Bill follows through on the Federal Election Commission’s top bipartisan legislative recommendation to Congress
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration with oversight over federal elections and campaign finance law, announced that their bipartisan legislation to improve the accountability of our campaign finance system passed the Senate today.
This bill would reauthorize the Federal Election Commission (FEC)’s program to issue administrative fines for late or missing financial disclosure reports for ten years. Extending this program was the FEC’s highest priority bipartisan legislative recommendation in its 2022 annual report to Congress. The administrative fine program will expire at the end of the year if Congress does not act.
“The administrative fine program is critical to making sure campaign finance disclosure requirements are being followed and Americans know who is influencing their elections,” said Klobuchar. “I’m glad to see my bipartisan legislation with Senator Fischer to reauthorize this essential program pass the Senate. I’ll keep working to improve transparency in our elections.”
“When campaign finance rules are followed, that is a win for the American people and the transparency they deserve. Our bill will extend the FEC’s administrative fine program and ensure the agency’s commonsense rules are being followed. I appreciate my colleagues’ unanimous support and look forward to getting this bipartisan initiative passed into law,” said Fischer.
Since the FEC’s administrative fine program was first created in 1999, Congress has passed bipartisan legislation six times to extend the program, most recently in 2018. The FEC has described the administrative fine program as “one of the most cost-effective and successful programs in its history,” with the number of late financial disclosure reports decreasing from around 21 percent before the program’s inception to less than 10 percent today.
###
