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2011 Chief FOIA Officer Report 

 Federal Election Commission 

I. Steps Taken to Apply the Presumption of Openness

1. Describe the steps your agency has taken to ensure that the presumption of 

openness is being applied to all decisions involving the FOIA. To do so, you 

should answer the questions listed below and then include any additional 

information you would like to describe how your agency is working to apply the 

presumption of openness. 

a. Describe how the President’s FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney 

General’s FOIA Guidelines have been publicized throughout your agency.

b. What training has been attended and/or conducted on the new FOIA 

Guidelines? 

c. How has your agency created or modified your internal guidance to 

reflect the presumption of openness? 

d. To what extent has your agency made discretionary releases of otherwise 

exempt information? 

e. What exemptions would have covered the information that was released as 

a matter of discretion? 

f. How does your agency review records to determine whether discretionary 

releases are possible? 

g. Describe any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that 

the presumption of openness is being applied. 

____________________________________________________________________________ 

As a preliminary matter, we note that per the instructions for this report, the phrase 

“presumption of openness” refers specifically to President Obama’s direction to agencies to 

administer the FOIA with a clear presumption of disclosure, resolve doubts in favor of openness, 

and not withhold information based on “speculative or abstract fears.” We note that FOIA itself 

is based on a presumption of openness. FOIA’s basic rule at 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3)(A) is that 

each agency, upon any request for records that reasonably describes the records and is made in 

accordance with published rules, shall make the records promptly available to any person. Only 

if the records are described in one of the exemptions in 5 U.S.C. § 552(b) may they be withheld. 

This structure is, in essence, a presumption of openness – all documents are to be released unless 

exempt. The Federal Election Commission (“FEC or Commission”) has always complied with 

this statutory structure. We regularly disclose campaign finance related information and 

campaign finance enforcement matters as a part of the FEC’s core mission. 

a. Describe how the President’s FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General’s FOIA 

Guidelines have been publicized throughout your agency. 
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 As we indicated in our 2010 report, the Commission’s FOIA staff have been informed of 

the President’s directive and of the Attorney General’s guidance, stipulating that the Department 

of Justice will not defend an agency in FOIA litigation (even where an exemption is applicable), 

unless release will cause some demonstrable harm to the interests the exemptions are meant to 

protect. All FOIA staff have been provided with copies of the directive and guidance and all 

FOIA staff have been instructed in staff meetings to keep these principles in mind when 

assembling proposed responses. 

The FEC’s six presidentially-appointed Commissioners have also recently had occasion 

to consider the President’s FOIA Memorandum and the Attorney General’s FOIA Guidelines in 

their role as the deciding body for all FOIA appeals. In particular, two appeals placed before the 

Commission shortly after the close of FY 2010 raised issues regarding the application of the 

President’s Memorandum and the Attorney General’s guidance, and the FOIA staff’s analysis of 

a significant portion of one of the appeals substantially turned on application of these principles. 

In that appeal the Commission considered documents related to a particular subject matter, all of 

which were exempt from release as predecisional under Exemption 5. The analysis focused on 

distinctions between those documents release of which would involve demonstrable harm to the 

agency’s deliberative processes and which would not. 

 In addition, outside the context of specific requests the FOIA staff increased awareness 

about the Memorandum and Guidelines within the Policy Division of the Commission’s Office 

of General Counsel when it advised that division of the Memorandum and Guidelines’ 

implications for a policy memorandum that division prepared for the Commission. The 

Commission may issue advisory opinions (“AOs”) about the application of the campaign finance 

laws to specific transactions proposed by qualified requestors. 2 U.S.C. § 437f. Factual 

information submitted in support of these requests is normally proactively disclosed by the 

Commission on its web site. This year, the agency confronted questions regarding how to deal 

with factual information submitted by requestors that the requestors claimed was proprietary. 

The FOIA staff advised OGC Policy about the implications for compliance with the spirit of the 

President’s Memorandum and the Attorney General’s Guidelines of various options that were 

under consideration. 

b. What training has been attended and/or conducted on the new FOIA Guidelines? 

The FEC believes strongly in the need to train staff in all areas to include training 

for FOIA. During the past year we have sent our Administrative Law attorneys and paralegals to 

FOIA training provided by the Department of Justice. In May 2010, staff members attended 

DOJ’s training titled “FOIA for Attorneys and Access Professionals.”

c. How has your agency created or modified your internal guidance to reflect the 

presumption of openness? 

