During 1996, Lee Ann Elliott served as Chairman of the Commission, and John Warren McGarry served as Vice Chairman.
One seat on the Commission remained vacant throughout 1996, and two other Commissioners whose terms expired in April 1995--Joan D. Aikens and Vice Chairman McGarry--continued to serve. Under the law, Commissioners may continue to hold office until new appointments are made by the President and confirmed by the Senate. In the absence of new appointments, Commissioners Aikens and McGarry continued to sit on the Commission. The vacant seat had been occupied by Trevor Potter, who resigned in October 1995 to return to his law firm.
On December 12, 1996, the Commission elected Mr. McGarry to be its 1997 Chairman and Mrs. Aikens to be its 1997 Vice Chairman. For biographies of the Commissioners and statutory officers, see Appendix 1.
During 1996, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Special Programs administered the agency's EEO complaint and special emphasis programs, and offered additional programs designed to improve employees' professional and personal lives. These programs included cultural diversity training, luncheon meetings for managerial women and support staff, guest speakers and panel discussions on a variety of topics, "Knowledge at Noon" education sessions and a Thanksgiving food drive for needy employees.
In addition, the EEO Director briefed agency staff on the EEO complaint process and Early Intervention Program. As a result of this informal complaint resolution program, only two formal EEO complaints were filed during 1996.
The EEO Director also spoke and conducted EEO training at other government agencies, and--as part of an agreement of reciprocity--provided counseling services to employees at the U.S. Soldiers and Airmen's Home.
Also, the EEO office handles the agency's annual Combined Federal Campaign and U.S. Savings Bond Drive.
The ethics staff provided ethics orientation to all new employees and published an intraagency newsletter to further advise all staff on the standards of ethical conduct. Staff also administered the Commission's public and confidential financial disclosure report system, which helps ensure that employees remain impartial in the performance of their official duties. Finally, the ethics staff submitted required reports with the Office of Government Ethics, including the annual agency ethics report, the financial disclosure reports filed by Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates and semiannual travel payment reports.
Under the Inspector General Act, the Commission's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is authorized to conduct audits and investigations of FEC programs to find waste, fraud and abuse. The OIG audited several facets of Commission operations in 1996, including travel and compliance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Government in Sunshine Act. The OIG also conducted an unannounced count of the agency's imprest fund.
During 1996, the agency completed its conversion from network-based computer terminals to personal computers. The project involved improving the agency's computer infrastructure so that it had adequate space to store both new documents and those created on the old network. By the end of the year, every staff member slated to receive a PC had one.
Budget constraints hampered the Commission's ability to oversee the unprecedented level of campaign activity associated with the 1996 elections. Appropriations for both the 1996 and 1997 fiscal years were well below what the Commission had identified as being necessary to effectively administer and enforce the law.
Fiscal Year 1996
The FEC's FY 1996 appropriation was $26.5 million, $2.5 million less than
OMB had recommended and a nominal $800,000 above the agency's FY 1995 appropriation.
Of the $26.5 million budgeted for the 1996 fiscal year, Congress mandated
that $1.5 million be set aside for computer enhancements, electronic filing
and point-of-entry costs. (See Chapter
1 for details.)
In light of these constraints, the Commission instituted a partial hiring freeze and cut certain nonpersonnel expenses, such as training and outreach programs. Staffing levels ranged from a high of 318 full time equivalents (FTE) at the beginning of the fiscal year to a low of 288.9 FTE by the close of the fiscal year. The cumulative FTE for the entire year was 308.5.
Fiscal Year 1997
The FEC's $28.165 million FY 1997 appropriation fell $1.2 million short
of the President's proposal and $2.7 million shy of the Commission's request.
The agency had asked for $30.877 million and 331.5 FTE, which would have
maintained the Commission's "standard performance level," avoided
backlogs caused by surges in workload and funded the FEC's ongoing computerization
initiatives. The President's request would have represented a "reduced
performance level" of funding and 313.5 FTE. As a result of its actual
appropriation, the Commission was forced to reduce its FY 1997 operations
even more than what had been planned in either proposal.
In justifying its original budget request, the Commission had noted the explosive growth in campaign activity over the last few election cycles. Political-committee spending increased from about $1.75 billion during the 1994 election cycle to about $2.5 billion during the 1996 election cycle, and the number of registered committees grew from 10,974 in 1994 to 11,227 in 1996. These increases generated more questions for the FEC to answer, more transactions to process, more pages of documents to review and more audit and enforcement matters for the FEC to address.
Despite the increased use of new technology such as the automated flashfax system, direct computer access to the FEC database and a home page on the Internet, the budget cuts hampered the Commission's performance. Informational and educational programs suffered staffing cuts and reductions in outreach efforts, and informational publications were cut back. The Office of Election Administration reduced its research projects designed to assist state and local election officials in the performance of their oversight and administrative functions in federal elections. Although the Commission maintained the timeliness of its data entry of itemized information, the review of reports was delayed and Title 2 audits were reduced below desired levels. In addition, the Commission was forced to dismiss more enforcement cases with no findings in order to focus its limited resources on more significant compliance actions; and a larger percentage of complaints remained on hold because of insufficient staff.
Budget Allocation: FYs 1996 and 1997
Budget allocation comparisons for FYs 1996 and 1997 appear in the table
and charts that follow.
| FY 1996 | FY1997 | |
| Personnel | $18,926,472 | $19,969,500 |
| Travel/Transportation | 162,061 | 231,000 |
| Space Rental | 2,551,669 | 2,561,000 |
| Phones/Postage | 499,583 | 490,500 |
| Printing | 322,836 | 328,000 |
| Training/Tuition | 54,950 | 60,000 |
| Contracts/Services | 1,215,988 | 846,520 |
| Maintenance/Repairs | 384,052 | 407,580 |
| Software/Hardware | 209,169 | 735,000 |
| Federal Agency Service | 298,892 | 282,500 |
| Supplies | 496,023 | 285,000 |
| Publications | 250,554 | 257,500 |
| Equipment Purchases | 1,103,941 | 1,710,900 |
| Total | $26,476,190 | $28,165,000 |