Week of January 22-26, 2024

Commission meetings and hearings

On January 23 and 25, the Commission met in executive session.

On January 25, the Commission held an open meeting.

Advisory Opinions

Opinion Issued

Advisory Opinion 2023-11 (VoteDown PAC) On January 25, the Commission approved an advisory opinion in response to a request from VoteDown PAC, which asked whether, after using polling or fundraising data to identify “leading opponents” of candidates and incumbent officeholders, it may earmark and forward contributions to such leading opponents or, in the alternative, to national party committees. The Commission concluded that neither the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, as amended (the Act), or Commission regulations prohibits the proposed activities as described in four of the five questions posed in the request but that the requestor must report any funds it receives to offset the cost of credit-card processing fees as contributions to the requestor. On January 23 and 24, the Commission received supplemental material from the requestor.

Requests Received

Advisory Opinion Request 2024-01 (Texas Majority PAC) On January 23, the Commission made public an advisory opinion request by Texas Majority PAC. The requestor asks several questions related to its proposal to hire a vendor to canvass potential voters, including whether canvassing literature and scripts, and their associated costs, would be public communications, coordinated communications, or coordinated expenditures, and about the provision of data resulting from the canvass to a federal candidate or party committee at less than fair market value. The Commission will accept written comments on the request during the 10-day period following publication of the request (no later than February 2, 2024) and must issue a response no later than 60 days after the receipt of the complete advisory opinion request, that is, by March 22, 2024.

Advisory Opinion Request 2024-02 (Waters) On January 26, the Commission made public an advisory opinion request from Congresswoman Maxine Waters and her authorized campaign committee, Citizens for Waters. The requestors propose to design, print, and mail brochures including Congresswoman Waters’s endorsements of federal and non-federal candidates and her positions in support of or in opposition to ballot measures that will appear on the California primary ballot on March 5, 2024. The requestors ask whether Congresswoman Waters and Citizens for Waters may accept reimbursements using federally permissible funds from non-federal candidates, state independent expenditure-only political committees, and state ballot measure committees to appear in the proposed brochures. The Commission will accept written comments on the request during the 10-day period following publication of the request (no later than February 5) and must issue a response no later than 20 days after the receipt of the complete request, that is, by February 14, 2024.

Enforcement

The Commission made public one Statement of Reasons, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Enforcement Query System.

MUR 8044 (Taddeo for Congress and Shelby Green, in her official capacity as treasurer; Annette Taddeo for Governor; and Annette Taddeo) On January 24, Commissioner Shana M. Broussard and Vice Chair Ellen L. Weintraub issued a Statement of Reasons.

Litigation

CREW v. FEC (Case No. 22-35) On January 22, the Commission filed an Opposition to Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

National Republican Senatorial Committee, et al. v. FEC, et al. (Case No. 22-639) On January 19, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio issued an Opinion and Order and an Appendix, granting Plaintiffs’ Motion to Certify Question to the En Banc Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Plaintiffs ask the En Banc Court to consider the constitutionality of whether the coordinated party expenditure limits at 52 U.S.C. § 30116 violate the First Amendment, either on their face or as applied to party spending in connection with ‘party coordinated communications’ as defined in 11 CFR 109.37.

Stein, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 23-771) On January 12, Petitioners filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outreach

On January 24, the Commission hosted reporting and FECFile webinars for candidate committees.

Press releases

FEC approves advisory opinion (issued January 25)

Employment opportunities

The Commission is accepting applications for the position of Associate General Counsel for Litigation through February 5, 2024.

Upcoming Commission meetings and hearings

February 6, 2024: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

February 8, 2024: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

February 27, 2024: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

February 29, 2024: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

Upcoming educational opportunities

February 27-28, 2024: The Commission will host a webinar for candidates and their campaign committees.

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

Upcoming reporting due dates

January 31: Year-End Reports are due. For more information, see the 2023 Semi-Annual, Quarterly and Monthly Reporting schedules.

Additional research materials

Election Dates: The Commission has posted Preliminary 2024 Presidential and Congressional Primary Dates, which are subject to change.

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 2020: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives is now 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.

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.