Week of September 21-25, 2020

Commission meetings and hearings

On September 22, the Commission met in executive session.

Litigation

Lieu, et al. v. FEC (Case No. 19-1398) On September 21, the FEC filed a Brief for the Respondent in Opposition.

Outreach

On September 21, Chair James E. “Trey” Trainor III participated in a virtual panel discussion on campaign finance law organized by students from American University.

On September 23, Laura Beaufort, Tech Lead in the Office of the Chief Information Officer, spoke on “Building scalable cloud architecture to support public interest in campaign finance data” at the General Service Administration’s Technology Transformation Service Impact Summit Series: Cloud and Infrastructure.

On September 23 and 24, the Commission held reporting and FECFile webinars for candidates, PACs and political party committees.

On September 24, Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub spoke at a workshop entitled "The United States Experience: Accountability and Integrity in US Elections." The workshop was part of an online program sponsored by the Asia Pacific Regional Support for Elections and Political Transitions (RESPECT) Program.

On September 24, Commissioner Weintraub spoke to an administrative law class at Cardozo Law School on the role of the FEC.

On September 24th, Chair Trainor gave an interview to The Dispatch on topics including election law, foreign interference and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act and its consequences. (Audio of the interview begins at minute 40.)

Upcoming Commission meetings

October 20, 2020: The Commission is scheduled to meet in executive session.

Upcoming reporting due dates

October 15: October Quarterly reports are due. For more information on quarterly reporting dates, refer to the 2020 Quarterly Reporting page of the Commission website.

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

October 22: Pre-general election reports are due. For more information, refer to the 2020 Pre- and Post-General Reports page of the Commission website.

Status of agency operations

See the Commission’s statement on the status of agency operations, updated on August 10, 2020. At this stage, most agency staff remain in telework status and the Commission’s office remains closed to visitors.

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.