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Policy Issues Inst

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FEC Unanimously Dismisses Conservative Complaint Against NPR

The ruling, which affirms that NPR is a news organization, comes as Trump pushes Congress to slash funding for the public broadcaster.

The victory comes at a critical juncture for NPR. Charles Dharapak/AP

By Dave Levinthal

April 22, 2025

The bipartisan Federal Election Commission has unanimously dismissed a complaint from conservative activists who alleged NPR is controlled by the Democratic Party and “clearly and unmistakably” advocated for 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

The 4-0 ruling, released Monday evening, affirms what the FEC has previously established: that NPR is a legitimate news organization exempt from election laws governing political committees and candidates.

This victory comes at a critical juncture for NPR, as President Donald Trump wants Congress to slash more than $1 billion in federal support for public broadcasting. Trump this month accused NPR of publishing and broadcasting “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news’” while harboring “zero tolerance for non-leftist viewpoints.”

Much of the October complaint from two conservative organizations — the United States Justice Foundation and the Policy Issues Institute — centered on whether NPR is entitled to a federal “press exemption,” which shields news organizations with a track record of producing journalism from federal campaign finance law enforcement actions.

The conservative groups argued that NPR does not meet “press exemption” standards because it “does not operate like a typical news organization.” They cited criticism of NPR’s standards by former NPR business editor Uri Berliner and President and CEO Katherine Maher’s pre-NPR history of donating small amounts of money to Democrats before she took over the news organization. They also submitted a 53-page report entitled “NPR Exposes: Why NPR Fails FEC Press Exemption” that lists numerous examples of alleged coverage bias.

But the FEC’s general counsel concluded that NPR “appears to have been acting within its legitimate press function and thus its activities are protected by the press exemption.”

The FEC’s four commissioners — Republicans Trey Trainor and Allen Dickerson and Democrats Shana Broussard and Dara Lindenbaum — officially voted to dismiss the complaint on February 24.

NPR representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But NPR attorneys Michael Bopp and Matthew McGill argued in a November letter to the FEC that “NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization” and “is in no way controlled by any political party, political committee, or candidate.”

The attorneys further asserted that it is “entirely incorrect” for the conservative activists to allege that the Democratic Party “exercises control” over NPR.

“Any further inquiry is not only unwarranted, but would also waste the Commission’s valuable resources and intrude on NPR’s own First Amendment rights,” Bopp and McGill wrote.

The FEC previously affirmed in a 2017 complaint against NPR and then-host Audie Cornish that NPR is a press entity entitled to the government’s press exemption.

United States Justice Foundation President Jim Lacy told NOTUS on Tuesday that his organization does not intend to drop the matter and will now look to sue NPR in federal court.

“Was the FEC ruling fair? No, but it was expected, and it does not preclude our continuing the case to get to the bottom of illegal coordination,” Lacy said. “So the case continues … our focus will be on the discovery tools the process offers to uncover the facts of illegal coordination between Democratic Party officials and NPR.”

Dave Levinthalis a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist.

MY NEW HERO:

https://drowndinginmail.wordpress.com/tag/superpac/page/8/

junkmail

Drowning in Junk Mail

feel like I have been chasing Floyd Brown and his “Band of Merry Men” all over the internet. Read about that here and here. Policy Issues Institute does not have a website. White House Watch (A project of Policy Issues Institute) had a website but it is now dead. Impeach Obama Campaign has a website but no contact info. Every project of Policy Issues Institute has a different PO Box. I need to find the physical address.

....

Their Mailing address is:

Law Offices Of Maureen E. Otis, PC

4850 Wright Rd Site 168

STAFFORD TX 77477

But their street address is:

Civic Center Plaza

30011 Ivy Glenn Drive

Suite 223

Laguna Niguel, California 92677

But how is this law office connected to Policy Issues Institute (PII)? There are 14 companies that are listed at this address:

They are all run by Floyd Brown, James Lacy and few friends. James Lacy is listed as the Registered Agent for Policy Issues Institute, and his email address is at the top of the  Wewer & Lacy LLC website, so I sent a note to his work email. Now I am not so high and mighty as to think that a big fancy lawer with an office in ritzy Laguna Niguel would answer my email himself, he tossed it to a lackey in the office (probably some poor kid with a brand new law degree and a mountain of student loan debt) who wrote me a nice note saying that I would be off the mailing list that day. He then passed it on to someone at Policy Issues Institute who would delete me from their mailing list.

