Four candidates fighting the FCC over discounted political ad rates won at a federal appeals court in August, only to have the Supreme Court tell them to let the FCC finish its review first. Now the agency is doing just that, opening a short comment window this week.
The Media Bureau’s notice sets a 10-day window as of September 15, with comments due September 25 and replies due September 30, far shorter than the agency’s typical 30-day process. Both the Fourth Circuit opinion and Commissioner Anna Gomez criticized the Bureau for acting on the guidance and the Application for Review without ever seeking public input.
The dispute centers on the FCC’s lowest unit charge rule, which lets candidates buy political ads at the cheapest rate a station offers any advertiser in the run-up to an election. A March 30 guidance document from the FCC’s Media Bureau, DA 26-300, said that discount also applies to political party committees making coordinated expenditures with candidates and to joint fundraising committees that include non-candidate members.
Four candidates, Sen. Sherrod Brown, Sen. Jon Ossoff, former Gov. Roy Cooper and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, filed an Application for Review in April arguing the guidance conflicts with the Communications Act, which they say limits the discount to candidates alone. Extending it to party committees and joint fundraising groups, they argued, would let Republican-aligned committees buy more attack ads against them at lower cost in several of this cycle’s most competitive Senate and House races.
That fight moved to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in June, and on August 25 a divided panel ruled it had jurisdiction and set aside the FCC’s guidance. The win didn’t last. On September 4, the Supreme Court stayed that ruling, finding the candidates should have waited for the FCC to resolve their Application for Review before heading to court.
