The act was amended again in 1976, in response to the provisions ruled unconstitutional by Buckley v. Valeo, including the structure of the FEC and the limits on campaign expenditures, and again in 1979 to allow parties to spend unlimited amounts of hard money on activities like increasing voter turnout and registration.
This in turn led to passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ("BCRA"), effective on January 1, 2003, which banned soft money expenditure by parties.
As early as 1905, Theodore Roosevelt argued in favor of campaign finance reform and called for a ban of corporate contributions for political purposes.
In 1970, President Nixon vetoed the Political Broadcast Act of 1970, a bill that aimed to establish laws regulating campaign spending on television and radio.
[3] President Nixon claimed that the Political Broadcast Act did not sufficiently limit campaign expenditures, noting that it "plugged only one hole in a sieve.
"[4] This bill was an attempt to regulate election spending, but despite having the necessary membership to override the veto, Senate Democrats did not pass the law without the President's signature.
The Act limited campaign expenditures for broadcast media, newspaper advertisement, and telephone calls to $0.10 per voter in the district they're running in when adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index.
[13] Promises of rewards or gifts were prohibited under FECA, meaning that a candidate for office could not offer employment or other benefits in exchange for donations or other forms of political aid.
The 1974 amendments also established an independent agency, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to enforce the law, facilitate disclosure and administer the public funding program.
The Citizens United ruling also struck down FECA's complete ban on corporate and union independent spending, originally passed as part of the Taft–Hartley Act in 1947.