Four Democrats took the FCC’s Media Bureau to federal court this week, arguing a March guidance document unlawfully extended discounted political advertising rates beyond what Congress authorized, potentially affecting how broadcast stations price political inventory.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, Michigan Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, and former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper filed a petition for review in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday, challenging the Bureau’s March 30 Public Notice.
The guidance, issued as a pre-election reminder to broadcasters, held that lowest unit charge requirements extend to two categories of political committees beyond individual candidates: authorized committees engaged in joint fundraising with legally qualified candidates, and advertisements qualifying as coordinated expenditures between political parties and candidates. The Bureau framed the notice as resolving an issue that had divided broadcasters and political advertisers in recent cycles, and noted it was the first time the FCC had provided formal guidance on the question.
The petitioners argue the guidance exceeds statutory authority. The Communications Act conditions lowest unit charge eligibility on “use” of a broadcast station by “a legally qualified candidate,” and the petition contends that neither party committees making coordinated expenditures nor joint fundraising committees with mixed candidate and non-candidate membership meet that threshold.
Extending the rate to party-coordinated advertising, the filing argues, would render those expenditures unlawful contributions under federal campaign finance law. Joint fundraising committees with non-candidate members similarly cannot qualify, the petitioners contend, because a portion of the advertising cost is borne by entities the statute does not cover.
The challenge also invokes the FCC’s own regulations, which restrict the lowest unit charge to “any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office.”
While both parties use JFCs, the partisan composition of the filing is more straightforwardly explained by the coordinated expenditure prong than the JFC question. Coordinated party expenditures, or advertising purchased by a political party in direct coordination with a candidate, have historically favored Republicans, who have repeatedly pushed to expand or eliminate the limits on that spending.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee brought a federal lawsuit as recently as 2022, challenging those limits on First Amendment grounds. Extending the lowest unit charge to coordinated expenditure advertising reduces the cost of a tool Republicans have invested more heavily in defending and expanding. The petitioners’ argument, if successful, would deny that rate benefit regardless of which party purchases the advertising.
If the guidance stands, stations must honor the lowest unit charge rates for the broader set of committees the Bureau identified. If the Fourth Circuit agrees with the petitioners that the guidance exceeded the Bureau’s authority, stations would have a narrower set of buyers legally entitled to reduced rates.
The FCC has not publicly responded to the petition.
