Week of January 18-22, 2021

Commission meetings and hearings

No open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

Advisory Opinions

Opinion Issued

Advisory Opinion Request 2020-06 (Escobar). On January 22, the Commission approved an advisory opinion in response to a request from Veronica Escobar, a member of Congress, and her principal campaign committee, asking whether campaign funds may be used to pay for wiring and lighting costs necessary to install home security measures recommended by the House Sergeant at Arms. The Commission concluded that the proposed use of campaign funds is permissible under the Federal Election Campaign Act and Commission regulations, and would not constitute a prohibited conversion of campaign funds to personal use.

Upcoming Commission meetings

January 26, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

January 28, 2021: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting and an audit hearing.

Upcoming reporting due dates

January 31, 2021: Year-End Reports are due.

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.

Federal Elections 2018: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is 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 2020 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 at this time. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.