In an effort to modify our internal guidance to reflect the presumption of openness 

we have made clear to staff that an analysis under FOIA should take into consideration the harm 

that would result in release. Each week the Administrative Law Team holds staff meetings that 
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include a discussion of FOIA issues. We make clear to staff in those meetings that discretionary 

disclosure of otherwise exempt information is appropriate where there is little or no harm from 

release. Also, at each level of review we make sure to flag records that have been deemed to be 

of little or no harm for potential release on the basis of a discretionary disclosure. We have also 

instructed staff that unless otherwise told they should release information under a “low 2” 

analysis due to the trivial nature of the information. 

 d. To what extent has your agency made discretionary releases of otherwise exempt 

information? 

Our general impression over the past year has continued to be that the President’s 

directive and the Attorney General’s guidelines have had their largest impact not in cases where 

material was obviously exempt from disclosure, but in cases where it was a closer call whether 

the material was exempt. Where material has been obviously exempt the potential harm from 

disclosure has also been obvious. However, where the applicability of the exemption has been a 

closer call, but there would be little or no harm from release (i.e. under FOIA Exemptions 2 and, 

on occasion, under Exemption 5, ), then consistent with the guidelines we have released the 

material rather than advancing aggressive interpretations of the exemptions. 

e. What exemptions would have covered the information that was released as a matter of 

discretion? 

In the past year at the FEC our FOIA staff released records as a matter of discretion under 

FOIA exemptions 2 and 5. 

f. How does your agency review records to determine whether discretionary releases are 

possible? 

Each proposed response is reviewed by the Assistant General Counsel for Administrative 

Law (who also serves as the Commission’s FOIA Public Liaison), and, in the case of legally 

complicated or otherwise sensitive requests, by the Chief FOIA Officer. These managers apply 

the principles articulated in the guidelines to proposed responses and ask whether the records 

reviewed could be released on a discretionary basis. When there is a case where discretionary 

release is appropriate, FOIA managers discuss the appropriate changes with the staff, thereby 

reinforcing application of the guidelines and the need to release information that would 

otherwise be exempt but can be released on a discretionary basis. Since the issuance of the 

guidelines we have had ongoing discussions with staff and it has been apparent that the staff is 

incorporating the presumption of openness referred to in the guidelines to draft responses 

provided to the Liaison and the Chief FOIA Officer for final review. 

g. Describe any other initiatives undertaken by your agency to ensure that the 

presumption of openness is being applied. 

The FEC continues to make sure that the presumption of openness is applied throughout 

the agency. To that end, we have gone through a thorough review of our records and have 

placed more documents onto our website in the past year to include Audit Reports and First 

General Counsel Reports, subject to redactions for exemptions where deemed appropriate. 
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2. Report the extent to which the numbers of requests where records have been released 

in full and the numbers of requests where records have been released in part has changed from 

those numbers as reported in your previous year’s Annual FOIA Report. 

During Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2010, the Commission had a marked increase in the number 

of processed FOIA requests. The following table shows the relevant statistics: 

Fiscal Year 2009 Fiscal Year 2010

Total Requests Processed 67 (100%) 81 (100%)

Granted In Full 10 (14.9%) 25 (30.9%)

Granted In Part 28 (41.8%) 21 (25.9%)

Denied In Full As Exempt 2 (3.0%) 1 (1.2%)

Denied: No Responsive 

Records

17 (25.3%) 27 (33.3%)

Request Withdrawn 7 (10.4%)15 (6.2%)

Denied: All Records 

Referred to Another 

Agency

3 (4.4%) 2 (2.5%)

 While the combined percentage of requests granted in full or in part has remained 

relatively constant, the percentage of requests granted in full increased significantly, from just 

under 15% in FY 2009 to just under 31% in FY 2010. Some of this is attributable to application 

of the President’s Memorandum and the Attorney General’s Guidelines. In particular, we are no 

longer applying the so-called “low 2” exemption as a routine matter wherever it could be 

invoked. Some, however, is due simply to the luck of the draw as to the nature of the requests 

received in FY 2010. 

