Elisa Hyder AmGov Benchmark: Federal Election Campaign Act

I chose the Federal Election Campaign Act for my bill because I had already done some research for it with my lobbying topic assignment. From that research, I knew that the bill was changed multiple times because of a variety of outside influences, so I figured there would be plenty of information to get for my project. As you can probably tell by my 11-minute video, there was indeed plenty of information to cover. I thought that a video would be the best format because I just didn't see a prezi or presentation providing a proper explanation. With topics like this, the best way for me to get the facts out, is if I verbally discuss it. Of course, visual aids would be necessary too. So, a video it was. 

When I started my project, I didn't realize just how much was done to the bill over the decades, and its history started a lot earlier than I thought as well. I had to do a lot of research to figure out all the big and all the really small changes and amendments of the bill. This took more time than I thought it would, and it was little hard to understand some of the court decisions as well. Figuring out the "why" was really the hardest part. But, I was able to figure it out the best I could and managed to put it all into words for my video. If I could do my project differently though, I would make the most changes to my video itself. It's a little dry. Because of problems with my audio, I had to keep re-recording it, and I didn't have time to really put in music or anything like that. Plus, I wanted the slides to be a little bit more animated. I didn't have time for that kind of stuff. Also, it is a longer video than I intended. I probably could have summed up my court cases and my reflection at the end a little better and more concise. Well, at least my viewers will get the information. 

I understood the basics to how a bill became a law, but (especially in my particularly bill) I didn't realize just how much the Supreme Court can play a part in appealing and causing amendments to the laws. I knew about the public opinion aspect and how the political air of the time had a major impact on the laws of the time, and this was definitely true in my law. So, I kind of figured that with this particular law it probably wasn't easy because there would be plenty of people who want to twist their money around in politics. I didn't think they would so much legal standing to just make things difficult for Congress though. 

http://www.academicamerican.com/progressive/topics/progressive.html

http://www.campaignfreedom.org/blog/ID.124/blog_detail.asp

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/11/news/companies/supreme_court_citizens_united.fortune/

http://www.enotes.com/major-acts-congress/federal-election-campaign-act

http://www.govexec.com/basics/hatchact.htm

http://thisnation.com/question/004.html  

http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/millionaire.shtml

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2008/2008_08_205

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2006/2006_06_969

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2003/2003_02_1674

http://www.oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2007/2007_07_320

http://www.fec.gov/law/litigation_CCA_M.shtml

http://www.fec.gov/info/appfour.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/

http://electionlawblog.org/archives/000520.html