Federal Election Commission December 8, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commission is seeking comments on a proposed policy statement to clarify and memorialize its approach to enforcement actions arising from self-reported violations (also known as sua sponte submissions). In order to encourage the self-reporting of violations about which the Commission would not otherwise have learned, the Commission proposes, in appropriate cases warranting such mitigation, to offer significantly lower penalties than the Commission would otherwise have sought in complaint-generated matters involving similar circumstances. The Commission is also outlining a new expedited procedure that it intends to use in a limited number of situations through which the Commission may allow individuals and organizations that self-report violations and that make a complete report of their internal investigation to proceed directly into conciliation prior to the Commission determining whether their conduct may have violated statutes or regulations within its jurisdiction. The proposed policy also addresses various issues that can arise in connection with parallel criminal, administrative or civil proceedings. The Commission requests comments on this proposed policy.

The Federal Election Commission (the ``Commission'') seeks comments on a proposal to clarify its enforcement policy with respect to the circumstances under which it intends to consider a political committee and its treasurer to be in compliance with the recordkeeping and reporting requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act, as amended (``FECA''), based on the ``best efforts'' defense. Section 432(i) of Title 2 provides that when the treasurer of a political committee demonstrates that best efforts were used to obtain, maintain, and submit the information required by FECA, any report or any records of such committee shall be considered in compliance with FECA (and/or chapters 95 and 96 of Title 26). In the past, the Commission has interpreted this section to apply only to a treasurer's efforts to obtain required information from contributors to a political committee, and not to maintaining information or the submission of reports. However, in light of Lovely v. Federal Election Commission, 307 F. Supp. 2d 294 (D. Mass. 2004), the Commission intends to apply Section 432(i) to obtaining, maintaining, and submitting information and records to the Commission for the purpose of complying with FECA's disclosure and reporting requirements. Further information is provided in the supplementary information that follows.