Federal Election Commission

Introduction

Federal campaign finance laws are generally considered to be the standard against which similar laws in the states are measured. But the Center for Public Integrity survey shows four states—Washington, Oregon, California, and North Carolina—have more stringent laws than those used to govern federally regulated party committees. See FEC Report Card below.

Every state divides all its political dollars into non-federal and federal activity. Non-federal spending is used to help candidates for offices other than Congress and the president. Spending on candidates for governor, state legislature and local office is considered non-federal. That political activity is reported to state elections or ethics agencies.

Federal activity—spending to help candidates for Congress or the presidency —must be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

The Center surveyed the type of information political party committees must report to state oversight agencies. State reporting usually covers only non-federal spending. But state parties also participate in federal elections and are required to abide by FEC rules. To provide context, Center researchers applied its disclosure ranking survey questions to the federal law.

Why didn’t the FEC get a perfect score?

The Center survey included 23 questions with weighted points totaling 100. It focused on five areas of campaign finance regulation: extent of disclosure of contributions and disclosure of expenditures; frequency of filing; barriers to access; and enforcement. The FEC laws received 87 points.

On the whole, federal law demands more than state law, though it would have ranked fifth in the nation, behind Oregon, Washington, California (which were tied), and North Carolina.

The FEC lost points on several questions:

• State party committees are not required to file disclosure reports monthly, which would receive maximum points; though they have the option to do so during both the election and non-election year. When the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act goes into effect after the Nov. 6 elections, monthly filing will become a requirement.
• Late contribution reports are not required. Federal candidates must file such reports, but party committees do not. That means money given to the state party within 20 days of the election will not show up on FEC disclosures until the next report is due—after the election.
• Contributions are not itemized until an individual contributes $200 or more during the calendar year. However, it should be noted that all contributions from political committees or party committees must be itemized.
• Individuals don’t identify their employer or occupation until the donor has contributed $200 or more in a calendar year.
• Generally, only expenditures of $200 or more must be itemized. However, there are some expenditures that must be itemized regardless of the amount, including money spent on shared federal/nonfederal operating costs, contributions to candidates and political committees and transfers to party committees.
• Only committees “that receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $50,000 in a calendar year” file disclosures by computer. In practice, most state-wide political parties meet this threshold and therefore must file electronically.

State Secrets Disclosure Report Card:

Federal Election Commission