[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 148 (Thursday, August 1, 2024)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 62672-62673]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16843]



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FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

11 CFR Part 104

[Notice 2024-19]


Requirement To File FEC Form 3-Z

AGENCY: Federal Election Commission.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Election Commission proposes to amend its 
regulations by removing the requirement that the principal campaign 
committee of a candidate with multiple authorized committees must 
report information on FEC Form 3-Z. The Commission seeks comment on the 
proposed rule and has made no final decision on the issues presented in 
this rulemaking.

DATES: Comments must be received on or before September 3, 2024. The 
Commission may hold a public hearing on this notice of proposed 
rulemaking. Commenters wishing to testify at a hearing must so indicate 
in their comments. If a hearing is to be held, the Commission will 
publish a notification in the Federal Register announcing the date and 
time of the hearing.

ADDRESSES: All comments must be in writing. Commenters are encouraged 
to submit comments electronically via the Commission's website at 
https://sers.fec.gov/fosers, reference REG 2024-04. Alternatively, 
comments may be submitted in paper form addressed to the Federal 
Election Commission, Attn.: Ms. Amy Rothstein, Assistant General 
Counsel for Policy, 1050 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20463 (U.S. 
mail) or 20002 (all other delivery services).
    Each commenter must provide, at a minimum, the commenter's first 
name, last name, city, and state. All properly submitted comments, 
including attachments, will become part of the public record, and the 
Commission will make comments available for public viewing on the 
Commission's website and in the Commission's Public Records Office. 
Accordingly, commenters should not provide any information that they do 
not wish to make public, such as a home street address, personal email 
address, date of birth, phone number, social security number, or 
driver's license number, or any information that is restricted from 
disclosure, such as trade secrets or commercial or financial 
information that is privileged or confidential.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Amy Rothstein, Assistant General 
Counsel for Policy, or Jennifer Waldman, Attorney, 1050 First Street 
NE, Washington, DC (202) 694-1650 or (800) 424-9530.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission proposes to amend its 
regulations by removing the requirement that the principal campaign 
committee of a candidate with multiple authorized committees must 
report information on FEC Form 3-Z. The Commission is seeking comment 
on the proposed rule change. In particular, the Commission seeks 
comment on whether and for what purpose the public obtains information 
from FEC Form 3-Z or otherwise uses FEC Form 3-Z.

I. Background

    The Federal Election Campaign Act (the ``Act'') \1\ and Commission 
regulations require each candidate to register a principal campaign 
committee within 15 days of becoming a candidate.\2\ A candidate may 
also authorize other political committees to receive contributions or 
make expenditures on the candidate's behalf by designating the 
committees in writing and filing the designations with the candidate's 
principal campaign committee.\3\
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    \1\ 52 U.S.C. 30101-45.
    \2\ Id. 30102(e)(1); 11 CFR 101.1(a); see also 52 U.S.C. 
30101(5) (``The term `principal campaign committee' means a 
political committee designated and authorized by a candidate under 
section 30102(e)(1) of this title.''); 11 CFR 100.5(e)(1).
    \3\ 52 U.S.C. 30102(e)(1); 11 CFR 101.1(b); see also 52 U.S.C. 
30101(6) (``The term `authorized committee' means the principal 
campaign committee or any other political committee authorized by a 
candidate under section 30102(e)(1) of this title to receive 
contributions or make expenditures on behalf of such candidate.''); 
11 CFR 100.5(f)(1).
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    The Act requires ``each designation, statement or report of 
receipts or disbursements made by an authorized committee'' to be filed 
with the candidate's principal campaign committee.\4\ The Act further 
requires each principal campaign committee, in turn, to ``receive'' 
these designations, statements and reports and to ``compile and file'' 
them pursuant to the Act.\5\
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    \4\ 52 U.S.C. 30102(f)(1).
    \5\ Id. 30102(f)(2).
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    In 1980, the Commission promulgated a regulation (11 CFR 104.3(f)) 
to implement these requirements: Section 104.3(f) requires each 
candidate's principal campaign committee to file reports submitted to 
it by the candidate's other authorized committees, along with its own 
report.\6\ In addition, Sec.  104.3(f) requires the principal campaign 
committee to file FEC Form 3-Z to report specific consolidated 
information gleaned from the authorized committees' reports when it 
submits those reports to the Commission.\7\ It is this FEC Form 3-Z 
that the Commission now proposes to remove.
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    \6\ 11 CFR 104.3(f).
    \7\ Id.
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    When the Commission first started requiring FEC Form 3-Z, political 
committees filed their reports only in paper form and the Commission 
made the reports publicly available on paper and microfiche in the 
Commission's Public Records room. By requiring a candidate's principal 
campaign committee to consolidate information about the financial 
activity of all of the candidate's authorized committees on FEC Form 3-
Z, the Commission made it easier for the public to obtain a 
comprehensive picture of the candidate's receipts and disbursements 
during the reporting period.
    Public access to political committees' reports has expanded 
dramatically since 1980, however, due in large part to statutory 
revisions and technological developments. In 1999, Congress amended the 
Act to provide for mandatory and discretionary electronic filing; \8\ 
as a result, all political committees that have or reasonably expect to 
have contributions or expenditures exceeding $50,000 in a calendar year 
must electronically file their reports directly with the Commission, 
and other persons may do so if they choose.\9\ Further, Congress 
amended the Act to require the Commission to make all reports filed 
electronically with the Commission publicly available on the internet 
within 24 hours of receipt and within 48 hours of receipt for reports 
not filed electronically.\10\
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    \8\ Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2000, 
Public Law 106-58, sec. 639(a), 113 Stat. 430, 476 (1999) (``2000 
Appropriations Act''); 52 U.S.C. 30104(a)(11)(A).
    \9\ 11 CFR 104.18(a) (requiring electronic filing for certain 
political committee); 11 CFR 104.18(b) (authorizing other committees 
to file electronically if they choose to do so); Electronic Filing 
of Reports by Political Committees, 65 FR 38415 (June 21, 2000), 
https://sers.fec.gov/fosers/showpdf.htm?docid=382 (last visited July 
1, 2024).
    \10\ 2000 Appropriations Act (requiring posting within 24 
hours); Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, Public Law 107-155, 
sec. 501, 116 Stat. 81, 114 (2002) (``BCRA'') (requiring posting 
within 48 hours); 52 U.S.C. 30104(a)(11)(B), (d)(2).
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    Congress also amended the Act in 2002 to require the Commission to 
maintain a central website ``to make accessible to the public all 
publicly available election-related reports and information'' required 
to be filed under the Act.\11\ The posted reports and

