Week of April 5-9, 2021

Commission meetings and hearings

On April 6 and 8, the Commission met in executive session.

On April 8, the Commission held an open meeting.

Advisory Opinions

Opinion Issued

Advisory Opinion 2020-04 (Pray.com) On April 8, the Commission approved an advisory opinion in response to a request from Pray.com, a for-profit corporation with a mobile application and website, that proposed inviting Members of Congress to produce five-minute audio and video statements discussing matters of faith that it would share with users of its digital platforms. The Commission concluded that posting the statements on the requestor’s platforms as proposed in the request would not result in coordinated communications or otherwise provide a prohibited corporate in-kind contribution to participating Members who are also candidates for federal office. The Commission received one comment on Draft A.

Enforcement

The Commission made public two closed cases, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

MUR 7181

COMPLAINANT: Center for Media and Democracy
RESPONDENT: Independent Women’s Voice (IWV)
SUBJECT: The complaint alleged that IWV, an organization established under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, violated the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), by failing to organize, register, and report as a political committee with the Commission beginning in 2010. The complaint, originally filed in 2016, argued that because IWV allegedly spent millions of dollars on the 2010, 2012, and 2014 federal elections, it was a political committee under the Act. The complaint further alleged that even if IWV were not required to report as a political committee, it failed to report all of its independent expenditures in “at least one election.”
DISPOSITION: The Commission exercised its prosecutorial discretion and dismissed the matter in consideration of Commission priorities. Vice Chair Allen Dickerson and Commissioners Sean J. Cooksey and James E. “Trey” Trainor III issued a Statement of Reasons.

MUR 7637

COMPLAINANT: Allen J. Epstein
RESPONDENTS: National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action; National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund and Robert G. Owens, in his official capacity as treasurer; Donald J. Trump; and Donald J. Trump for President and Bradley T. Crate, in his official capacity as treasurer (the Committee)
SUBJECT: The Complaint alleged that $30 million was “funneled from Russia” to the National Rifle Association of America and from there to the Committee in violation of the foreign national prohibition of the Act. Trump was a 2016 candidate for U.S. President.
DISPOSITION: The Commission closed the file.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

The Commission made public two closed cases, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

ADR 979

COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENT: Montana Rural Voters
SUBJECT: In the normal course of exercising its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether there was reason to believe that the Respondent failed to file a 48-Hour Report totaling $109,008.21 to support three independent expenditures and three 24-Hour Reports totaling $30,614.47 to support four independent expenditures disclosed in the 2018 Year-End Report.
DISPOSITION: The Respondent, which contends that remedial measures have been implemented to prevent errors of this nature from occurring in the future, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $7,745.

ADR 980

COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENT: Montana League of Rural Voters
SUBJECT: In the normal course of exercising its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether there was reason to believe that the Respondent failed to file in a timely manner three 24-Hour Reports totaling $31,713.76 to support nine independent expenditures disclosed in the 2017 July Quarterly Report.
DISPOSITION: The Respondent, which states that it has been inactive since 2017 and will not be engaging in federal elections, agreed to pay a civil penalty of $2,300.

Litigation

Campaign Legal Center, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-2336) On April 7, Plaintiffs filed a Notice of Appeal in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

CREW, et al. v FEC (Case 19-5161) On April 9, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an Opinion and Per Curiam Judgment affirming the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Commission.

Audits

National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) Committee for a Strong Economy. On April 5, the Commission made public the Final Audit Report of the Commission on the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) Committee for a Strong Economy, covering campaign finance activity between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018. The Commission approved findings on increased activity (corrected) and disclosure of contributions made to federal candidate committees.

Regulations and agency procedures

Proposed Modifications to Program for Requesting Consideration of Legal Questions by the Commission. On April 8, the Commission voted not to approve a draft Policy Statement outlining two modifications to the Commission’s nearly 10-year old Program. The first would have modified the Program’s informal resolution process and the second its timetable for responding to requests. The process provides a means for persons and entities to have the Commission consider a legal question earlier in the campaign finance report review process and the audit process.

Outreach

On April 7, the Commission held a FECFile webinar and a workshop on registration and Form 1 for PACs and parties.

On April 8, an op-ed written by Commissioner Trainor was published in the Daily Caller.

Press Releases

FEC approves advisory opinion, votes against proposed modifications to existing program for requesting consideration of legal questions (issued April 8)

Appeals Court issues opinion in CREW et al. v FEC (issued April 9)

Upcoming educational programs

April 21, 2021: The Commission will host a workshop on navigating the FEC website.

April 28, 2021: The Commission will host a FECFile webinar for Trade Associations and their PACs.

August 17-18, 2021: The Commission will host a Regional Hybrid Conference in Denver, CO.

For more information on upcoming training opportunities, see the Commission’s Trainings page.

Upcoming Commission meetings

April 20, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

April 22, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

Upcoming reporting due dates

April 15: April Quarterly Reports are due. For more information, see the 2021 Quarterly Reporting schedule.

April 20: April Monthly Reports are due. For more information, see the 2021 Monthly Reporting schedule.

Status of agency operations

See the Commission’s statement on the status of agency operations, updated on January 4, 2021. At this stage, most agency staff remain in telework status and the Commission’s office remains closed to visitors.

Additional research materials

Contribution Limits. In addition to the current limits, the Commission has posted an archive of contribution limits that were in effect going back to the 1975-1976 election cycles.

2020 Presidential General Election Results and Federal Elections 2018: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are available. The data was compiled from the official vote totals published by state election offices.

FEC Notify: Want to be notified by email when campaign finance reports are received by the agency? Sign up here.

Additional research materials about the agency, campaign finance information, and election results are available through the Library section of the Commission website.

The Combined Federal State Disclosure and Election Directory is available. This publication identifies the federal and state agencies responsible for the disclosure of campaign finances, lobbying, personal finances, public financing, candidates on the ballot, election results, spending on state initiatives and other financial filings.

The FEC Record is available as a continuously updated online news source.

Other election-related resources

Videos on protecting U.S. elections. The FBI’s Protected Voices initiative provides videos designed to help political campaigns protect themselves from foreign influence. The 2019 videos offer guidance on ransomware, business email compromise, supply chain, social media literacy, and foreign influence operations. Other videos, released in 2018, include cyber hygiene topics such as social engineering, patching, router hardening, and app and browser safety.

Join the FEC on Twitter and YouTube

Follow @FEC on Twitter to receive the latest information on agency updates, news releases, and weekly activity. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, FECTube: FECConnect on Demand, to watch instructional videos that have been designed to help candidates and committees comply with federal campaign finance laws. Note that the FEC is not currently available through other social media platforms currently. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.