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Are Comcast NBCUniversal corporate PAC contributions and lobbying expenditures publicly disclosed and where to find them?
Executive summary
Comcast says “all contributions are publicly disclosed as required by law,” and the company posts periodic disclosure PDFs of PAC giving (examples: 2020–2022 reports) while federal-level filings for the Comcast Corporation & NBCUniversal Political Action Committee (FEC ID C00248716) are available on the Federal Election Commission website and mirrored by trackers like OpenSecrets and ProPublica [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. Independent reporting over time has used those public filings to document the PAC’s giving patterns, including substantial contributions tied to legislative reviews of Comcast deals [6] [7].
1. Where Comcast itself says disclosures live — company policy and PDF reports
Comcast’s own statement on political activity declares that “all contributions are publicly disclosed as required by law” and describes employee-funded PACs sponsored by Comcast and NBCUniversal; the company also publishes periodic public-disclosure PDFs listing PAC contributions (for example, stand-alone January–June 2021 and 2022 contribution lists and mid/annual disclosure PDFs) that itemize committees and dollar amounts [1] [2] [8] [9]. These Comcast-hosted PDFs are a primary, company-provided way to find their self-reported PAC donations [2] [8].
2. Federal filings: FEC is the authoritative public record for the Comcast/NBCUniversal federal PAC
The Federal Election Commission’s committee page for “COMCAST CORPORATION & NBCUNIVERSAL POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE” (FEC ID C00248716) is the authoritative federal filing hub where you can view registration details, contribution and disbursement data, and periodic reports for the PAC [3]. Independent data services and news projects ingest FEC data so researchers commonly use the FEC page first, then cross-check via aggregators [3] [5].
3. Public aggregators and investigative tools that make the filings easier to use
OpenSecrets maintains a PAC profile based on FEC releases and is frequently cited for summarizing donations to federal candidates (OpenSecrets notes its data are “based on data released by the Federal Election Commission”) [4]. ProPublica’s FEC Itemizer also provides browsable PAC donation records drawn from FEC filings, which many reporters and researchers use for quicker searching and visualization [5]. FollowTheMoney and LittleSis are alternative trackers for state, local, and network-context data [10] [11].
4. What the public records reveal — examples and journalistic use
Reporting has used those public records to document Comcast PAC patterns: Roll Call reported amounts the PAC gave in a month and cash-on-hand figures using PAC filings [7]. Ars Technica cited compiled contribution totals to senators and House members during merger reviews, noting specific dollar totals to subcommittees and congressional members as drawn from public datasets [6]. Those stories show how reporters combine FEC data and PAC disclosures to analyze influence around regulatory reviews and mergers [7] [6].
5. Limits and gaps to be aware of in the public record
Available sources do not provide a single consolidated “lobbying expenditure” ledger for Comcast in the same place as PAC disbursements. Comcast’s statement and PAC PDFs cover contributions, while federal PAC activity is detailed at the FEC; separate lobbying expenditures — e.g., registered lobbying clients, lobbyist spending, or trade association dues used for advocacy — are tracked in other registries like the Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings or company SEC/EDGAR filings, but those specific lobbying-disclosure links are not included in the current source list provided here [1] [12]. In short: PAC contributions are clearly disclosed and easy to find via Comcast PDFs and FEC/aggregator pages [2] [3] [5], but detailed lobbying spending requires consulting lobbying disclosure registries and SEC/EDGAR filings — items not supplied in the results above [12].
6. Practical next steps to find the records yourself
Start with Comcast’s political activity statement and the company’s published disclosure PDFs for recent years to see itemized PAC giving [1] [2] [8] [9]. For federal-level filings search the FEC committee page for FEC ID C00248716 to retrieve periodic reports and raw schedules [3]. Use OpenSecrets and ProPublica’s FEC Itemizer to query and summarize contributions by candidate, date, or cycle [4] [5]. For lobbying expenditures specifically, consult lobbying disclosure registries and Comcast’s SEC filings (EDGAR) — Comcast points users to its SEC/EDGAR page for corporate filings [12], though those specific lobbying registry links are not in the provided sources.
Conclusion: The PAC side of Comcast/NBCUniversal’s political spending is publicly disclosed and accessible via Comcast’s PDFs, the FEC, and major aggregators; locating formal lobbying-expenditure records will require checking lobbying disclosure registries and SEC/EDGAR filings in addition to the PAC materials cited here [1] [2] [3] [5] [12].