This file contains archived live captions of the open meeting of the Federal Election Commission held on December 15, 2022. This file is not a transcript of the meeting, and it has not been reviewed for accuracy or approved by the Federal Election Commission. Good morning. The open meeting of the federal election for the 15th of December 2022 will come to order. The first matters on our agenda this morning are both from a data vault. I believe we have Mr. Burke as counsel. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Agenda document 2257 a is a draft response to an advisory request submitted by data vault holdings . Request to ask whether I may create and sell NFTs to political committees for use in the committee's fundraising endeavors. Because data vault proposes to sell the NFTs in the ordinary course of business at the usual and normal charge and under the same terms and conditions as its nonpolitical clients, the commission concludes that the proposals would not result in prohibited in-kind contributions and are, therefore, permissible. I received no comments on the request or the draft and have been answering questions . Thank you. In remiss in not noting that Mr. Bradley, the CEO, is also here to answer questions of the technical nature. Any questions for our office or for the counsel? Thank you. I'm trying to figure out whether these NFTs are things of value. I think the request says there's no secondary sale. You're not anticipating a secondary market in this. I'm trying to figure out if this is more like a thing that has actual value or whether it's more like a certificate or campaign handout saying you are now in the patriots club with the campaign contribution. Either the lawyer or requester have a view I would be interested. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to appear before you today, especially virtually on this dreary D.C. day. To your question, there's value in the sense of a campaign having value. The value really is nominal. It's more akin to a certificate or some sort of recognition or a tchotchke that can be offered throughout existence. That's what I thought of it. A digital tchotchke. Thank you. A technical term. Thank you. In this opinion you have made several assumptions with regard to NFTs . Have we handled that appropriately? Are there assumptions we've gotten wrong or anything that's grounded upon? I don't believe so. I think the General Counsel's office has done a remarkable job here and it's been easy to work with and understand the technology and describe it accurately. Appreciate that. Do you have anything you want to adhere? Especially on the technical front? Thank you. I have nothing to add other than to reiterate it has been a pleasure providing the information and having the dialogue. I believe the way that it reads is accurate with respect to the technology, in my view. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you. Thank you. I want to draw the requesters attention to note 25 that says the first two actions of political committees and data vault is to comply with -- questions regarding the activity is an advisory request pertaining to data vault. This advisory opinion says if you're selling any digital tchotchkes to the campaign committee what they do with it and what contributors do with it . Understood. Any further discussion? Any motions? Thank you. With respect to draft advisory opinion, 2022 -- 22 data vault one Imo approval of agenda document number 22-57-a. Discussion to the motion on paper? I. The motion is carried now. You will move seamlessly into data vault 2. It does not require any changes. Counsel, go ahead. Thank you. Agenda document 22-56-a is a draft response to the press submitted by data vault. The requester here asks whether it may trade wholly-owned subsidiary license patio tones in padded and technology to political committees for use in the committee's fundraising endeavors. Because data vault adhere to proposes licenses to audio tones to political committees in the ordinary course of business, the usual and normal charge, and on the same terms and conditions as its nonpolitical clients, the commission concludes that the proposal would not result in prohibited in-kind contributions and is, therefore, permissible. I am again happy to answer any questions. Any questions for our counsel ? Thank you. This is more of a technical question. I'm not sure I really understand how this works. Could you elaborate on that for us? Sure. I will defer to Mr. Bradley on that. Thank you. I would explain the technology this way. There is a tone that a human ear cannot perceive but a cell phone does perceive. A mobile response can be activated from that. Think of it as a QR code that rides on sound. If you're familiar with QR code it's a visual process of lining up the camera of your phone to a barcode to invoke a response . The technology emanates from technology that serves individuals that are visually disabled . It's the same type of beacon that American Airlines would use from a kiosk to serve a visually impaired person. The tones are proven safe and utilized by the FCC over broadcast to change when you're watching a sports program and you see it go from national television advertisement to a local advertisement. Those windows are open and closed using tone technology. That is the same type of tone that is used in the Adio Tones technology. In this case, for elections, a tone can be emanated from signage. It can be emanated over the airways. Think of satellite broadcast and broadcasting that occurs of all types, whether streaming , radio or TV , you're able to present a tone that invokes when the user opts in -- when the user agrees and turns on the tool they are able to experience a web response. A website can open. Content can be displayed. Items like, if I asked for a donation I can open the donation pages of a webpage for the end-user. It's assistive technology that allows for a mobile response over