Earlier this year Sen. Charles Schumer (NY) introduced a campaign finance reform bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, which included language expanding current lowest unit charge (LUC) regulations. The LUC rules guarantee political candidates the lowest advertising rate for broadcast airtime during a defined period leading up to primary and general elections.

The National Association of Broadcasters is strongly opposed to changing LUC regulations. Further expanding LUC would penalize small business advertisers and crowd out state and local candidates who are not entitled to the same right to access enjoyed by fed¬eral candidates.

NAB's advocacy team has been extremely active on Capitol Hill, educating members of Congress and congressional leadership on the detrimental effects this expansion could have on local television and radio stations. The team successfully ensured that this LUC language did not appear in the DISCLOSE Act legislation passed by the House of Representatives. In addition, NAB's advocacy efforts helped to ensure that the LUC language that appeared in the original Senate bill was removed from the version of the legislation that was brought before the full Senate this week for a vote. During that vote, the bill failed to garner enough support to move forward.