Within the cohort of requests denied, denials due to a lack of responsive records increased 

from 25% to 33% of all requests. This seems at least in part due to an increased number of 

requests from requesters who are not familiar with the Commission’s limited jurisdiction, which 

concerns federal campaign finance matters, and not all issues regarding elections. In particular, 

several requests denied in full in FY 2010 dealt with subject matter such as the President’s birth 

certificate. 

The number of requests denied in full as exempt continued to be minuscule. 

II. Steps Taken to Ensure that the Agency has an Effective System In Place for 

Responding to Requests

Describe here the steps your agency has taken to ensure that your system for 

responding to requests is effective and efficient. This section should include a 

discussion of how your agency has addressed the key roles played by the broad 

spectrum of agency personnel who work with FOIA professionals in responding 

 

1

 This number was incorrectly calculated last year. 
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to requests, including, in particular, steps taken to ensure that FOIA professionals 

have sufficient IT support. To do so, answer the questions below and then include 

any additional information that you would like to describe how your agency 

ensures that your FOIA system is efficient and effective. 

a. Do FOIA professionals within your agency have sufficient IT support? 

b. Describe how your agency’s FOIA professionals interact with your Open 

Government Team. 

c. Describe the steps your agency has taken to assess whether adequate staffing is 

being devoted to responding to FOIA requests. 

d. Describe any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA 

system operates efficiently and effectively. 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

a. Do FOIA professionals within your agency have sufficient IT support? 

Yes, FOIA professionals at the Commission have sufficient support from IT 

professionals. The FEC has an IT Help Desk, which is run by full-time support staff and 

provides technical support for hardware and software utilized by all agency personnel, including 

those involved in the FOIA process. Moreover, the IT professionals regularly consult with the 

FOIA staff regarding new software that could be used to make the agency’s FOIA program more 

efficient. 

b. Describe how your agency’s FOIA professionals interact with your Open 

Government Team. 

The Commission's Information Technology Division, as the division with ownership of 

the Commission's website, acts as the Commission's Open Government team. Open government 

is not new for the Commission; the Commission has been making campaign finance information 

available to the public for more than 30 years, and continues to try to develop new forms and 

new information that will help people and groups understand how federal campaigns are funded. 

The Open Government page of the Commission's website so far has focused on highlighting new 

ways to look at information the Commission has made available for many years, including 

interactive maps to aid quick research of financial information for Federal campaigns; links to 

downloads of filings by campaign committees; e-learning tools to better educate the 

Commission's regulated community and the public about compliance with the law; and links to 

agendas and minutes of open Commission meetings, as well as podcasts of the audio files of 

these meetings. 

 Because this information has been the focus of the Commission's initial Open 

Government efforts, and because all of this information has in one form or another been 

proactively released without redaction for quite some time, interaction between the FOIA 

professionals acting in that capacity and the Open Government team acting in that capacity has 

been relatively limited to date. Because the Commission is a small agency, all of these roles are 

collateral duties; the Office of General Counsel's Administrative Law Team and the 
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Commission's IT professionals are each other's clients, and thus interact with each other on a 

regular basis. 

c. Describe the steps your agency has taken to assess whether adequate staffing is 

being devoted to responding to FOIA requests. 

The FEC has no full-time dedicated FOIA staff; all FOIA responsibilities are handled by 

the Administrative Law Team of the General Law and Advice Division of the Commission’s 

Office of General Counsel. In April 2010, the agency undertook a comprehensive review of 

resources in all of its operations in light of anticipated serious budget constraints in FYs 2010, 

2011 and 2012. The exercise was geared towards anticipating increases and decreases in 

workload, and identifying ways in which the agency could accommodate those changes in a 

constrained fiscal environment. We noted at that time that during periods of increase in the 

Administrative Law team's workload, staff typically focus on core functions -- specifically, 

preparing proactive releases of Commission enforcement matters for the public record and more 

routine FOIA requests. We also noted that during less busy times, staff focus on more extensive 

FOIA requests and work to decrease the FOIA backlog. During parts of FY2010 we were 

impacted by extended leaves taken by some staff and by detail of OGC staff who normally have 

FOIA responsibilities to other parts of the agency. On the other hand, just before the end of the 

fiscal year, we added a new GS-11 law clerk to the Administrative Law team, and at the end of 

the calendar year a Presidential Management Fellow took a permanent position as an attorney on 

the Administrative Law Team. This should in the future alleviate response time and backlog 

issues that we have encountered in the past. 

d. Describe any other steps your agency has undertaken to ensure that your FOIA 

system operates efficiently and effectively. 