audio . What triggers the tone? Think of the tone as it rides on sound. Nothing triggers it. It's simply if you listen to sound you might hear drums or a voice or a music track simultaneously. Think of one more layer in that sound that is inaudible. It is not triggered. What is triggered is the listening. The listening for the tones. If you're familiar with things like voice activated systems like Siri or Google that is a voice response. They have to listen to the auditory realm to have that response. In a sense, they are constantly listening. Think of it as privacy and the ability to have a tone that only I access when I want to access it. When I approve of that access. The use of the tones is at my discretion and my opt in as a consumer. In this case, an American voting citizen would have an ability to activate their listening into tones that are presented to them, whether from signage, podcast or at a venue , such as a campaign Valley or such, that I would be able to tune into an inaudible tone frequency that activates a display of data. That's what I'm trying to figure out. What activates it? You go by a billboard and if you have set your app to listen for these tones then it takes you -- it's always on and looking for signals to pop up from billboards or rallies or advertisement? It's not something where the user suddenly says, I want to donate . I'm trying to figure out how this works. Yeah. Yes, chairman. The user is always the opt in to turn on the ears. Think of it like a voice that is on automatically. It's out there. If you want to tune into it it's a safe, and audible tone that does not bother you. You cannot perceive it. It does not have anything in its way that is affecting that consumer until the consumer opts in to say, I would like to have political signage data delivered to my phone when it's available. That can be based on my geolocation, it could be based on the show that I'm watching, it could be based on other data, but it is entirely opted in by the consumer. It is a fully opted in system I would say, I listen to these tones when they are available to me. There might be visual prompts, such as a sign, to say there is an inaudible tone available in this area. This is our technology. It's patented in the United States. There's several patents that cover this case including the use case insight elections. That United States built technology -- it was built by a group out of Georgia Tech. A team of technologists built this technology and patented in the U.S. The technology allows for a consumer to opt in for privacy. It is the and to the cyst of Siri or Google and a lot of the other voice activated systems that must listen to our audio tracks and have been, based on our similar opt in, has been choosing to listen to our voice tracks. If you've experienced where you've spoken to somebody about something and look at your cell phone and said, I talked about trucks and now there's a truck add, that comes from opting in to a listening device that is in our proximity. Our invention solves for that. It's about consumer privacy. Data vault is about consumers owning and controlling their own data assets . Americans been able to monetize it or offset things like inflation and things like other costs they encounter in life. For them to be able to control their own data sets -- similarly, the Adio Tones for campaigns is a private later. For the campaigns themselves that need a layer of privacy and need to create privacy between them and voters in their districts, for example, these tones allow us to help candidates identify people as being in their district or from their district or a voice that is from their district. That can have benefit in the future. As you'll see with our request, it's simply to use the technology to continue our work in privacy and data monetization on behalf of consumers. The Adio Tones is for customers who are candidates who run campaigns or have initiatives to be elected where this tool allows them to privately connect with it consumer that has opted into say I live in the district of this representative and I want to tune into their tone. That is the request. I think Mr. Bradley may have meant -- I think I can clarify what Mr. Bradley is saying in terms of what I think your question is. The triggering event is no different than any other campaign promotion, whether it's an ad or billboard or things like that. It's reaching potential contributors using this technology the same way it would try to reach contributors in the more traditional sense. If an ad is run it says here is our website. This would simply be another way of doing that. Lastly, I would say that it is also the cybersecurity and other elements that are mandated for these solutions in place in this process. We have a heightened interest and heightened sensitivity around cybersecurity. Thank you. Thank you for the explanation. Yes. I thought it was very interesting. Any motions? Thanks. With respect to graft advisory opinion 2002 e- 23, data vault two, I was approval of agenda document number 22-56-a, which is draft a. Thank you. Adio. Motion is carried. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Stay dry out there. Next on our agenda is a draft notification of availability in 2022-06. Thank you. Good morning. Agenda document 22 -- 59 -- a for a petition for rulemaking submitted to the campaign legal Center. The petition asks the commission to amend or clarify its regulations regarding the refunding of contributions that violate the source prohibitions or amount limitations of the Federal election campaign act. Notification is whether the commission should commence a rulemaking based on this petition. The common period will rent to 60 days following publication of the Federal Register. After the period has concluded and after comments have been considered the commission may decide whether to initiate the rulemaking. Thank you. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Any motions? With respect/no. With respect to regulation 2022-06 this argument I moved approval of agenda document number 22-59 --- a. Thank you. Just to repeat what was said on previous occasions that when we put something up for comment we really do want comments. I think it's an interesting petition and I hope we will get comments that help inform the commissioners. I would add something. I've written on this topic and I think that this petitioner requests very healthy. I hope this is one that can move forward and hopefully enlighten. Further discussion? All in favor? The motion is carried unanimously. Thank you, counsel. Next on our agenda is our draft legislative recommendations for 2022. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Commissioners, before you today for your approval are 15 draft legislative recommendations and agenda document 22-58-A . This year the recommendations are divided into three groups. The first group of the highest priority recommendations include making the administrative fine program permanent. This is a continuing priority of the commission. Increasing the compensation for the staff director and general counsel is also in the highest priority group. Other priority legislative recommendations include related to the campaign act and the third group are other improvements recommended by the commission. Once the commission has approved legislative recommendations, we will divide them. The commission received a comment on the draft recommendation that has been published on FEC.gov and I would like to suggest to citation revisions to the drafts . Developing recommendations starting with traditional topics suggested by staff and commissioners and I would like to think the chairman for making the finishing of this project a priority. I would like to thank all the commissioners and my colleagues for their excellent contributions . Thank you. This may be an inappropriate time to forecast your suggested edits. Sure. We suggest adding relevant portions of citations. One is to section 306 and the other is to section 315. We do not need to mend suggestions. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] Thank you for all your work on these. I apologize, I didn't give you any warning but it occurred to me -- are there plans for your office to hold these recommendations until the new Congress is sworn in? I can see it being an inconvenient time to send it over next week before committee staff change, membership changes and new members are sworn in. Could you let us know, assuming these are approved, when you would plan to transmit them over? I plan is as soon as the commission approves. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] If my colleagues are open to it I might suggest that we direct Mr. Pugh to deliver these on the commencement of 118th Congress on January 3rd or shortly thereafter. Thank you. I appreciate the suggestion. I don't think it's going to get lost in the paperwork. While I believe we know a new Congress will be coming in place I don't see the need of delay sending this over. While I appreciate the comment I wouldn't be supportive of that choice. I heard one of my colleagues with the same suggestion. We can send it now and then send it again at the beginning. >> That is our usual . [ Indiscernible - muffled ] This is a problem that comes up every two years. I would hope you have a plan of action for it. That's a fine solution to send it twice. My experience is physical offices are changing and people are taking over desks. I have found other people's papers in my desks in Congress. It does have some regularity that things do get lost as the architect of the Capitol moves things around. I think this approach might be the best way to do it. I just want to thank, not only Mr. Pugh but all our colleagues as we have had a very productive set of sessions behind the scenes, amongst ourselves , resulting in 15 unanimous recommendations . [ Indiscernible - muffled ] This is particularly robust . I appreciate the process . Any further discussion? I also want to extend my thanks to Mr. Pugh. This has been interesting and brought about really great conversation with each other. In this process , we have thought about additional recommendations. It's been a great weight for us. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] Further discussion? Are there any motions? Thank you. With respect to legislative recommendations for 2022 I moved approval of agenda document 22-58-A subject to the edits discussed at the table by staff and subject to the commission's direction about transmission discussed at the table. Session motion? All in favor? Motion is carried unanimously . That concludes our business for today. There is one last thing on the agenda. It's customary, as I understand, to say a few words of once last year. This seems like the right time before we elect our officers for the upcoming year. I find it an awkward duty. One thing is be aware of premature victory celebrations. Other comments feel out of place for Commissioner and as I've said I prefer our work speak for itself. We have done a great deal together over the last year. We began by updating our forums to recognizing the committees within a decade after the unanimous First Amendment decision that created them and years after a bipartisan group . We've updated our regulations to reflect other decisions in federal courts. We've reached agreement of more than 20 advisory opinions. He provided that guidance to regulated committees. The first time in a generation we succeeded in adopting a regulation that will make it easier for political speakers to comply. I want to emphasize the work we have all done. This agency has been privileged to have a long tradition of people who have decided to dedicate the bulk of their careers to the surface of the commission. It's another tradition. I want to take a few moments to talk about some of our longer serving staff who are reaching impressive milestones. I have a list here. I will limit myself to 20 years or above . We have a pretty impressive list of people. All these folks I hope are going to get appropriate recognition from their management. I want to take this moment in an official capacity to thank all of you. 20 years. This goes up quite a ways. Pamela Jones. Scott Axler, Natalia, and EB Pike. 25 years. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] Deborah Holloway . 30 years. Sandy Latimer. Jennifer Boyd . This keeps going. 35 years. This was founded in 1974. I'll be honest, I had no idea. None of you look like you have been here for 35 years. I might, but you all don't. 40 years and finally at 45 years Cindy Myers. That's remarkable. I'm an old believer in institutions and I respect those of you who have chosen to serve this institution. Thank you. I'm going to take another point to call out one of our 50 year veterans. Sorry, Commissioner. Putting you on the spot. Before we pass , I want to thank everyone who helped over the past year to accomplish some of the things I listed and many things I didn't. On a personal note I want to thank a few people who are not generally in the public eye but have been essential to functioning for the last year. Starting with Tiffany who is a legend inside the building. The fixer for everything that goes wrong and has saved my staff at odd hours from the curse of government technology. This might be the person most responsible for functioning during the COVID pandemic. I may be exaggerating, but I don't think so. Thank you. I know you're not a public figure. The commission secretary. Another unheralded part that I wanted to call out. They have just been instrumental to this place working. None of that is apparent to the public. We notice. I notice. I'm very grateful. I wanted to thank the vice chairs. Steve , I miss him and his friendship. It has been a breath of fresh air. A warm presence. I've enjoyed working with her. I'm confident she will be in good hands for the year. Finally , I want to thank the person who is most responsible for the capability of this agency. I have noted that nothing we did this year would've been possible without leadership. Had she not handled the enormous backlog we were given in early 2021 we would not have had the space and confidence and trust required in breaking the decade-long on this commission. She has been a key voice in advancing and clarified the law and educated the public in compliance. She doesn't see the limelight but the public needs to know how crucial she is. The public and press may still be stuck in partisan fights but there's been a change and new accountability and willingness. With those parting thoughts, I'm excited to see what we will accomplish. Thank you for those earmarks. I join you in congratulating other staff who have reached milestones. It's really impressive to dedicate yourself to public service like that. Congratulations to those named. It's my privilege to nominate vice chair to serve as the chair for the Federal election commission for 2023. Pfister Lindenbaum is the newest member of the commission but she has jumped and taken the important role of vice chair when she joined us and brought a significant amount of outside experience and expertise to bear on our work as the vice chair. She has worked allegedly to forge compromises and solutions to commission business and she's able to disagree without being disagreeable. She makes it a priority to maintain effective working relationships with everyone and get things done around here. I think she's going to have a very long highlight reel in this time 12 months from now to talk about what we have accomplished. I've enjoyed getting to know her. Swapping stories about our kids and I'm looking forward to working with her more. For all those reasons, it's my pleasure to nominate vice chair Lindenbaum to be Commissioner chair for 2023. Any discussion? All in favor? That one carried with five in favor. We modestly abstain. Further motions? Madame chair elect. I now have the privilege of nominating prior to his employment as Commissioner [ Indiscernible - muffled ] as we have already seen [ Indiscernible - muffled ] from the start we have created a collaborative relationship and really worked together and have real conversations . We have both been operating under the assumption the other one is operating and we are clear about our intentions and goals. I am really looking forward to working more closely. This commission will benefit from his open-minded leadership and we will work together . Thank you . All in favor? The motion is carried unanimously. Thank you. That completes the business of this meeting. I apologize, there is a question. Point of personal privilege. Thank you. I am grateful to all the chairman have done . He and his fantastic staff have gone out of their way to make sure we have everything they think will be helpful to us and are completely transparent. It has been a true joy. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] I'm grateful to my staff for getting us to this point. She became chair upon her appointment. She and her team were relentless as they had been sitting idly by in an elective quorum. The chair said she doesn't often get the credit or limelight she deserves but you really do deserve this credit. He pushed everybody. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] I'm looking forward to their partnership on this committee . As I said, I've enjoyed working over these last few months and I look forward to the model for us. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] I try to make sure a four-year-old can't get into it. Oh. That's lovely. You put Latin on here. I'm not going to do this live in public. [ Indiscernible - muffled ] Modern art. That is lovely. Thank you very much. I'm going to use it. It's a gavel. With that , are there any management or administrative matters? Standby. [ Event concluded ]