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FEC Set To Nudge Senate On E-Filing
by Danielle Belopotosky
Rules that shield senators and Senate candidates from laws requiring the electronic filing of campaign-finance reports are on the radar of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) again. On Thursday, the commission is expected to revive its longstanding recommendation that Senate candidates be held to the same disclosure standards as everyone else.
But only the Senate can decide whether to adopt such a recommendation - and the Senate has not budged on the issue since the FEC became the official point of entry for House campaign-finance filings. In December 1995, the House began filing its reports directly with the FEC, instead of through the House clerk, but the Senate did not waive its direct control of candidate records.
"The Senate believes that they own the campaign-finance information in Senate documents and [that] they have a constitutional right to maintain their own documents," said Pamela Gavin, superintendent of the Senate Office of Public Records. "The Senate has not wanted or felt inclined to deal with the issue ever since [1995]."
But Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI), said "There is no constitutional right" to ownership of the documents. He noted that the Senate already sends its paper-based financial reports to the FEC, as required by law.
A Brief History Of Public Disclosure
Public disclosure of election financing has long been an accepted principle of campaign-finance law. Since 1910, House members have reported incoming money and disbursements to the House clerk, and the Senate adopted a similar system two years later. Campaign-finance laws have evolved since then, and the 1971 law set in motion a series of regulations that ultimately led to the creation of the FEC in 1974.
In 1997, the law was amended so House candidates and campaign committees, along with political action committees, presidential campaigns and political party committees, could electronically file disclosure reports to the commission. In 2000, the law mandated the e-filing requirement for committees that raise more than $50,000.
The FEC and public-disclosure advocates have found that paper filings can cause delays in the availability of such records and result in scanned filings that are not easily searchable. The Senate's paper reports, however, continue to be mailed to the FEC from the Senate secretary.
The Senate has handled financial disclosures for lobbyists electronically since 2001, and the House has a voluntary electronic option for lobbying shops that took effect with the Feb. 14 filing date. In 2001, furthermore, the Senate adopted as part of the most recent campaign-finance law language that requires the FEC to develop software allowing for the electronic transmission of contributions as they are made. The FEC is in the early stages of creating the system. But the Senate will be exempt from that system, too.
The Senate's exemptions are not a technology issue, disclosure advocates said. The technology exists and senators are using it to create reports and then print them on paper. In a 2003 CFI telephone survey of incumbents, 98 of 99 senators said they used some form of software to complete disclosure forms. Only one compiled the report by hand.
"When we get the paper copies, we image them in," an FEC spokeswoman said. That means the reports are scanned into the computer and posted on the commission's Web site in a file format that is not searchable. To make the filing process less burdensome and expensive, the FEC does offer free electronic-reporting software on its Web site and allows private vendors to offer software that is compatible with the commission's reporting requirements.
The Pros And Cons Of Electronic Filing
It costs the FEC about $1 million annually to maintain the electronic system, FEC co-Chair Ellen Weintraub told the Senate Rules and Administration Committee in July 2004. She added that the median time to process documents is now down from 10 to 11 days to five to six days.
Weissman said paper reports cause significant delays in access to information. In an upcoming report, CFI found that nearly 90 percent of third-quarter campaign filings in Senate races were not available on the FEC's Web site in the days before the 2004 election because the FEC had not received the reports on the due date or because of the time it takes to key in the reports.
"Reports that are filed electronically are normally available within five minutes, and detailed data is available in the commission's databases within 24 to 48 hours," according to the FEC's Web site. By contrast, in extreme cases "it can take as long as 30 days before some detailed data filed on paper is available on the commission's databases."
Disruption in mail delivery also is a concern for paper filings. The 2001 anthrax and 2004 ricin mailings to Capitol Hill delayed the delivery of some reports by months.
The Senate's Gavin said such delays no longer are an issue because Congress passed a law that allows private couriers to handle its mail. Congress has a contract with Pitney Bowes to manage couriers, such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service, she said.
But Craig Holman, a legislative representative for Public Citizen who has conducted surveys throughout North America on the adoption of e-filing campaign-finance records, reached this conclusion: "The Senate is evading disclosure agreements. ...The Senate joins the northernmost territories of Canada of not disclosing electronically."
The FEC would save about $100,000 per year if the Senate were to convert to an e-filing system, according to CFI. And Holman said the Senate could create its own electronic system if it wants to keep proprietary control of records. Under that system, the Senate still could control its documents while converting to a timely, more cost-effective system, he said.
The Obstacle Of Senate Prerogative
Since 1997, the FEC has recommended that the Senate adopt e-filing of campaign-finance reports, but the inaction to date shows that the effort could be futile. Gavin said the "Senate Rules Committee has oversight over the agency and matters over election law" and added that it is up to the Senate "to make the changes based on the prerogative when they want to."
In November 2003, Senate campaign-finance advocates Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., co-sponsored a bill, S. 1874, that would have killed the Senate exemption from electronic filing, but the bill never made it out of the Rules Committee. Feingold's office did not comment by press time on whether the bill will be reintroduced in the 109th Congress.
Rules Committee Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., and ranking Democrat Christopher Dodd of Connecticut publicly stated in March 2004 that each supported the measure. Dodd looks forward to reviewing the FEC's latest recommendations once they are released, according to his office. Committee member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., also would support electronic filing for senators, a spokeswoman in his office said.
Spokeswomen in the offices of committee members Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said neither has taken a position on the issue. And calls to other committee members -- including Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii; and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. -- went unreturned by press time.
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