. First, and most notably, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act (HLOGA) contains some campaign finance provisions, but the law is primarily devoted to lobbying and ethics. HLOGA and the AFP extension were the only legislation changing campaign financing policy to become law during the 110 th Congress. Second, various other bills that emphasize campaign finance have been the subject of committee or floor action, but none have become law. Overall, approximately 50 bills that would affect campaign finance policy have been introduced in the 110 th Congress. The following discussion provides additional details on campaign finance bills that have been the subject of committee action or floor votes during the 110 th Congress. S. 1 , which became P.L. 110-81 on September 14, 2007, contains two significant campaign finance provisions: one related to bundling and another related to travel aboard private aircraft. Both were seen as sources of potential abuse in the past. The law also prohibits Member attendance at presidential convention events in their honor if registered lobbyists or "private entit[ies]" that hire lobbyists pay for the events. It also requires additional disclosure about lobbyists' contributions (exceeding $200) to political committees, presidential inaugural committees, and presidential libraries. FEC rulemaking (discussed below) is required to implement the bundling and campaign travel portions of HLOGA (sections 204 and 601 respectively). Although the travel section took effect upon the bill's enactment, the FEC in late 2007 adopted rules providing its interpretation of the law. HLOGA requires the FEC to promulgate regulations implementing the bundling provision within six months of enactment (March 14, 2008), although the lack of a quorum prevented the agency from doing so. "Bundling" refers to a campaign fundraising practice in which an intermediary—often a lobbyist—either receives contributions and passes them to a campaign or is credited with soliciting contributions that a campaign receives directly. Before HLOGA became law, although FEC regulations on "earmarked" contributions technically restricted bundling, they were viewed as largely inapplicable to designated campaign fundraisers, including certain lobbyists. In response, HLOGA requires disclosure of bundling activities by registered lobbyists. Specifically, political committees (candidate committees, party committees, and PACs) must report to the FEC the name, address, and employer of each Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA)-registered lobbyist "reasonably known" to have made at least two bundled contributions totaling more than $15,000 during specified six-month reporting periods. HLOGA only requires disclosure of bundling by registered lobbyists—not other fundraisers. Therefore, HLOGA will provide more transparency than was previously available about which lobbyists arrange bundled contributions. However, it does not mandate disclosure of bundled contributions that do not meet the time and monetary thresholds discussed above or require information about bundling by non-lobbyists. The FEC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on the bundling issue on October 30, 2007. Most notably, and consistent with HLOGA, the FEC's proposed rules would require political committees to report bundled contributions if the same source arranged or was credited with arranging two or more contributions totaling at least $15,000 during a six-month period. (The FEC also solicited comments about an alternative proposal for quarterly reporting.) The proposed rules would also add the term "lobbyist/registrant PACs"—those committees "established or controlled" by registered lobbyists—to existing examples of political committees subject to FECA regulation and bundling disclosure. Despite some specificity, the NPRM did not address how all reporting issues would be resolved. Rather, throughout the document, the Commission posed several questions about a range of issues, such as how widely disclosure requirements should apply and how committees should determine whether contributions were bundled. Parts of the NPRM suggested that bundling disclosure could apply beyond lobbyists per se. Specifically, the FEC asked whether Congress intended for bundling disclosure to apply only to contributions arranged by registered lobbyists (who would be known as "lobbyist/registrants" under proposed rules), or also to fundraising by other actors. The latter could include non-lobbyist employees at lobbying organizations or hosts of fundraisers at which bundling occurs. Several interested parties, including Members of Congress, submitted comments responding to the NPRM. A September 17, 2008, FEC hearing explored many of the issues raised in the NPRM. In particular, discussion and debate among Commissioners and witnesses (election lawyers and interest-group representatives) addressed how bundling activities should be reported to the FEC, which activities should be reported, and how fundraising should be reported if several individuals are involved in fundraising at a single event. The FEC has yet to announce final bundling rules. As noted previously, HLOGA requires the FEC to issue bundling rules within six months of the law's enactment (the relevant deadline would have been March 14, 2008). However, the agency was unable to act between January and June 2008 due to the loss of its quorum. On July 28, 2008, FEC Chairman Donald F. McGahn reportedly stated that bundling regulations could not realistically be promulgated in time to affect the 2008 elections. If it chose to do so, Congress could legislate bundling-disclosure details that would normally be left to the FEC.