FECA Amendments Enable Corporate PAC Formation, Triggering 1,600% Growth

Congress enacts amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), legitimizing the role of corporations and business-related groups in federal elections and inadvertently triggering explosive growth in corporate political action committees that fundamentally shifts campaign finance in favor of business interests. While framed as campaign reform following Watergate, the amendments create the legal framework enabling corporations, trade associations, and labor unions to form PACs, with dramatic asymmetric results - corporate PACs grow by 1,600 percent over the following years while labor PACs grow only 88 percent. The legislation, passed just three years after the Powell Memo’s call for aggressive corporate political engagement, provides the legal mechanism for systematic corporate influence over elections. From only 608 total PACs in 1976, the number explodes to over 2,500 by 1982, dominated by corporate interests. Congress creates the Federal Election Commission in 1975 to enforce FECA compliance, institutionalizing corporate PAC infrastructure. This represents the legislative dimension of Powell Memo implementation, complementing think tank development (Heritage 1973), state legislative coordination (ALEC 1973), CEO coordination (Business Roundtable 1972), and lobbying expansion (175 to 2,500 firms 1971-1982). The FECA amendments demonstrate how “reform” legislation can be shaped to advance corporate power under the guise of transparency and accountability.