Message from the Chairman
This will be a busy year for the Agency, and January was no exception.
The focus of much of our time and attention, on the part of the Commissioners, was, in addition to time devoted to executive sessions on enforcement matters, preparing for and attending our two-day public hearing on January 14 and 15. The hearing was held for the purpose of obtaining from the public its suggestions on improving the transparency, fairness and efficiency of our policies, practices and procedures relating to our enforcement and interpretation of the law and our regulations. This exercise was the most sweeping inquiry into our responsibilities in those areas since the inception of the Agency. The Agency received several very thoughtful, knowledgeable, and in my view persuasive, written and oral comments. During our public hearing we heard two days of testimony from 15 persons, including some of the most highly recognized and regarded experts in the field of campaign finance law, most of whom offered their time and testimony voluntarily for the good of the Agency and the public. Many comments and suggestions were ones that have been made previously, which I think brought a sense of urgency on the part of the Commissioners to focus on them once again. Others were fresh and offered some very good suggestions.
Because the time period between the date that our Notice of the public hearing was published in the Federal Register and the date when written comments were due spanned the Holiday Season, we re-opened the period to receive written comments until February 18. Accordingly, we invite you all once again to comment further. You may find the Federal Register Notice, the written comments received to date, and the transcript of the oral hearing on the Commission website at http://transition.fec.gov/law/policy/enforcement/publichearing011409.shtml.
Please give us your recommendations. Even if they arrive after February 18, they may still be received in time to be considered. Shortly after the deadline for comment, the Commission will meet to evaluate, discuss and act on the recommendations, and the results of our deliberations will be made public.
As part of a separate initiative, the Commission will be making a formal request of the public to provide suggestions on how we can improve our website. Our website is the main vehicle by which the public receives information about federal campaign finance. Since we are a disclosure agency, and transparency is the key to disclosure, our website is critical to our mission. During the 2008 calendar year we received over 5.2 million visits to our website, or approximately 14,200 per day. During the 24-month 2008 election cycle, the Commission received over 122,000 financial disclosure reports and statements, containing the equivalent of 10 million pages of financial data, disclosing approximately $7 billion in spending related to federal elections. This massive amount of information was entered onto our website nearly flawlessly, and almost immediately, and much credit goes to our hard working, dedicated staff. There is no other country in the world that provides this kind of transparency in the area of campaign finance. Because our website is the backbone of our disclosure mechanism, we must constantly look to ways to improve its usefulness to the public. Consequently, we will be seeking ways to make our website more user-friendly, more educational, more analytical, more accessible, and more interesting. Accordingly, you will soon see a request for your input and advice, and we hope you will take the time to provide it. I want to congratulate our staff members who have been so supportive of these efforts. Suggestions for improvement can sometimes be viewed as criticism, but in this case our staff has viewed the exercise as one that can and will improve the Agency by helping us to fulfill our mission. We count on you to give your ideas in that regard.