Update on Independent Expenditure Reporting

FEC Reporting Requirements for Independent Expenditures

March 21, 2002

The Federal Election Commission recently approved final rules to the reporting requirements for independent expenditures, including those expenditures made less than 20 days before an election. 

Under the regulations (old and new), political committees and other persons are required to report independent expenditures exceeding $250.  In addition, if independent expenditures of $1,000 or more are made less than twenty (20) days but more than twenty-four (24) hours before the day of an election, an additional statement must be filed within 24 hours.

 The new rules include the following changes to these requirements:

• 24-hour reports of independent expenditures will only be considered timely filed if they are received by the FEC (or Secretary of the Senate in the case of independent expenditures in a Senate race) within 24 hours of the time the reported expenditure is made.  Under the previous regulations, 24-hour reports were considered timely filed if they were deposited at the Post Office or postmarked for certified or registered mail within 24 hours of the time the expenditure was made.

• In order to meet the deadline, political committees that do not file electronically may file their 24-hour reports by facsimile or email.  Hand-delivery or overnight courier are also acceptable means of filing for non-electronic filers.  Electronic filers must file electronically within 24 hours. 

• The filed reports (including Form 5 and Schedule E) must be self-verified, no longer notarized.  Thus, paper reports (i.e., filed by hand-delivery or fax machine) must be verified by the filer's signature under the certification of independence.  Reports filed by email and by electronic filers must be verified by the filer typing his or her name under the certification.  Electronic filers are no longer required to  follow-up their electronic filing with a paper copy. 

• The Commission also considered the issue of when an independent expenditure is actually "made," thus triggering reporting requirements.  Under the new regulations, independent expenditures will be considered to have been "made" on the first date on which the communication is published, broadcast or otherwise publicly disseminated.  A communication that is mailed to its intended audience is publicly disseminated when it is relinquished to the U.S. Postal Service.

• This definition of when an independent expenditure is made applies to all reporting of independent expenditures, not just 24-hour reporting.  The FEC rejected proposed regulations that would have defined independent expenditures as having been made upon the earliest of three possible times:  the approved definition (listed above), the date on which a written contract, including a media contract, promise or agreement to make an independent expenditure is executed or the date on which the person making the independent expenditure pays for it.

 A copy of the FEC's final Explanation and Justification for the approved rules will be published.  The rules do not go into effect until they receive final approval from Congress.