Comments sought on proposed rulemaking requiring reporting of segregated party accounts
On August 28, 2019, the Commission published a notification of availability in the Federal Register at 84 Fed. Reg. 45117 that seeks public comment on a petition for rulemaking filed by the Campaign Legal Center and the Center for Responsive Politics.
The petition asks the Commission to promulgate rules to require national party committees to report receipts and disbursements for their segregated accounts, created by the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2015. The three segregated party accounts are subject to separate contribution limits and may only be used for expenses incurred with respect to 1) presidential nominating conventions; 2) national party headquarters buildings; and 3) election recounts or contests and other legal proceedings.
While the Commission has issued interim reporting guidance for the segregated party accounts, the petition asserts that there is no consistent location or terminology for reporting transactions. The petition states that, as a result, “each national party committee reports its receipts to and disbursements from the [segregated party] accounts in inconsistent and insufficient ways,” which makes the public unable to determine the amounts of money received and disbursed from the segregated accounts.
The Commission requests public comment on the petition. Comments must be submitted in writing on or before October 28, 2019 (reference REG 2019-04). The Commission will not consider the petition’s merits until after the comment period closes. If the Commission decides that the petition has merit, it may begin a rulemaking proceeding. The Commission will announce any action that it takes in the Federal Register.