Commission recommends legislation to Congress, President

On April 12, 2007, the Commission approved five recommendations for changes to current campaign finance law. The Commission sent its recommendations to Congress and the President, indicating that it is ready to implement all of these changes should they be enacted.

Electronic filing of Senate reports

The Commission recommends that Congress require electronic filing by Senatorial committees that have, or expect to have, financial activity in excess of a Commission established threshold, which is currently $50,000 per calendar year. Currently, Senate filers are the only political committees that are not required to file official reports electronically upon reaching this threshold. Electronic filing of reports speeds disclosure and avoids the delays caused by extra data processing time for paper filings and by the security measures implemented following the anthrax incident in 2001.Fraudulent misrepresentation of campaign authority

The Commission recommends extending the current prohibition on fraudulent misrepresentation to include anyone purporting to act on behalf of candidates and real or fictitious political committees and organizations. Also, the Commission recommends that Congress remove the requirement that the fraudulent misrepresentation relate to a matter that is damaging to another candidate or political party.

Title 18 immunity orders

The Commission recommends that Congress include the FEC in the list of agencies that are authorized to issue orders immunizing an individual from criminal prosecution based on testimony or information provided by the individual to the Commission. Such an order, once approved by the Department of Justice, would prevent an individual from refusing to testify based on his or her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. Numerous other independent federal agencies have the ability to issue such immunity orders, and such power would allow the Commission to obtain more information relevant to the Commission's enforcement responsibilities.

Use of FEC identification number

In order to ensure more accurate reporting and disclosure, the Commission recommends that Congress require a political committee to include its FEC identification number on all committee-to-committee contribution checks that it issues. Additionally, a political committee should be required to disclose on its FEC reports the identification number of committees when itemizing contributions it receives from other committees and contributions it makes to other committees.

Increasing certain thresholds for inflation

The Commission recommends increasing certain registration and reporting thresholds, set in 1974 and 1979, to account for inflation. Specifically, the Commission proposes adjusting:

• The political committee definition based on contributions received or expenditures made in a calendar year from over $1,000 to over $5,000;
• The political committee definition for local party committees based on contributions received or expenditures made in a calendar year from over $1,000 to over $5,000;
• The reporting threshold for independent expenditures in a calendar year by a person other than a political committee from over $250 to over $1,000; and
• The exception to the definition of "contribution" for unreimbursed travel expenses by an individual on behalf of a single candidate from $1,000 to $2,000, and on behalf of a political party from $2,000 to $4,000 in a calendar year.

The 2007 legislative recommendations are available on the Commission's web site at https://transition.fec.gov/law/legislative_recommendations_2007.shtml.