In FY 2010 we continued to have FOIA processing days for the FOIA staff that process 

FOIAs as a collateral duty and emphasized to staff the need to establish firm deadlines and 

timetables for dealing in a realistic manner with backlogged requests. Also, in FY 2010, we 

continue to leverage the use of technology, such as encouraging document owners to provide 

documents in electronic, and especially PDF, format where they exist. We have increased 

attention to FOIA status and processing by sharing monthly reports on the status of pending 

FOIA requests with the General Counsel and the Commission. FOIA processing will continue to 

be a matter of increased management emphasis in the remainder of fiscal year 2011. 

III. Steps Taken To Increase Proactive Disclosures

Describe here the steps your agency has taken to increase the amount of material that is 

available on your agency website, including providing examples of proactive disclosures that 

have been made since issuance of the new FOIA Guidelines. In doing so, answer the questions 

listed below and describe any additional steps taken by your agency to make proactive 

disclosures of information. 

a. Has your agency added new material to your agency website since last year? 

b. What types of records have been posted? 
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c. Give examples of the types of records your agency now posts that used to be 

available only by making a FOIA request for them. 

d. What system do you have in place to routinely identify records that are 

appropriate for posting? 

e. How do you utilize social media in disseminating information? 

f. Describe any other steps taken to increase proactive disclosures at your agency. 

___________________________________________________________________________ 

a. Has your agency added new material to your agency website since last year? 

Yes, since the last report the FEC has added new material to the agency website. 

b. What types of records have been posted? 

In addition to the Open Government initiatives discussed above, the Commission has 

returned to its prior practice of including First General Counsel's reports on the public record of 

closed enforcement matters, and as resources have been available has added to the public record 

of these matters reports that were not proactively disclosed between 2007 and 2009. The 

Commission has also expanded the types of documents associated with its audits of political 

committees that it proactively discloses on its website, as well as adding newly posted final audit 

reports for audits dating back to the 1986 election cycle, as well as a new search tool for these 

reports. Soon after the close of the fiscal year the agency rolled out the new Searchable 

Electronic Rulemaking System, a new search tool designed to enable easier search of the entire 

dockets of Commission rulemakings. 

c. Give examples of the types of records your agency now posts that used to be available 

only by making a FOIA request for them. 

Other than Open Government initiatives -- which have focused primarily on new formats 

for data already posted -- see the previous answer. 

d. What system do you have in place to routinely identify records that are appropriate for 

posting? 

Many documents are already automatically disclosed pursuant to the Federal Election 

Campaign Act. Moreover, documents that are requested by FOIA requesters at least three times 

will also be posted on the agency’s website. There were no such documents in FY 2010. 

e. How do you utilize social media in disseminating information? 

The FEC continues to use social media to inform the public about the agency and 

increase their knowledge as to what resources are available to them through the FEC website. 

During FY 2010, the Commission’s Press Office continued to post on the agency web site a 

“Weekly Digest” of important activity at the Commission with links to relevant documents. As 

part of a more general website improvement initiative, the FEC also developed a blog, launched 

just before the start of the fiscal year, targeted to experienced users of campaign finance 
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disclosure information. The goals of the blog include: helping users with the mechanics of using 

FEC campaign finance disclosure data; giving updates on progress and plans for new disclosure 

data sets; soliciting customer ideas for new disclosure tools; and providing a forum for the 

sharing of ideas and techniques for working with campaign finance disclosure data. More 

recently, the Commission has decided to use Twitter as a way to disseminate information both to 

the general public and FEC staff. 

f. Describe any other steps taken to increase proactive disclosures at your agency. 

See all of the above answers. 

IV. Steps Taken To Greater Utilize Technology

1. Electronic receipt of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportion of the components within your agency which receive 

FOIA requests have the capability to receive such requests electronically? 

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so 

since the filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 

c. What methods does your agency use to receive requests electronically? 

2. Electronic tracking of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportion of components within your agency which receive FOIA 

requests have the capability to track such requests electronically? 

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so 

since the filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 

c. What methods does your agency use to track requests electronically? 

3. Electronic processing of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportion of components within your agency which receive FOIA 

requests have the capability to process such requests electronically? 

