I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2074
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to expedite the avail-
ability 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 Fed-
eral Election Commission, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives 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 RE-
PORTS.
(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 re-
ports under’’.
(b) EXPEDITED REPORTING FOR LARGE CONTRIBU-
TIONS
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 strik-
ing ‘‘after the 20th day, but more than 48 hours before
any election’’ and inserting ‘‘during the period which be-
gins on the 90th day before an election and ends at mid-
night on the date of such election’’.
(c) EXPEDITED REPORTING FOR LARGE INDEPEND-
ENT EXPENDITURES MADE WITHIN 90 DAYS OF ELEC-
TION.—Section 304(c)(2) of such Act (2 U.S.C.
434(c)(2)) is amended in the matter following subpara-
graph (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 of-
fices 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 IN-
FORMATION ON IDENTIFICATION OF CON-
TRIBUTORS.
(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 pro-
vided 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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