political action committee
17
4.4
- noun
- /pəˈlɪtɪkəl ˈækʃən kəˈmɪti/
- US
:
comité de acción política
- Only one legislator mentioned a political action committee.
- political action committee (PAC)
- political action committees (PACs)
Examples
-
Supreme Court, these independent political action committees can accept unlimited contributions from corporations, labor unions, and wealthy individuals.
Blog text (4) -
Former Navy SEAL and Republican Montana State Sen. Ryan Zinke has launched a political action committee, Special Operations for America.
Blog text (27) -
It's a political action committee.
-
The Colorado case may be the first step toward striking down spending limits for parties and political action committees.
Academic text (1996) -
Both parties expect the attack ads to increase as political action committees begin pushing ads on TV, radio, and direct mail.
Blog text (9) -
Margot Parker, director of the General Motors political action committee, says, "It's important that we be involved in the political process."
Academic text (2000) -
Women's political action committees like Emily's List helped elect more women to office.
Academic text (1999) -
Unions, by contrast, have donated about $60 million to super PACs from their treasuries or political action committees.
Blog text (18) -
Accordingly, it upheld FECA's limits on contributions to campaigns, parties, and political action committees (PACs).
Academic text (1998) -
The breast cancer coalition formed a political action committee and started tracking congressional votes.
Synonyms
42
5.6
A group set up to raise money to support political candidates or causes
How Influential
Surface Forms
Morphology
political + action + committee
A B1 learner who knows 'political' (relating to politics), 'action' (taking steps) and 'committee' (a group) can infer this is a committee that carries out political actions, so the general idea is recognizable. However, the precise institutional sense—an organized entity that raises and spends money to support candidates and causes (a formal, often legally defined body, especially in US politics)—is specialized and not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Political action committee comes from the idea of a committee, meaning a small organized group, that takes action in politics. These groups often collect money and give it to candidates, so the phrase now means 'a group formed to raise and spend money to support political candidates or causes'.