Week of August 1-5, 2022

Commission meetings and hearings

No open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

Commissioner appointments

On August 2, Dara Lindenbaum was sworn in as a Commissioner, succeeding Vice Chair Steven T. Walther, who retired from the Commission on July 31. She will serve as Vice Chair for the rest of the year.

Advisory Opinions

Draft Advisory Opinions

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-13 (Dr. Alan Gross and Northern Leadership PAC) On August 2, the Commission made public a draft advisory opinion. The requestors ask whether the Northern Leadership PAC may convert to an authorized committee of Gross’s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives or, alternatively, its previous designation as the principal campaign committee of Gross’s 2020 campaign for the United States Senate.

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-14 (Google LLC) On August 2, the Commission made public a draft advisory opinion. The requestor asks whether it may provide a free and non-partisan pilot program to test certain design features in its email product to authorized candidate committees, political party committees, and leadership political action committees. The Commission received numerous public comments on the request.

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-18 (Fleming et al.) On August 5, the Commission made public a draft advisory opinion. The requestors are authorized committees of candidates in the August 2022 Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York. The requestors propose to ask contributors to redesignate for the primary election certain contributions that originally had been designated for the general election, without regard to the 60-day timeframe for redesignating contributions, in light of the Commission’s recent conclusion in Advisory Opinion 2022-08 (NRCC) that a separate contribution limit applies to the rescheduled primary election.

Draft Advisory Opinion and Extension of Time

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-12 (Ready for Ron) On August 2, the Commission made public two draft advisory opinions (Draft A and Draft B). The requestor, a hybrid, nonconnected “draft” political committee that proposes to ask individuals to sign a petition encouraging Governor Ron DeSantis to run for President, asks whether it may provide this petition and signatory contact information to Governor DeSantis. On August 3, the requestor granted an extension of time.

Extension of Time

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-16 (DSCC/DNC) On August 3, the requestors granted an extension of time. The requestors ask whether they may retain and use contributions that a vendor with whom the Committees contract failed to deposit within 10 days of receipt.

Litigation

Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (Case Nos. 22-5164, 22-5165) On July 29, Movant-Appellant 45Committee, Inc. filed a Response in Opposition to Campaign Legal Center’s Motion for Summary Affirmance and Dismissal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

End Citizens United PAC v. FEC (Case No. 21-5176) On August 4, Plaintiff-Appellant End Citizens United PAC filed a Brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

National Legal and Policy Center v. FEC (Case No. 22-822) On March 25, Plaintiff filed a Petition and Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Commissioner statements

On August 4, former Vice Chair Walther issued a farewell statement.

Press releases

Steven T. Walther retires from the Commission (issued August 1)

Dara Lindenbaum sworn in as Commissioner (issued August 2)

Outreach

On August 1, Technical Lead Laura Beaufort participated in a GovExec webcast entitled “Unlocking Data Freedom: How Open Source Contributes to Mission Success.”

Upcoming Commission meetings

August 9 and 11, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

August 11, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

August 30, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

August 31, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

Upcoming educational programs

September 7, 2022: The Commission will host a webinar on Independent Expenditures and Pre-Election Communications.

September 14, 2022: The Commission will host an FECConnect OnTopic session on navigating the website.

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

Upcoming reporting due dates

August 20: August Monthly Reports are due. For more information, see the 2022 Monthly Reporting schedule.

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 Presidential Election Campaign Fund Tax Checkoff Chart provides information on balance of the Fund, monthly deposits into the Fund reported by the Department of the Treasury, payments from the Fund as certified by the FEC, and participation rates of taxpayers as reported by the Internal Revenue Service. For more information on the Presidential Public Funding Program, see the Public Funding of Presidential Elections page.

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. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.