[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2074 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2074

  To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to expedite the 
 availability of reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 1997

Mr. Goodlatte introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on House Oversight

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to expedite the 
 availability of reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Electronic Campaign Filing and 
Disclosure Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. PROMOTING EXPEDITED AVAILABILITY OF FEC REPORTS.

    (a) Mandatory Electronic Filing.--Section 304(a)(11)(A) of the 
Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 434(a)(11)(A)) is 
amended by striking ``permit reports required by'' and inserting 
``require reports under''.
    (b) Expedited Reporting for Large Contributions Made to Principal 
Campaign Committee Within 90 Days of Election.--Section 304(a)(6)(A) of 
such Act (2 U.S.C. 434(a)(6)(A)) is amended by striking ``after the 
20th day, but more than 48 hours before any election'' and inserting 
``during the period which begins on the 90th day before an election and 
ends at midnight on the date of such election''.
    (c) Expedited Reporting for Large Independent Expenditures Made 
Within 90 Days of Election.--Section 304(c)(2) of such Act (2 U.S.C. 
434(c)(2)) is amended in the matter following subparagraph (C) by 
striking ``after the 20th day, but more than 24 hours before any 
election'' and inserting ``during the period which begins on the 90th 
day before an election and ends at midnight on the date of such 
election''.
    (d) Increasing Electronic Disclosure.--Section 304 of such Act (2 
U.S.C. 434(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
subsection:
    ``(d)(1) The Commission shall make the information contained in the 
reports submitted under this section available on the Internet and 
publicly available at the offices of the Commission as soon as 
practicable (but in no case later than 24 hours) after the information 
is received by the Commission.
    ``(2) In this subsection, the term `Internet' means the 
international computer network of both Federal and non-Federal 
interoperable packet-switched data networks.''.
    (e) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply with respect to reports for periods beginning on or after January 
1, 1999.

SEC. 3. WAIVER OF ``BEST EFFORTS'' EXCEPTION FOR INFORMATION ON 
              IDENTIFICATION OF CONTRIBUTORS.

    (a) In General.--Section 302(i) of the Federal Election Campaign 
Act of 1971 (2 U.S.C. 432(i)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(i) When the treasurer'' and inserting 
        ``(i)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), when the 
        treasurer''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply with respect to information 
regarding the identification of any person who makes a contribution or 
contributions aggregating more than $200 during a calendar year (as 
required to be provided under subsection (c)(3)).''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
apply with respect to persons making contributions for elections 
occurring after January 1999.
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