Week of July 13-17, 2020

Commission meetings and hearings

No open meetings or executive sessions were scheduled this week.

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 912

COMPLAINANT: FEC-Initiated
RESPONDENTS: North Dakota Republican Party and Nicholas Hacker, in his official capacity as treasurer (the Committee)
SUBJECT: In the normal course of carrying out its supervisory responsibilities, the Commission initiated proceedings to determine whether the Committee failed to report $413,719.04 in financial activity on its original 2016 October Monthly report.
DISPOSITION: The Committee agreed to 1) update its compliance operations manual to include transfer procedures as they relate to joint fundraising activity and to certify the manual’s implementation; and 2) pay a civil penalty of $8,000.

Litigation

Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (Case No. 20-0588) On July 16, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Dismissal in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Campaign Legal Center v. FEC (Case No. 20-1778) On June 30, Plaintiff filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Ted Cruz for Senate, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-908) On July 14, the Commission filed a Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Upcoming reporting due dates

July 20: July Monthly reports are due. For more information on monthly reporting dates, refer to the 2020 Monthly Reporting page of the Commission website.

Updated election dates

For the latest reporting updates, please visit the Commission’s Dates and deadlines web page.

Status of agency operations

A statement on the status of agency operations, updated on June 18, 2020, outlines the impact of the staff’s current telework environment on agency services, addresses submission of documents including enforcement complaints, and highlights procedures for presidential and vice presidential candidates to submit public financial disclosure reports. Beginning June 18, the agency has entered the initial phase of reopening and return to normal operations. At this stage, most agency staff remain in telework status and the Commission’s office remains closed to visitors. During this phase, the FEC is resuming mail processing, including any mail delivered since the agency suspended its mail operations on March 17. However, the agency will not accept or process any documents or correspondence delivered by courier. Incoming mail, including non-electronically filed reports, advisory opinion requests, enforcement complaints, and court-case documents, will typically be processed on a weekly basis. Outgoing mail will be processed on a similar 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.

Federal Elections 2018: Election Results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is 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 2019 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 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 at this time. The use of the agency’s logo, name, and likeness on other media has not been authorized by the FEC.