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so 

since the filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 

c. What methods does your agency use to process requests electronically? 

4. Electronic preparation of your Annual FOIA Report: 

a. What type of technology does your agency use to prepare your agency 

Annual FOIA Report, i.e., specify whether the technology is FOIA-specific 

or a generic data-processing system. 

b. If you are not satisfied with your existing system to prepare your Annual 

FOIA Report, describe the steps you have taken to increase your use of 

technology for next year. 

________________________________________________________________________ 

1. Electronic receipt of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportions of the components within your agency which receive FOIA 

requests have the capability to receive such requests electronically? 
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We are a relatively small agency and have a centralized FOIA Requester Service Center 

that does have the capability to receive requests electronically through its FOIA email address 

which is listed on the Commission’s Website. 

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so since the 

filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 

This question is not applicable as we do not have components due to the size of the 

agency. 

c. What methods does your agency use to receive requests electronically? 

The agency uses e-mail to receive FOIA requests and has listed the e-mail address on the 

Commission website at www.fec.gov. 

2. Electronic tracking of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportions of components within your agency which receive FOIA requests 

have the capability to track such requests electronically? 

The FEC FOIA Requester Service Center uses commercial data processing software to 

track requests. We do not have components due to the size of the agency.

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so since the 

filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 

This question is not applicable as the agency does not have components. 

c. What methods does your agency use to track requests electronically? 

The FEC currently tracks requests using commercial data processing software, which 

must be populated manually.

3. Electronic processing of FOIA requests: 

a. What proportion of components within your agency which receive FOIA requests 

have the capability to process such requests electronically? 

The FEC has a centralized FOIA Requester Service Center that uses commercial 

redacting software when saving and redacting documents. The agency also uses its e-mail 

capability to send out requests that agency staff search for records that have been requested from 

FOIA requesters. 

b. To what extent have you increased the number of components doing so since the 

filing of your last Chief FOIA Officer Report? 
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This question is not applicable as the FEC does not have more than one component FOIA 

office. 

c. What methods does your agency use to process requests electronically? 

We use both our email capability and our commercial redacting software to process 

FOIA requests electronically. 

4. Electronic preparation of your Annual FOIA Report: 

a. What type of technology does your agency use to prepare your agency Annual 

FOIA Report, i.e., specify whether the technology is FOIA-specific or a generic data-processing 

system. 

The FEC uses generic word processing and spreadsheet software to prepare its Annual 

FOIA Report. All calculations are done manually. 

b. If you are not satisfied with your existing system to prepare your Annual FOIA Report, 

describe the steps you have taken to increase your use of technology for next year. 

We have been and continue to look at programs to see if there are programs that will help 

the agency with its preparation of the annual FOIA report that are not cost prohibitive. 

V. Steps Taken to Reduce Backlogs and Improve Timeliness in Responding to 

Requests

1. If your agency has a backlog, report here whether that backlog is decreasing. 

That reduction should be measured in two ways. First, report whether the number of backlogged 

requests and backlogged administrative appeals that remain pending at the end of the fiscal year 

decreased or increased, and by how many, when compared with last fiscal year. Second, report 

whether your agency closed in Fiscal Year 2010 the ten oldest of those pending requests and 

appeals from Fiscal Year 2009, and if not, report how many of them your agency did closed. 

2. If there has not been a reduction in the backlog as measured by either of these 

metrics, describe why that has occurred. In doing so, answer the following questions and then 

include any other additional explanation: 

a. Is the backlogged increase a result of an increase in the number of incoming 

requests or appeals? 

b. Is the backlog increase caused by a loss of staff? 

c. Is the backlog increase caused by an increase in the complexity of the requests 

received? 

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the increase in backlog? 

3. Describe the steps your agency is taking to reduce any backlogs and to improve 

timeliness in responding to requests and administrative appeals. In doing so answer the 

following questions and then also include any other steps being taken to improve timeliness. 
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a. Does your agency routinely set goals and monitor the progress of your FOIA 

caseload? 

b. Has your agency increased its FOIA staffing? 

c. Has your agency made IT improvements to increase timeliness? 

d. Has your agency Chief FOIA Officer been involved in overseeing your agency’s 

capacity to process requests? 

