On March 7, 2018, ABC was part of a coalition that sent a letter to congressional appropriators asking them to include language in the omnibus spending bill that defunds the enforcement of the “prior authorization” requirement for trade association Political Action Committees (PACs). 

Currently, Federal Election Commission regulations require a corporate member company of ABC to provide ABC PAC with prior authorization before any individual can contribute or be solicited to contribute to the PAC. In the letter, the Prior Approval Reform Coalition argues that the requirement is discriminatory “by making [association] PACs the only political committees that must first obtain exclusive permission from member corporations before soliciting eligible employees for support.”

Earlier this Congress, Representative Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) introduced the Prior Approval Reform Act, H.R. 2101, to repeal the prior approval requirement for corporate member trade association PACs.