diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/extras/cloud/amazon/ec2_asg_facts.py b/lib/ansible/modules/extras/cloud/amazon/ec2_asg_facts.py
index 857d0c20a0b..d6eb1dc6119 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/extras/cloud/amazon/ec2_asg_facts.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/extras/cloud/amazon/ec2_asg_facts.py
@@ -299,7 +299,11 @@ def find_asgs(conn, module, name=None, tags=None):
         module.fail_json(msg=e.message, **camel_dict_to_snake_dict(e.response))
 
     matched_asgs = []
-    name_prog = re.compile(r'^' + name)
+
+    if name is not None:
+        # if the user didn't specify a name
+        name_prog = re.compile(r'^' + name)
+
     for asg in asgs['AutoScalingGroups']:
         if name:
             matched_name = name_prog.search(asg['AutoScalingGroupName'])