______________________________________________________________________________

1. If your agency has a backlog, report here whether that backlog is decreasing. 

That reduction should be measured in two ways. First, report whether the number of backlogged 

requests and backlogged administrative appeals that remain pending at the end of the fiscal year 

decreased or increased, and by how many, when compared with last fiscal year. Second, report 

whether your agency closed in Fiscal Year 2010 the ten oldest of those pending requests and 

appeals from Fiscal Year 2009, and if not, report how many of them your agency did closed. 

It is the goal of the FEC to reduce our backlog every year. In FY 2010, the backlog at the 

end of the fiscal year decreased by one compared to the prior year, from 11 to 10. For FY 2009 

we had 1 FOIA appeal that was on our backlog list and it is the same FOIA appeal that is on our 

FY 2010 list. It has since been resolved. 

With respect to the ten oldest FOIA requests from FY 2009, 7 (63.6%) were closed by the 

end of FY 2010. All but one have now been closed. 

For more information, see the statistics in the Commission’s FOIA Annual Report for FY 

2010 at http://www.fec.gov/press/foiareport2010.pdf. 

2. If there has not been a reduction in the backlog as measured by either of these 

metrics, describe why that has occurred. In doing so, answer the following questions and then 

include any other additional explanation: 

a. Is the backlogged increase a result of an increase in the number of incoming 

requests or appeals? 

b. Is the backlog increase caused by a loss of staff? 

c. Is the backlog increase caused by an increase in the complexity of the requests 

received? 

d. What other causes, if any, contributed to the increase in backlog? 

The FEC has reduced its backlog from FY 2009 to FY 2010, thus this question is not 

applicable. 

3. Describe the steps your agency is taking to reduce any backlogs and to improve 

timeliness in responding to requests and administrative appeals. In doing so answer the 

following questions and then also include any other steps being taken to improve timeliness. 

a. Does your agency routinely set goals and monitor the progress of your FOIA 

caseload? 
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Yes, our agency’s Chief FOIA Officer sets goals for the Administrative Law Team and 

monitors the progress of the FOIA caseload on a weekly basis. Obviously, our goal is to respond 

to FOIA requesters within the 20 day period. We have instituted procedures to monitor progress 

from receipt of the FOIA request until the response by the FOIA Requester Service Center to the 

requester. Moreover, as noted, information on pending FOIA requests, goals, and expected 

timetables is now reported to the General Counsel and the Commission monthly. 

b. Has your agency increased its FOIA staffing? 

Yes, in the past year the Administrative Law Team has hired more staff which allows for 

more staff to work on FOIA’s as one of their collateral duties.

c. Has your agency made IT improvements to increase timeliness? 

Yes, we continue to receive updated redaction software. 

d. Has your agency Chief FOIA Officer been involved in overseeing your agency’s 

capacity to process requests? 

 Yes, our Chief FOIA Officer has placed more emphasis on the program by encouraging 

focused FOIA processing days for the FOIA staff that process FOIAs as a collateral duty, and by 

encouraging the use of technology, such as receiving PDFs of responsive documents from 

document owners, to improve the efficiency of the FOIA process. 

Spotlight on Success

Out of all the activities undertaken by your agency in this last year to increase 

transparency, describe here one success story that you would like to highlight as emblematic of 

your efforts. 

For many years the Commission's internal legal authority as developed in enforcement 

matters ("matters under review," or MURs) and in advisory opinions has been available to both 

the public and to FEC staff, first through microfilm and, in the last decade-plus, on the 

Commission's web site. However, until last year the Commission's web site contained audit 

reports only for the most recent election cycles. To the extent audit reports have precedential 

authority -- especially in the Commission's audit process -- much of this authority was simply not 

readily available to the public (including treasurers of political committees and legal 

practitioners), and even Commission staff were highly dependent on the institutional memory of 

long-time staff members now nearing retirement. This year, the Commission's Information 

Technology Division and the Audit Division of the Commission's Office of Compliance jointly 

developed the Audit Report Search System, found at http://www.fec.gov/auditsearch/ 

auditsearch.do. This powerful new tool will provide the press and the public with information 

about the most recent audit reports issued about recent campaigns; will provide academics and 

researchers with a trove of information both about the campaigns of candidates in past years and 
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about the evolution of the Commission's audit practice itself; and will provide campaign finance 

practitioners, as well as Commission staff, with new resources to ensure consistency in audit 

decision making.