Charity Navigator page, Citizen Auditpage

An article from The Intelligencer, Wheeling News Register from West Virginia, about junk mail aimed at seniors that mentions our friends at Policy Issues Institute.

Los Angeles Times article about how Policy Issues Institute sells it’s self out to PACs so they can use Policy Issues Institute’s lower postal rate.

here are all the projects of Policy Issues Institute (PII):

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ref LAT

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/feb/24/local/me-slates24

=

The State

Sending Out Campaign Mail at a Discount

A nonprofit that sells access to its lower cost postal permit is acting legally, an official says.

February 24, 2003|Nicholas Riccardi | Times Staff

An obscure nonprofit group is transforming the way campaign mail is sent to California voters by selling access to its discount mail permit.

By sending campaign brochures through the Policy Issues Institute in Irvine, political consultants save 15% to 20% on mailing costs because of discounts the U.S. Postal Service gives to nonprofits, according to a solicitation sent out by the institute's paid marketer and political mail guru Bill Butcher. Financial records released by the institute show that those savings were significant enough that consultants paid $2.3 million to the institute for such purposes during last year's elections.

So far, the institute has been used only by consultants who sell endorsements to political campaigns for tens of thousands of dollars, then flood mailboxes with fliers urging a vote for their candidates or causes. Bearing the title of the institute, millions of these fliers, called slate mailers, reached California voters' mailboxes in November.

To satisfy federal requirements that 25% of each mailer address the nonprofit's issues, the pamphlets had a page on policy matters. The remaining space was devoted to endorsements of candidates, who ranged from contenders for judgeships to Gov. Gray Davis and his Republican challenger, Bill Simon Jr.

Though the practice deprives the Postal Service of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, officials there say it appears to be legal. Scott Jones, manager of business mail for the Santa Ana post office, said that IRS-approved nonprofits whose mailings meet basic standards, such as the 25% content minimum, can do what they want to.

"If they meet these various criteria they can have pretty much any advertising in there," he said.

Attorney and Dana Point City Councilman James Lacy, who founded the institute in 2001, said the mailings are a means of including policy discussion in campaigns. "We try to elevate the campaign season by injecting some words about a policy issue," he said.

And "this does enable organizations ... to take advantage of a lower overall cost," he added. "Doing so is totally consistent with the 1st Amendment, the IRS requirements and U.S. postal regulations."

The institute sponsored two Orange County City Council debates last year, Lacy said, but its primary purpose is the mailers. Technically, the fliers are newsletters from the nonprofit in which most of the space is turned over to a single advertiser -- a political consultant. The consultant decides who gets the mailer and when it goes out.

Some consultants are troubled by the novel approach. "I'm sure that this policy issues group is following the letter of the law, but I'm sure it's not the spirit of it," said Sacramento consultant Natalie Blanning, whose firm publishes a mailer for a group called the Nonpartisan Candidate Evaluation Committee. Her company rejected Butcher's pitch to send its pieces through the Policy Issues Institute.

Others argue that the innovation could reduce the cost of sending campaign mail enough to tamp down the escalating price of electioneering. "Hopefully this will be the start of a trend where campaigns can get their messages out for less money," said Bob Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. "The post office is already making a bundle of money from political mailing."

The Democratic and Republican parties -- and, through them, their nominees -- already have access to discount postal rates. The use of nonprofits for slate mail helps level the field for all other political players, some argue.

It's been profitable for all concerned, except the post office.

Lacy was paid $60,000 by the institute last year, and its marketer, Butcher, received $97,000, according to the financial records. And consultants who work in the burgeoning multimillion-dollar slate mail industry keep more of their fees as they spend less on the mailings.

The obscure slate industry is a lucrative business. Last year, campaigns paid Larry Levine, a Studio City consultant who publishes one of the state's largest slate mailers, $1.2 million to get into his Voter Information Guide, according to campaign records. Levine's company kept $306,000 and sent $732,000 to the Policy Issues Institute. The rest went to other costs.

Consultants say the idea of using a nonprofit for political mail has been discussed for years, but no one undertook it until the letter went out last year from Butcher, a pioneer in the direct mail industry who has earned millions of dollars soliciting donations for groups like the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn.

Butcher told consultants that the institute could be used by any type of political campaign and could work with most vendors in the political mail industry. "You will have complete responsibility for providing all the advertising content," his letter pledged.

Butcher did not return a call for comment.