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related information can be searched, sorted, and downloaded.\12\
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    \11\ BCRA, sec. 502, 116 Stat. 115; 52 U.S.C. 30112(a). The 
Commission had launched its website, FEC.gov, six years earlier. See 
FEC Annual Report 1996 at 1, 5 (1997), https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/ar96.pdf (last visited July 1, 
2024).
    \12\ See, e.g., 52 U.S.C. 30104(i)(4) (requiring Commission to 
ensure, ``to the greatest extent practicable,'' that certain 
information is publicly available on its website ``in a manner that 
is searchable, sortable, and downloadable'').
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II. Proposed Changes to 11 CFR 104.3

    The Commission proposes to amend Sec.  104.3(f) by eliminating the 
requirement that principal campaign committees file FEC Form 3-Z. 
Although FEC Form 3-Z served a useful purpose when it was introduced 
more than 40 years ago, the information that it provides essentially 
duplicates information that is now filed directly with the Commission 
and readily available to the public in a searchable, sortable, and 
downloadable format. Accordingly, FEC Form 3-Z appears to have been 
rendered obsolete.
    The Commission does not intend or anticipate that its proposal, if 
adopted, would have a detrimental effect on disclosure. Indeed, only 
candidates with more than one authorized committee must file FEC Form 
3-Z, and the number of candidates with more than one authorized 
committee who are not also mandatory electronic filers is vanishingly 
small: Of the nearly 4,000 registered authorized committees that have 
filed in the 2023-2024 election cycle, not one would trigger the FEC 
Form 3-Z requirement without also triggering the electronic filing 
requirement.\13\
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    \13\ FEC, Committees, https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/?tab=committees (last visited July 1, 2024).
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    The Commission seeks comment on this proposal. In particular, would 
the elimination of FEC Form 3-Z negatively affect disclosure of 
information about the financial activities of principal campaign 
committees and their authorized committees? In what manner and for what 
purpose does the public currently obtain information from FEC Form 3-Z 
or otherwise use FEC Form 3-Z?

List of Subjects in 11 CFR Part 104

    Campaign funds, Political committees and parties, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements.

    For the reasons set out in the preamble, the Federal Election 
Commission proposes to amend 11 CFR part 104 as follows:

PART 104--REPORTS BY POLITICAL COMMITTEES AND OTHER PERSONS (52 
U.S.C. 30104)

0
1. The authority citation for part 104 is revised to read as follows:

    Authority:  52 U.S.C. 30101(1), 30101(8), 30101(9), 30102(f), 
(g) and (i), 30104, 30111(a)(8) and (b), 30114, 30116, 36 U.S.C. 
510.

0
2. Amend Sec.  104.3 by revising paragraph (f) to read as follows:


Sec.  104.3  Contents of reports (52 U.S.C. 30104(b), 30114).

* * * * *
    (f) Consolidated reports. Each principal campaign committee shall 
consolidate in each report those reports required to be filed with it. 
Such consolidated reports shall include:
    (1) Reports submitted to it by any authorized committees; and
    (2) The principal campaign committee's own reports.
* * * * *

    On behalf of the Commission,
Sean J. Cooksey,
Chairman, Federal Election Commission.
[FR Doc. 2024-16843 Filed 7-31-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6715-01-P