Week of October 17-21, 2022

Commission meetings and hearings

On October 18 and 20, the Commission met in executive session.

On October 20, the Commission held an open meeting.

Advisory Opinions

Opinion Issued

Advisory Opinion 2022-21 (DSCC, Bennet for Colorado, and People for Patty Murray) On October 20, the Commission approved an advisory opinion in response to a request from the DSCC, Bennet for Colorado, and People for Patty Murray. The requestors asked whether DSCC may use its Legal Proceedings Account established under 52 U.S.C. § 30116(a)(9)(C) to pay for two types of television advertisements featuring federal candidates, including Senators Michael Bennet and Patty Murray, that solicit funds for the DSCC’s Legal Proceedings Account and whether the principal campaign committees for Senators Bennet and Murray may coordinate with the DSCC on those advertisements. The Commission concluded that the DSCC may pay for both types of solicitation, subject to reasonable cost allocation among the DSCC’s accounts, including the Legal Proceedings Account, and that the candidate committees may coordinate both types of ads with the DSCC, provided that those costs not reasonably allocable to the Legal Proceedings Account are either consistent with the limits on coordinated expenditures by a national political party committee under 52 U.S.C. § 30116(d)(3) or the DSCC treats those costs as in-kind contributions to the candidate with whom the advertisement is coordinated. On October 19, the Commission received Supplemental Material from the requestors and on October 20 it received a comment from the requestors.

Comment Received

Advisory Opinion Request 2022-24 (Allen Blue) On October 18, the Commission received a comment on the advisory opinion request.

Alternative Dispute Resolution

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

ADR 1080

COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENT: Veterans for Responsible Leadership and Daniel Barkhuff, in official capacity as treasurer (the Committee)
SUBJECT: In the normal course of exercising its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether there was reason to believe the Committee failed to timely file six 24-Hour Reports totaling $146,390.60 to support 30 independent expenditures.
DISPOSITION: The Committee agreed to 1) develop and certify implementation of a compliance operations manual that includes internal controls; 2) participate in an FEC training program; and 3) pay a civil penalty of $12,050.

Administrative Fines

The Commission made public three closed cases, as follows. For more information, see the case documents in the Administrative Fine Search System.

AF 4269 Drew-Montez Clark for Congress and Drew-Montez Clark, in official capacity as treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $2,638.

AF 4279 People Not Profits and Ciara Cruz, in official capacity as treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $4,921.

AF 4285 Todos con Jennifer Inc. DBA Jennifer for Congress and Oriol Campos Hernandez, in official capacity as treasurer. The Commission made a final determination and assessed a civil penalty of $11,720.

Audits

Final Audit Report of the Commission on the Democratic Party of Arkansas On October 18, the Commission made public the Final Audit Report of the Commission on the Democratic Party of Arkansas, covering campaign finance activity from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2018. The Commission approved findings related to Reporting of Debts and Obligations, Recordkeeping for Employees, and Disclosure of Loans and Loan Repayments. The Commission included Reporting of Media Related Expenditures as an additional issue.

Regulations and agency procedures

Notice of Availability for REG 2022-05 (Conduit Reporting Threshold) On October 20, the Commission approved a Notice of Availability for REG 2022-05 (Conduit Reporting Threshold) in response to a Petition for Rulemaking from WinRed. The Commission seeks comment on whether it should initiate a full rulemaking on amending its existing regulations regarding the threshold amount at which conduits forwarding contributions to political committees must identify the contributors to the recipient political committees and the Commission. The Notice will be published in the Federal Register at a later date and will include information on submitting public comment, including when the comment period ends.

Litigation

AB PAC v. FEC (Case No. 22-2139) On October 14, Plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Campaign Legal Center, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-2336) On October 17, Plaintiffs filed a Reply in Support of Their Second Motion for Summary Judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Outreach

On October 18, Public Affairs Specialist Myles Martin spoke with journalism students at The George Washington University in Washington, DC about the FEC’s role and disclosure systems.

On October 19, the Commission held an FECConnect OnTopic session on Last-Minute Disclosures.

On October 20, Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub met with a representative from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and its Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to discuss the 2022 mid-term elections and campaign finance issues.

On October 20, Deputy Press Officer Christian Hilland met virtually with a representative from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and its Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to discuss the FEC’s data collection process.

Press releases

Commission approves advisory opinion, Notification of Availability on rulemaking (issued October 20)

Upcoming Commission meetings

November 15, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

November 17, 2022: The Commission is scheduled to hold an open meeting.

Upcoming educational programs

November 30, 2022: The Commission will host a webinar on Winding Down the Campaign and Post-General Reporting.

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

Upcoming reporting due dates

October 27: 12-Day Pre-General Reports are due. For more information, see the 2022 Pre- and Post-General Reporting schedule. The Commission’s Reports Analysis Division and Electronic Filing Office will be available until 8 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, October 27 for filers needing assistance.

December 8: 30-Day Post-General Reports are due. For more information, see the Pre- and Post-General 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.